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

View Larger Map

It’s calculator time! Awesome!


Take 4829 miles on a aeroplane. 2131 miles on slew of different train types. Dash in 130 miles of blistered feet. Add them all together and what do you get? That’s right; the craziest 14 days that I’ll probably ever spend on a vacation with family*.

Now sure, 4,829 miles seems like a lot, but it will be the comfort of an airplane, watching “Best in Show,” while attempting to block out Melissa listening to the High School Musical soundtrack a tad too loud, and Randi mourning the death of Dobbie and Fred. No, the real meat and potatoes of the trip will be the train rides.

2131 miles is near the equivalent of jumping on the back of a crow and flying off to Philadelphia. While we won’t have the crow we will have the pleasure of cruising along at 160mph on Shinkansen (Bullet Train). Smooth and luxurious it will whisk us about the countryside in fashion suitable only for a king…well, or at least a fashion suitable for middle class businessmen in black suits.

If you’ll note above you can click on the map to see exactly where said train shall be taking us, but for the full list check after the break:

*This is tentative. In the event that Josh and Randi don’t get married replace the word, “family,” with either, “a jerk face,” or, “my stupid sister.”

Day 1: Land in Narita, just outside Tokyo

Day 2: Visit the Shinjuku Metropolitan Government Building (it’s a large observation deck that let’s you see over the 30 milion people that live in the great Tokyo area).

Harajuku – a trendy fashion district known for “Goth Lolita”

Shibuya – a trendy fashion district known for teen trends and weird pizza

Day 3: Ueno Park – the largest park in Tokyo, full of cherry blossoms, the national museum of history and a medium size zoo (only $4.00 admission)

Day 4: Akihabara Sunday – the Anime district, which closes down it’s major six lane street to allow bands to play and “idols” to sing.

Tokyo Anime Fair – an expo for all things anime

Day 5: Nara Park – Nara is the ancient capital of Tokyo. Nara park is home to wild deer that come out of the forest to be fed by the locals and tourists. The worlds largest wooden building is here (Nara Temple), along with Japan’s largest Buddha. It will be Nara temple’s 1300 anniversary this year.

Day 6: We haven’t planned anything yet. This may just be a “wing it” day.

Day 7: DisneySea. It’s like DisneyLand, but it’s bigger, better, and geared towards adults as much as children.

Day 8: Himeiji Castle. One of the only remaining original castles of Japan. It has a giant maze for fortification and takes about two hours to go through without a map.

Day 9: Tsukiji Fish Market. The worlds largest open market. Tuna auctions happen here and approximately 60,000 people are employed by the market.

Tokyo Tower.  It's the Eifel tower without France.

Imperial Palace.  The palace where the emporer lived.

Day 10: Fujikyu Highlands. Since Mt. Fuji is closed for hiking this time of year we are going to Fujikyu Highlands in the Mt. Fuji Five Lakes area. It’s basically the Magic Mountain of Japan – and you know I like my Magic Mountain.

Day 11: Harajuku Sunday – punk bands come out and play in Harajuku’s park as do the stereotypical “Harajuku Girls” of Gwen Stefani fame.

Day 12: Johnnie Kyoto’s Walking Tour – we will be heading off to a walking tour through old Japan with Johnnie Hillwalker. He takes you through a temple, the geisha district and the homes of people who make traditional Japanese crafts.

Day 13: Do anything Randi and Josh want to do again.

Day 14-18: Randi and Josh will have flown home on the 14th, so Melissa and I are going do some free-range adventures.

Day 19: Fly home.

Sprinkled throughout the entire adventure will be a lot of little things, including, but not limited to:

Tokyo Sword Museum
A Cat Cafe (a cafe where cats hang out with you)
Ninja Cafe
Maid Cafe
Lots of weird food
Thunder Dolphin