I’m at Toronto airport. I’m leaving for Japan to Haneda airport on Air Canada Flight 1 (an auspicious number if ever there was one)
Going to Japan was serendipitous. I was supposed to leave today for Sri Lanka from Montreal. What changed my plans was I was accepted into the Tokyo marathon.
Of course one week before I was to leave for Japan, they cancelled the Tokyo marathon. I had decided that I would not run any more marathons that I would only do half marathons. Of course I trained all through the winter and then they cancelled the marathon.
I thought it might be interesting to talk about how I prepped for this trip to Japan and the resources that I used in my planning process.
Typically when I start planning for a new destination first thing that I do is read some guide books. You can see some of the guidebooks that I used by clicking on the link here.
But more importantly, I found that the online resources were almost as good and certainly gave you a much better feel for the location.
Are used websites such as JapanTravel and other blog websites. But on Facebook, there were a number of amazing travel groups about Japan.
Some of these were:
I’m at Toronto airport. I’m leaving for Japan to Haneda airport on Air Canada Flight 1 (an auspicious number if ever there was one)
Going to Japan was serendipitous. I was supposed to leave today for Sri Lanka from Montreal. What changed my plans was I was accepted into the Tokyo marathon.
Of course one week before I was to leave for Japan, they cancelled the Tokyo marathon. I had decided that I would not run any more marathons that I would only do half marathons. Of course I trained all through the winter and then they cancelled the marathon.
I thought it might be interesting to talk about how I prepped for this trip to Japan and the resources that I used in my planning process.
Typically when I start planning for a new destination first thing that I do is read some guide books. You can see some of the guidebooks that I used by clicking on the link here.
But more importantly, I found that the online resources were almost as good and certainly gave you a much better feel for the location. Two favorites were:
I used websites such as JapanTravel and other blog websites. But on Facebook, there were a number of amazing travel groups about Japan. Some of these were:
DIY Travel Japan – https://www.facebook.com/groups/diytraveljapan/?ref=share
Travel in Japan Discussion Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/travel.in.japan.group/?ref=share
Japan Travel Planning – https://www.facebook.com/groups/JapanTravelPlanning/?ref=share
I also used Reddit which was an amazing resource and had a substantial amount of information about Japan and Japan travel.
R/JapanTravel
And then there were the apps. I downloaded the number of them from the Apple App Store. Some of the ones that I used were:
CultureTrip
Trip Advisor
Japan Official Travel App
Japan Travel by Navitime
Hyperdia
Japan
No matter how much you plan, things change. I usually will make a detailed spreadsheet but it gets changed right up to the day I leave.
I also am flexible. If I have seen all I want – I move on.
