I'm Going to Japan!

Some time ago, I was given a mailer from my uni's Japanese club, offering a free trip to Japan as ambassadors from Singapore. The idea of this trip is for foreigners to visit Japan, take a tour of Japan, particularly Sendai, and then come back to our respective countries to dispel the notion that Japan is unsafe to visit due to the nuclear radiation that might be emitting from the power plants.

Now, we all know that Japan is notoriously expensive. To plan for a trip to Japan, one needs to have a lot of money first, which is why Japan has never been in my radar as far as a summer holiday trip is concerned. For a grad trip with bigger budgets, yes, but not for a lowly summer vacation trip. For starters, no budget carrier flies to Tokyo, the cost of a night in a decent hotel room there can be mind blowing, and the cost of transport from the airport to the city is about the same as a budget flight from Singapore to Bangkok.

So when this offer came, knowing that my chances were slim with surely thousands of applicants signing up, I just had a go at my luck at it. And guess what! I got it!

Yes, although the trip is sponsored, I am still going to stay as objective as possible. I ain't gonna start blindly singing praises of Japan and of course I'm not going to knit pick at the minor details either.

Being interested in transportation as well as photography, I'd focus my attention there. As of right now, I have no idea what airline we are taking there, but I really pray that it's either Japan Airlines or All Nippon Airways, because I've never taken either. If it has to be on Singapore Airlines, then I hope that it'll be an Airbus A380. Finally, I can also take my newly bought camera, the Olympus Pen E-PL2 for a spin, taking pictures of sceneries and all that.

Although Japan is an expensive country, I was told, however I am unsure if it is a myth or not, that cameras and lenses there are way cheap, because it's made there. If it's true, and if I have the opportunity to shop, I really want to get myself a lens there, and maybe a nice small camera for my girlfriend.

I've never been to Japan before and just as luck would have it, I am right in the middle of taking a Japanese language elective right now. The exam is somewhere in late July. How nice, right after the exam, my Japanese language skills would be immediately put to the test, in where else, but Japan!