Planning

This week, I've spent a significant chunk of time planning for the upcoming holiday. As some of you may know, from talking to me or otherwise, the week spanning the end of April and the beginning of May contains a series of national holidays packed close enough together that the university we're attending, like many Japanese institutions, just gives a week of vacation. An extra advantage for the Stanford Japan program is that, by giving us the week off, they give us time to explore parts of Japan that are more than weekend-trip distance from Kyoto.

The best way to explore Japan, of course, is by train. Rail passes exist, but they are for use by foreigners only. They can't be purchased in Japan and in theory can't be used by people staying in Japan for more than 30 days (i.e., not us). Most people, being to some degree the planning-ahead types, got JR passes themselves while they were still in the US, or else got their parents to buy them and ship them over, and since then managed to find offices that didn't check the lengths of their visas. Having put off asking for a JR pass too long, I found the best alternative available in Japan. It turns out that when you buy shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to certain regions, including Kyushu, you can get a zone pass with them. The zone pass is capped at 5 days, which is a little unfortunate since everyone I'm travelling with has a 7-day JR pass, but oh well. Close enough, and the prices end up pretty similar, especially if you include the cost of shipping the JR pass from the US.

Because of these differing arrangements, I've decided to head to Kyushu a couple days early and come back a day late. Since I'm paying for the shinkansen tickets separately, I might as well spent the full break in Kyushu. Plus, getting a few days to myself will be nice. I like the other students in the program, I like my host, and I've got nothing against the crowds of people in the subways and on the streets, but when everything is added up I don't get much time to myself, and I've been sort of missing it. Plus, I can see a few extra sights and sleep in for a couple days before the rest of the group arrives.

Another advantage to spending a couple days vacationing on my own is that I can finally try out the strategy I've wanted to use for years now. Instead of planning what I'm going to see, where I'm going to stay, and what trains I'm going to take ahead of time, I'm just going to pick up tourist information in the station and figure it out from there. I've read the wikipedia pages for the towns I'm going to, Kokura and Kumamoto, but beyond the vague impression that gives me, I'm just going to see what looks fun. I haven't given full details of this plan to people like my mother, my host, and the center staff, who would not fully approve and be eager to help me find hotels. I figure, what with Japan being unbelievably safe even for tourists, even to the point where my father has given me permission to travel alone (rare, for those who don't know) now seems like a better time than most to do some unplanned exploration. No doubt, I'll miss out on some things that I would have enjoyed. But at least once, I'd like to see what happens.

Apart from those few days, pretty much everything has been planned. The people I'm travelling with enjoy their guidebooks and reservations, so I'm pretty much just going to tag along to the places they've picked as highlights. From what I can tell, we have pretty similar ideas of what's fun, so it should be a good time. I just hope I don't irritate them too much by wandering off and thwarting plans. Bad habits of mine.

Only other concern for the trip is staying healthy. Everyone in the center has been getting sick with some combination of colds and hayfever. I've been trusting my previous exposure to pollen in DC to keep me healthy, and so far it's worked. Hopefully this is not because my body is waiting for the worst possible time. At any rate, I'm not sick yet and more sleep can only help.