Well the day has arrived, I'm backpacking around Japan for 3 months from today.
First up it's 6 days in Okinawa doing who knows what, then wwoofing at a cafe/ animal shelter for 5 days, and then it's on to Kagoshima by ferry. Right now I'm in the Taipei terminal waiting to board my connecting flight. There were Japanese dubbed movies on the Sydney-Taipei flight, which was a pleasant surprise.

I guess I'll update this thread every now and then if I have something interesting to share :p

Anyway, wish me luck.

Good luck and have fun! If you get a chance write something about your wwoofing experience.

I've heard good things about Okinawa, they have really strong alcohol there

Okinawa is amazing. If you get a chance, go to Tokashikijima. You can take a ferry from Naha. Takes an hour or so iirc. Someone told me it has the 2nd clearest sea in the world, though I don't know if that's true.

Wow,
backpacking around Japan for 3 months!!!

I'm kinda jealous!

nadiatims Wrote:Okinawa is amazing. If you get a chance, go to Tokashikijima. You can take a ferry from Naha. Takes an hour or so iirc. Someone told me it has the 2nd clearest sea in the world, though I don't know if that's true.

It's very clear, you can go on a glass-bottomed boat and see the coral. Our boatman kept getting stuck on it though

Everybody's going there all of a sudden...

TwoMoreCharacters Wrote:Everybody's going there all of a sudden...

It the summer invasion... also check the stock-markets lots of turmoil outside of Asia

It turned out to be a very enjoyable first day in the end.
I had an interesting trip from the terminal to the hostel, walked around in the blistering heat for a few hours looking at Kokusai-dori and the surrounding area, made friends with most of the people at the hostel and had some good chats in Japanese. Then we went to the park and took on a group of 5 middle school students in a game of basketball (I'd run into these kids literally about 4 times around town), which was awesome. Then we came back and made chirashizushi and drank a bit. And the hostel has some shamisen, drums, ukelele and recorder/ keyboard things lying around, so there's often good music going on as well. Anyway, a good first day.

jettyke Wrote:Wow,
backpacking around Japan for 3 months!!!

I'm kinda jealous!

sweet

TwoMoreCharacters Wrote:Everybody's going there all of a sudden...

i still got some time till I go but i'm sure it will be worth the wait

Sorry I haven't updated this thread since the first day; I'm having the time of my life, making friends every day and constantly having fun. Too much has happened over the past month to explain in a few paragraphs, so instead here are some pictures from the trip so far. You can add me as a friend on facebook as well if you wish.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...1469293349
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...1469293349

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I couldn't recommend hostels enough, it's so easy to make friends and have a great time.

More photos for anyone who's interested:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...349&type=3
In Matsuyama I met a guy at a bar who invited me along to work at a host club for the evening; a very fun experience indeed. I'm in Osaka at the moment, tonight I think I'm gonna go out and try my luck at nanpa again.

Well, I'm back now from the best 3 months of my life.
It was such an amazing experience that it really is just awful to be back home.

I made a tonne of new friends, experienced a score of new things, heightened my independence, saw almost every region of the country, improved my Japanese (although I don't even wanna think about the amount of Anki reviews I have built up), lost my virginity, got a girlfriend, went to karaoke for the first time (and subsequently got hooked), worked at a host club, couchsurfed for the first time, wrote a tonne of lyrics which I never had the concentration to do at home, got to Mount Fuji, went to Roppongi on Halloween etc etc.

Now I just have to hold out another 4 or 5 months until I can go back...

Here are the rest of the photos from my trip:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...349&type=3
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...349&type=3
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a...349&type=3

I wonder if it'd be weird to add you to my Facebook... lol. Since I'm going to Japan in less than 2 weeks you could live vicariously through me. Anyway sounds like you had an awesome time.

Haha, go ahead, I'd love to keep track of your trip.

Losing your virginity on a trip to Japan? Pretty epic.

well done young man... round of applause is deserved there.

slight digression but i often find myself wondering why every hetero white male isn't learning japanese...

J-gals are some serious starfish in the bed. Your mind is going to get blown when you sleep with someone else.

Just sayin

*High five

kitakitsune Wrote:J-gals are some serious starfish in the bed.

Hahaha. My Japanese friend said they don't move at all.

kitakitsune Wrote:J-gals are some serious starfish in the bed.

I won't deny that this is a tendency, but remember that it's only a tendency. Two of the Japanese girls I've been with were pretty crazy in bed.

I read how you said it was awful to be home, then I looked where you were from: Adelaide. LOL.

Hey thecite!

I'm planning on doing something very similar in summer next year with some of my friends. We want to spend up to 2 months in Japan traveling through the country and having fun.

Did you spend a lot of money in those three months?
Is it possible to travel/eat/sleep without spending heaps of money? How did you do it?

We haven't planned the journey yet, but one of my friends keeps insisting it will cost us up to 10.000 Euro. I told him that's impossible. I have a maximum of 3.000 Euro to spend on the trip and I hope that's gonna be sufficient.

Would you care to elaborate? Thanks.


Also... losing your virginity in Japan... I have no words for that... .

My first time sucked. Maybe yours wasn't great either, but at least you can brag about it being in Japan : DDD

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