While I thought I had largely gotten used to planning and taking solo trips on my own, it seems I still need a little more practice. After figuring out the shinkansen and going to Kyoto and Osaka, it makes sense that my next step would be booking a flight and visiting Okinawa. Something about having flights to coordinate, on top of all the usual travel plans, makes me a lot more nervous than just taking the train. 

I’m in the middle of summer break right now, and before summer started, I had to submit a form with my planned attendance and vacation plans. I’ve got some travel plans coming up at the end of August, so I had assumed I would simply be working throughout the summer. As it happens, the school was going to be closed for a week. 

The other teachers apparently have to use their vacation during this time, but I was spared, and just got the time off. Combining this with a bit of “special holidays” that I’m given during the summer break, I now have 10 days off in a row. It’s enough time to take a bigger trip here in Japan, and I didn’t even have to dip into my normal vacation time. 

I don’t really understand this practice of making employees use their own vacation time when the school is closed, but it seems very Japanese. Aside from special occasions, teachers don’t seem to take much vacation time during the year. Seemingly, they even use their vacation days when they’re too sick to come into work. Since they still work throughout the summer, it seems that the expectation is to use their vacation time during the summer if they want to travel or visit family. 

While they have my sympathies, that doesn’t mean I’m going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I have some more time to explore Japan, and I want to make the most of it. Now I just had to decide where I wanted to go. For more distant locations, Okinawa and Hokkaido were the only ones I really knew of, the southernmost and northernmost prefectures respectively. 

Okinawa is known for its beaches and warm weather, while Hokkaido is known for hot springs, winter sports, and cool climate. Hokkaido has a snow festival in February that I was considering checking out if I can swing it, but I hadn’t really thought about trying to go to Okinawa before. It’s certainly been warm enough to warrant spending time at the beach, but if it was even hotter in Okinawa than around Tokyo, wouldn’t this Canadian melt? 

The heat aside, I’ve gotten more comfortable with traveling solo, but hanging out at a beach by myself just seems a little lonely. I’m sure I can find more to do than just hang out at the beach, but I’m worried it’ll make me miss beach days back home with my friends. Those were often great summer memories, and I don’t want to spend vacation time just missing home. 

I still have my reservations, while also not having any yet, (I’ll book my flight and hotel soon I swear) but I still want to go. This is a golden opportunity to go, and 10 days is far too long to spend just hanging out around the house. I haven’t finalized anything yet, but I’m envisioning spending 5 nights in Okinawa, then flying into Osaka, spending 5 nights there, then making my way back to Tokyo via shinkansen. 

That should give me enough time to explore Okinawa, and almost certainly get sunburnt, before going somewhere more familiar. There’s still plenty left to do in Osaka, and I can take a day trip or two into Kyoto to do some more sightseeing there as well. My last few days in Osaka during my New Years trip I was pretty burnt out, and really didn’t see much of the city. I might still be pretty tired by the time I reach Osaka, but might as well aim high. 

I think what I’m more nervous about is the whole flight aspect of this trip. Since I arrived in Japan, I haven’t taken a flight here yet. I’ll have to take one eventually, since I plan on visiting home, so I guess I have to bite the bullet at some point. The airports here all seem very English friendly, and Okinawa is a big tourist destination, so I’m sure I’d be able to manage. 

Okinawa is also a destination I know the least about. The prefecture encompasses many of the Ryukyu Islands, which used to be ruled by the Ryukyu Kingdom before becoming part of Japan. Okinawa also has a very large US military presence with around 75% of US forces being stationed in the prefecture. Two issues that seem to still be rather controversial topics. 

Not knowing a lot about a place gives you a chance to learn more when you visit, but I also like to at least have some sense of a place before I go. Trying to map out locations I want to visit via google maps will certainly help, but I do feel like I’m planning this trip a little blind. I was comfortable going to Kyoto and Osaka mostly playing things by ear, but I want a bit more of a game plan this time around. 

I still have all next week to look into places to visit, and learn more about my future vacation destination. I haven’t quite hit the excitement stage, or at least my excitement still feels like trepidation to me. Hopefully, as reservations and plans begin to fall into place, my excitement will outweigh my nervousness. 

I want to make the most of my time in Japan, and since I haven’t been doing much exploring outside of my comfort zone lately, this seems like just the thing I need. I wanted to grow and push myself, and planning my first trip involving planes seems like a natural next step. It doesn’t make taking that next step any easier, and my brain wants to tell me all the things that could go wrong, and how much easier it would be just to stay home and play video games. 

With more time to prepare, and after finally taking the leap of making those expensive reservations, I’m sure the excitement will finally hit me. I like traveling, and while it’s not always easy, it is always memorable, and worth putting yourself through that initial discomfort and resistance we face when we seek out new experiences. 

As the details start to fall into place, maybe I’ll write more about what my itinerary for the trip might be, or more details about Okinawa as a place. It’d give me a good excuse to both learn more about Okinawa, and detail out what exactly I’d like to see while I’m there. Stay tuned to see all my grand ambitions, and then exactly how many of them come to pass after the trip actually happens. “Well, what you wanna do isn't necessarily what you're gonna do.” - Gia Gunn