Permission Granted!

Yes indeed I have been officially granted permission to take 4 months off work in order to travel to Japan!! I spoke to the big boss man last night and he said it is fine. Wootage! That's one major hurdle jumped, now on to the next one.

Actually, I don't know what the next one is going to be. I have a few things on the go at any one time. I'm trying to put an itinerary together but it's a bit of a pain in the ass because whenever I decide "this is where I'm going to go on this day" I discover something new or I come up against a problem and everything gets shuffled once more. I'll plod on with this and no doubt change it over and over again. As long as I can work out roughly how much it is going to cost me to get to and to enjoy each different place, I can reshuffle one last time in the new year before I book the hostels etc.

I had an email from my language course people today. I'd asked about the accommodation arrangements. They can't book the accommodation until 1 month before I arrive but they have told me that I'll be staying in one of the following places....
J&F House Warabi
J&F House DK Shiki
J&F House Matsudo (grab the pdf at the bottom in English)
My first choice would be the guest house in Matsudo. If you go to googlemaps and search for '千葉県松戸市樋野口771' you can have a look at the house and have a wander around the streets. It's really quite a cool little function they have going on there^^. I don't know much about the other two places but from first glance, what I've discovered about Matsudo so far is tipping the balance in its favour. I can't guarantee I'll get in there but I think I'll try to request it.

Sometime over the next week I really need to get in touch with the Japan embassy to have a chat about a visa. I'm pretty sure it'll be fine but the last thing I want is to turn up in Japan only to be turned away....that would suck most heinously.