Trip Preparation (Air Tickets)

I guess the best way to avoid unpleasant surprises is preparing in advance. As much as I like to do that, my work schedule does not give me the necessary spare time to put together a proper preparation. So, we are doing what we can but for those of you reading this blog, I recommend doing much more!!!

Why Japan?

In my case, it is a matter of finding my own roots. All my grandparents are Japanese and my father was also born in Japan. Add to that the fact that I have a brother living there. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, my wife wants to go there (I guess that seals the case).



So, first things first: Air Tickets.

The biggest benefit of my extensive traveling routine is the generous amount of miles in my frequent flier account. That translates into free trips for my family and occasionaly for me. The drawback is that we needed to firm up the dates way in advance. In this case, it was booked in Nov/07 and the trip will start in early June/08. Since I have a 9-year old daughter, our travel schedule is bound by the school calendar and we were lucky to find a departure date right after the end of school. The other factor is my work. I would love to spend a full month traveling but the job does not allow me to have this luxury. Still managed to take 2 1/2 weeks off.

Next I will talk about itinerary and transportation within Japan. But this will have to be in the next post. Kind of late now.