Photo by Brandon Pearce

Tomorrow I leave for the beautiful land of Japan! I’m so excited! This should be a great trip. It’s the first time I’ve gone to Japan (or anywhere, really) as a chaperon. But they seem like great kids (about seven kids of Jr. High and High School ages), and I’ll also be there with my dad, so what’s not to enjoy?

I have to say how impressed I am with my dad’s travel planning skills. Not only did he plan an excellent itinerary, making sure we had enough time for food and travel in between all the activities he planned, but he also took the time to include cultural and historical information about each of places we’re visiting. This is going to be a great educational trip for the kids, as well as for me. Check out the itinerary below (he prepared a lot more detailed info than this – this is just the summary):

Japan Culture Tour.pdf

I’m really excited to see these places, even though it will be the second time for most of them. I’m hoping to brush up on my Japanese language skills there a bit, too. I’m bringing my trusty “Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar” book to read on the 11-hour flight – which is now non-stop, thanks to Delta. I don’t know how much time I’ll get to blog or check e-mail while I’m there, but I’ll try to post a few updates with pictures if I get the chance.

I will sure miss my family, but was glad we got to spend a couple days in Park City as part of our anniversary trip (been married for seven years now!). We had loads of fun and did a lot of activities (the girls got to ride horses, go on the alpine slide, merry-go-round, swimming, etc.) We don’t usually take the kids on our anniversary trips, but they really did help make it fun. There was a day care center we put them in for a few hours while we went shopping on our own. They had a lot more fun there than they would have with us. :) It will be hard leaving them all for a week.

Well, here I go!