Japan!!!

I'm soooo excited, Japan is fast approaching! :D

We meet at school at 3.30am in the morning, which means I'll have to get up 2am - 2.30am! I'm going to try to get some sleep tonight, but then hopefully I'll catch up with my sleep on the long plane journey tomorrow. From school we're getting the minibus to Heathrow and then our first plane leaves at 7.45am. It's an hour and a quarter flight to Paris, where we then have a 3 and a half hour wait for our next plane. Then it's 12 and a half hours to Osaka, followed by a 2 hour coach ride to Kyoto. Phew!

We've got a packed itinery, including:

• visiting cultural Japanese sights - such as temples, shrines and castles
• trying traditional Japanese crafts - sweet making, paper making and flower arranging
• eating out
• participating in Japanese activities - such as karaoke, meditation and a tea ceremony
• exploring the city of Kyoto
• and of course shopping!

Today I've been packing. However I'm not good with spatial problems, like trying to fit everything into a bag, so I've just piled everything I want to take on my bed and when my dad gets back from work he's going to attempt to fit everything in my bag! I've still got to decide what will go in my hand luggage and what will go in my main bag.
And I've just discovered that a travel alarm clock I bought doesn't work, grr.

I've got lots of things to keep me busy on the long flights:

• 3 books of my choice - I finally decided on Middlesex, The Da Vinci Code and Twilight
• 1 book I have to read for school - Wuthering Heights
• 2 magazines - Writing Magazine and Focus
• My iPod - containing loads of music and some Wallace and Gromit episodes
• My Nintendo DS - I'm taking 6 games, including 2 new ones
  
• Some school work - preparation for my actual IOC which will be after half term
• A pack of playing cards - to play a fun card game called Slam with Catherine and/or Abi

And of course there'll be films to watch on the plane too. I think that'll stop me from getting bored!

Today I've also backed up my laptop, as my external hard drive arrived this morning. I feel more reassured now I've got all my music, photos and school work backed up. And then I've also found a bit of time to relax today :)

My mum said I could choose the meal for tonight as I'm going to Japan tomorrow, so I chose my favourite - Chinese Crispy Duck - yum! It's in the oven now, so should be ready soon :) Then after tea I'll probably have a shower and then try to get an early night.

I'm going to keep a diary and take lots of photos, so I'll post some up here when I return. I'll be away til the 21st/22nd of February, but I'll post as soon as I'm over my jet-lag.