Japan 2010 Final Thoughts

Since our last couple of weeks in Japan consisted of us focusing on finishing our project, I didn't take many photos towards the end of our trip. Our final trips consisted of souvenir shopping at places we'd already visited, so nothing really new happened. The end of our stay approached pretty quickly and I don't think we fully anticipated it. As such, I felt it was necessary to write a final "wrap-up" post to sort of summarize and look back on the trip a little bit. For this post, I will be organizing my thoughts into categories of lists in a sort of "postmortem" fashion.

Things I Did

Visited many historic sites, like temples and castles

Visited other interesting places, like arcades, SEGA Joypolis, a dinosaur museum, and a zoo

Tried to go somewhere almost every weekend

Ate many new Japanese foods

Learned a little bit about the Japanese language

Took over 3,800 pictures

Climbed Mt. Fuji in one 13 hour attempt

Went to Tokyo Game Show to see some cool upcoming games

Survived the trip without eating any fish (intentionally, I probably had bits of some somewhere)

Learned Adobe Illustrator and Flash for our projects

Learned about working in a team with people of varying skills

Things I Wish I Did

Planned our Mt. Fuji hike a little better (rather than the night before)

Thought about souvenirs earlier, so I wouldn't have to scramble to find things at the last minute

Took more pictures towards the end of the trip, like in the airport(s) on the way home

Wrote my blog posts shortly after the events happened instead of months later...

Learned more Japanese while I was immersed in the culture

Things I'll Do Next Time

Visit during the spring to see the sakura trees (cherry blossoms)

Bring Melissa to see and eat some of the things I saw and ate

Learn how to cook more Japanese food with Japanese ingredients, instead of using American ingredients with online recipes

Well, that's it. The trip is over and I've summarized almost all of it. Although it's great to be home I feel a little reverse-homesick every now and then. I had a great time in Japan and I can't wait to to back!

(I've compiled 200 of the best photos I took while in Japan. You can check them out here!)