This how we're going to do this...

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Hello once again, and welcome to the second installment of our pre-trip posting. Today's focus will be on highlighting the route for which I've been working on for some time now. Despite months and months of dedicated procrastination I believe that we have reached a point where a nice track has been laid ahead of us, albeit a track shy a few pieces, a nice track none-the-less.

So, without further a due let's get started.

If you will so kindly please focus your eyes on the image above. As an American you may not know this, but that is a map of Japan and I highly recommend clicking on the "view larger map" link as it opens a world of better detail.

Once inside of the larger view you will note that there are a lot of letters with flags attached to them. Each flag is where we plan on spending a day of our trip with a very inaccurate path drawn in-between them. We can thank the good people at Google for the inaccuracy, because you see, if you want to plan a trip with a stop along the way you have to select "car" as your mode of transit, but the even gooder folks at Japan Rail have been quite gracious to hook us up with full country train passes making the the use of a car obsolete.

So as a whole we are planning on visiting each lettered flag using the remarkable Japanese train system. Want to see how remarkable? Sure you do, so click on the following links, and as always, it's best to have the volume turned up on your computer.

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Looks like more fun than a barrel full of monkeys huh? Thought so. And think, we are going to be stuck on them for approximately 4028 miles (if you subtract out the errors from Google and then add back into consideration that we have to return to our hotel each night.

With so many places to describe already I figure it best to give a synopsis of what we are doing instead of giving the full play by play, which will actually be posted daily as said plays are being played - which in tounge twister format is: full play by plays will be displayed on the day of the plays are being played. Say that five times fast and I'll make sure to give you some sort of souvenir*. Until you complete that here is our quick run-down of cool stuff we're doing:

1. Traveling to Akihabara - the electric town, home of anime, an 11 story electronics store, and a video game shop known as "Super Potato."
2. Traveling to Harajuku - best known in Gwen Stephanie music videos, frequented by the uber-trendy Harajuku Girls who hang out around the main station on Sundays.
3. A visit to Nara to see Japan's largest Buddha statue and the worlds largest wooden building.
4. Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea (a park that only exists in Japan).
5. Fuji-Q Highlands, a roller coaster junkies dream - which is something I am and have neglected to mention
6. A trip to Nagashima Spaland or Nasu Highlands - more for the roller coaster fix.
7. Inuyama (dog mountain in English) Monkey Park, home to over 1,000 monkeys...oh, and a rollercoaster
   
8. A walking tour with an 80 year old man in the town of Kyoto, Japan's historic center.
9. A visit to Himeji Castle, a World Heritage site and one of the most well preserved castles in Japan
10. Hana Matsuri, a flower festival for Buddha birthday
11. And much more...

Well, this should hold us over for now. Sure, we'll prolly change these plans up three to four thousand times before we are done, but for the here and now that is what we are trying to stick to.

Join us later for more antics just before we take off on my first flight ever. Delightful.

*souvenir available only with photgraphic proof of tounge twisting. That's write, photographic. I suggest taking a picture every few syllables.