The preparation

If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first hour sharpening the ax. - Abraham Lincoln.

It all happen in a sudden. In a bid to prevent his Leave from being nullify by the malicious company system, we only had a month to prepare for a holiday in June. As I am tired from all the previous preparation for free and easy trips to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Bangkok, I wanted to just leave these to a reputable company - Chan Brother. Imagine going to CHan Brother with no place in mind but a great need to leave as early as possible. Interestingly, it is not a question of when, but a question of where and its both liberating and exciting. Korea met our budget but a North Korea war was lurking. So Japan it is. Sadly, our trip could not be form as there were not enough people. But, that was just the start to an exciting adventure. One which further reinforce the idea that I could have the power to do things beyond I expected. The previous time was my USA 1 mth free and easy trip.

With great luck, ANA was having a promotion of Japan Air tickets. Its just S$900 after all the taxes and domestic air tickets. After taking 1/2 day leave and making the payments at the ANA HQ at Raffles Place (The promotion requires us to make payment personally unless you're a star Alliance), we started to prepare the trip base on the dates from 20th June to 30th June.

Its not easy doing a free and easy tour in Japan and the preparation can be quite daunting. Nonetheless, I belive that its not improssible after this experience and now I just frown upon tailor made package that are tried and tested. Often, its the less ridden route for the strong hearted that prooves to be more rewarding.

With just 2 weeks more to the dates, we made all the hotel bookings and preparation 1 week prior to the departure. Imagine having to flip through pages and pages of travel blogs and websites with most in Japanese languages. Only a few were of great help to us. However, I'm proud to say that after all the research, this blog can achieve over and beyond what the others cannot do. Its a one stop station for all before their embarkment to Central Japan - Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone (Mt Fuji) and Tokyo.

This was our plan: