plazes.

a few days ago i watched lost in translation again. as you can tell from my website designs, i really like that movie. ;) japan-guide.com has a list of the locations where the movie was shot and i'd really like to visit the park hyatt hotel for example. hobbes says i'm a dork.

some other places i'd like to visit in japan this summer are:

• tokyo: senso-ji, harajuku, shibuya, roppongi hills, ueno park, national art center, takaraza revue, ghibli museum, park hyatt tokyo
  
• osaka: osaka castle, kaiyukan aquarium
  
• kyoto: gion district, kiyomizu-dera
  
• nara: nara park, todai-ji

if you have more suggestions, let me know. (...) japan-guide.com is a neat website with lots of information on japan and tips for traveling/living there. for example did you know that there are large lavender fields on hokkaido? weird. too bad i probably won't leave honshû though.

i'm still a bit unsure about that plug and voltage stuff in japan as it differs from the european standards. i've ordered some travel plug adapter and i just cross my fingers and hope my notebook won't blow up or something. also, i don't wanna drag it around for nothing. especially not after i've checked the weather forecasts for japan earlier today: average 30°C! apparently i'm going to melt there.

there are still so many things to do! today i bought myself a new sketchbook and ordered my new cell phone. i just hope it'll arrive in time and that it'll work in japan. i also need to think of a name for it...

hello there

hobbes an me are currently in germany, preparing our trip to japan this summer. we've already been to japan in april 2003 for one week and we were extremely lucky then because it was cherry blossom prime time, we had a very lovely host family and visited many interesting places in a very short time.

this is a picture of us i took on our first night in japan at the hotel in oogaki
this time we're gonna stay for about 7 weeks. the first few days we'll be spending at a youth hostel in osaka for acclimatisation, the next four weeks we're staying at a host family in tsu which lies in the ise bay and is the capital of mie prefecture. i'm going to take part in a language course at the mie university there. in september we're leaving for kyoto. we'll be staying at a temple there and by using the japan rail pass, travelling a bit around, visiting cities like hiroshima or nara. our last few days we wanna spend in tokyo before flying back to germany.

we're going to write about our adventures in japan and post photos here in this travel blog. if you have any comments or tips, don't hesitate to leave a comment! enjoy!

love,
idil & hobbes