Japan trip 2015!

It's almost time for what's usually my favorite part of the year... Japan trip!

After so many visits, my wife and I are really starting to run out of things to do in Tokyo. We've gone to other cities, but speaking for myself, at least, I just never have as much fun anywhere else. But this year, the big centerpiece of the trip is going to be a ride on the Cassiopeia from Tokyo to Sapporo - this train is the last of a breed, a luxury night train with dining car service. And this is our last chance to take it - it'll be discontinued next spring. (I previously mentioned my attempts to ride the Twilight Express before it was withdrawn - well, this time we actually have tickets. This is happening!)

So, Sapporo - not even sure yet what we'll do there, but they do have a beer museum and garden. We can go and pretend to be interested in the history of Sapporo beer, then get drunk for cheap!

In fact, this has been one of our more last-minute trip plans - and we still don't have a lot of full days. We've got a couple concerts to go to (probably do some show reports when I get back!), the short Sapporo side trip, probably do some guitar shopping, and... not sure what else. We're staying in Odaiba this time, which I've always wanted to do - land of giant ferris wheels, VR theme parks, retro shopping malls and the best ramen in the world. So I'll probably do all that again too. Cool thing is we can also walk to both of the concerts we've got tickets to! (They're at Zepp Tokyo and Zepp Diver City Tokyo.) And I'll get to see the full-size Gundam on the way to the latter.

I'm sure I'll do some work stuff there too - every trip there now is a business trip.

We had enough miles on ANA this time to fly out first class, so I'll definitely be reporting on that! (We're flying economy coming back.) I've never flown international first class before, so I'm looking forward to it. Coming back in economy is going to be a huge letdown, I'm sure - it's already depressing enough to leave Japan, much less being crammed in a tiny seat with a screaming baby right next to us. (Oh, it's going to happen - it always does.)

I'll post as much as I can!