Lately I've been planning a fantasy trip to Japan.

In the past couple of weeks, I've been keeping notes on places to go and see in Japan should I decide to take a trip there in 2025. It is likely to happen, because my roommate has declared his intention to climb Mount Fuji. My roommate is not in very good shape, but I've decided that I like him enough that it would be fun to watch them succeed at this personal goal. However, I have no intent on joining them on a climb to the top of a mountain. That doesn't sound at all fun to me. What does sound fun is doing a few events with them, and then striking out on my own to see other places. Google translate has gotten really good, and I think that I could navigate the systems there a lot easier than I could the last time I was in Japan decades earlier.

When I started writing notes down, it was a "tabula rasa" or clean slate. So anything goes really. I just wanted to start listing them so that I wouldn't forget about them. Up first is a visit to a museum that is showing this thing called Team Lab Planets. It's some kind of exhibition of rooms that have all kinds of light all over the floors, the walls, the ceiling, to give you some kind of immersive "otherworldly" experience. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it is in Tokyo.

My second thing that I want to go and visit is Ghibli Park, which is a new theme park that opened (rather low key but I guess it is very popular) that celebrates Hayao Miyazaki's lifetime of work, including homes and buildings that are from his many animated films that you can actually walk into. That sounded like a lot of fun and an entertaining diversion for an afternoon (should I score myself a ticket, which I've heard can be a bit difficult). 

Another thing on my Japan trip list is a visit to Hotel Hoshi in Komatsu. This is on the side of Japan (northern side) that faces the Sea of Japan. It is billed as the oldest hotel in the world, and it has many hot spring type baths that one can enjoy. Additionally, while staying in Komatsu, there is a theme park called Yunokuni-no-Mori. Once you enter the gate, you can choose a craft to participate in from the many rooms in the buildings...and you basically do that craft for an afternoon. The types of crafts they have are making a wood block Japanese character, a music box, etching glass, glass blowing, making a candle with colorful waxes, moulding dyes for t-shirts or handkerchiefs, drawing with paint (called cashew) to make these things called maki-e, engraving characters on a diamond shaped glass board, making handmade soba noodles, putting plants inside of bottles for small terrariums, crafting insects out of bamboo, making handmade sweets of Ishikawa, or using gold leaf to adorn a thing (like a plate or a box or a cup), trying your hand at the potter's wheel, or using bean paste to fill a Doryaki skin.

In Osaka (at about the same time I plan to arrive in Japan) they are having a six-month world expo (formerly the "World's Fair"). If I go to this (which I probably will) there will be some irony. You see, when I was 13 years old I visited Japan with my mother (1985) and we went to a World's Fair there. They only have them every five years or so. The last one was in Dubai. The irony "may be" that I've been to two world's fairs in my life and both of them happened to be in Japan. I think that would be a funny coincidence.

In the Kobe area I would like to go to the Godzilla museum. They reportedly have a life-sized godzilla head that you can zip line into, but the weight limit is 250 pounds. I'll need to drop some weight to be able to qualify, and I'm working on that right now. Hopefully, I'd be able to make the goal weight and get this experience in the books. Additionally, in Kyoto there is an alleyway called "Pontocho" that is supposed to be one of those old-world streets where you can get food from street vendors like you see in movies and television shows that are set in Japan. I think eating at one of those would be a lot of fun, and it isn't something I'm familiar with.

Even though I haven't made any exact commitments or plans, talking about this trip with others seems to bring out the worst in the "well-heeled." Last night (for example) I just mentioned that I was interested, and this guy who I just met (he's Meg's friend and Meg is a good friend of mine) had to interject with all of his insights and "You have to do this in Japan" stuff that was just really off-putting and irritating. 

He whipped out his foldable phone and started showing pictures of him eating kobe beef, followed with questions like "Are you going to try kobe beef?" and when I said..."I don't know. Maybe." He immediately followed up with, "You better bring your money then because it is expensive! But look at this! and look at this! and look at this!" I had so many eye-rolling moments, mostly because he really drifted across the line of "informing" to "bragging" and I'm not a fan of braggarts. I'm not sure why people act like that, but it's like they are waiting to vomit their trips all over a stranger for some reason. I just want to say, "Dude...I'm happy you had a good trip. Really, I am. But I really don't give a shit what you did. Those are your memories, not mine." Of course, I didn't say that, but I wanted to.

Anyway, even though I've made no concrete plans, it is still fun to think about and imagine myself doing some of the activities that (on paper) look fun for a kind of relaxing trip. And yes, if this post makes you want to brag about your trip to Japan in the comments, you have my permission. Who knows? I might learn something.