The list is getting long.
Stuff I want to do on vacation... thankfully, some are pretty cheap because the subway fares and rail passes add up quickly. (The four-day, non-consecutive JR East rail pass is $170! At least the subway system seems cheaper than the train, but less simple than the Underground was.)
A bird's eye view of Tokyo
The Ghibli Museum! (Cyrus will have to help me buy tickets, they don't print anything in English and you have to buy them in advance.)
The massive fish market
The National Museum
Meguro Parasite Museum - 30 foot long tapeworm? I'm so there! Even The Economist has heard of it.
The East Garden of the Imperial Palace
The Ramen Noodle Museum in Yokohama
Kaigan National Park if I can navigate the train system north. (I think getting a JR rail pass before I leave for the Eastern half of the country should be sufficient.)
And this is where I'll be staying... I still haven't figured out where that is in relation to what I want to see. I'm so ordering an atlas of the city. I think if I take the Keisei line to Ueno Station from the airport that I'll be able to meet up with Cyrus fairly close to where he lives, or at least have some museums and parks to visit while waiting to catch up with him.
I've been debating bringing my laptop, but I think I'd rather bring a few extra memory cards for my camera and save the space. I remember hauling one modest suitcase on the London Underground, and will hopefully be able to streamline what I'm taking to Japan so I don't need a second bag for souvenirs on the return.
Now, what I really should be doing is studying for the GRE and actually thinking about grad school, but everytime I think about it I realize that I don't actually have any desire to go to grad school, there's nothing I care that much about that I want to study, I just don't want to work as a receptionist forever. The thing is, I figure I'll get into grad school and get out and just end up as a receptionist again and wondering what I should go back to school for again. It's a vicious cycle.
A bird's eye view of Tokyo
The Ghibli Museum! (Cyrus will have to help me buy tickets, they don't print anything in English and you have to buy them in advance.)
The massive fish market
The National Museum
Meguro Parasite Museum - 30 foot long tapeworm? I'm so there! Even The Economist has heard of it.
The East Garden of the Imperial Palace
The Ramen Noodle Museum in Yokohama
Kaigan National Park if I can navigate the train system north. (I think getting a JR rail pass before I leave for the Eastern half of the country should be sufficient.)
And this is where I'll be staying... I still haven't figured out where that is in relation to what I want to see. I'm so ordering an atlas of the city. I think if I take the Keisei line to Ueno Station from the airport that I'll be able to meet up with Cyrus fairly close to where he lives, or at least have some museums and parks to visit while waiting to catch up with him.
I've been debating bringing my laptop, but I think I'd rather bring a few extra memory cards for my camera and save the space. I remember hauling one modest suitcase on the London Underground, and will hopefully be able to streamline what I'm taking to Japan so I don't need a second bag for souvenirs on the return.
Now, what I really should be doing is studying for the GRE and actually thinking about grad school, but everytime I think about it I realize that I don't actually have any desire to go to grad school, there's nothing I care that much about that I want to study, I just don't want to work as a receptionist forever. The thing is, I figure I'll get into grad school and get out and just end up as a receptionist again and wondering what I should go back to school for again. It's a vicious cycle.