Hey!

So, my short spring vacation of 6 days started as of today.
And I'm quite sure I don't have to explain this to you, but usually I'm out of here ASAP!

So far I left with pretty much the first / earliest train on my first day off on EVERY SINGLE VACATION I can think of in the past 5+ years here in Japan!
Sometimes I even extended my vacation so that I came back on the day where I had to be back at work (in the afternoon).

I always tried to use every single second, every single day - to the fullest!

There are / were several reasons for that:

1. I knew that I'm not going to stay in Japan forever, so I wanted to see as much as possible in my limited time.



2. In my first 4 years in Japan I only had 3 weeks of vacation per year (1 week in April, 1 in August, 1 in December / Jan), so my travel time was very limited. On top of that I lived so isolated that day trips were almost impossible. Thus I was always very happy to get OUT OF THERE as soon as I could. That's one reason why I eventually decided to move.



3. I just came to love traveling in Japan. When I first came here that was not my priority .... it just happened! ;)

But this time it's different. It's already my first day of vacation today and as you can see I'm home!
(Well, it was supposed to rain today anyways. In fact it's only cloudy and very windy, but whatever...)

You might have noticed that I was traveling a LOT this past year. It was really crazy! First of all I had much more vacation than before - almost 3 more weeks per year! And then I also have public holidays off, so that I sometimes am blessed with a 3-days' weekend - giving me a great chance to do some minor trips - and I did! A lot!
Because of moving to Kansai, I'm now very central and day trips (even to Kyoto, Osaka or Nara) are not a problem! And I've done a few of those day trips already.


On top of that I got sick before ALL of my previous vacations last year (I'm sure some of you remember). And I was also extremely unlucky with the weather every freaking single time!
Last April I was hit by a typhoon, in May again - followed by horrible weather for many days. And the top of it all was my vacation in Okinawa this winter! TWO WEEKS OF BAD WEATHER!!!!
I was really frustrated.
Of course I still enjoyed traveling, but now that I have achieved one of my goals (visiting all 47 prefectures), maybe it's time to calm down a bit.



This photo is from last week when I met amvn in Himeji, but that's a story for another time! ;)


I've not started planning my short vacation until a few days ago. I really didn't feel like planning (I never do, but recently it gets worse and worse). Since then I have changed plans several times.
For example, at first I wanted to go to Noto Peninsula and then maybe to Nagano. Then I thought that Noto is not interesting enough for me right now, so I cancelled again.
Then I planned to go to Kiso Valley and finally visit Tsumago, Magome, Narai and spend a few days in Nagano where still a few small castles are waiting for me (e.g. in Chikuma City).

I was motivated after that, but then I saw that half of the time it's (probably) going to rain.
Going all the way down to Nagano + the hotels = not really cheap. Cherry blossoms might also not be out yet. Not there.
Spending so much money just to stand in the rain yet again, doesn't sound right .... I probably would go if I knew I had good weather. I'm sure I would be a bit more motivated.


I'm not sure what's wrong with me recently.
You've noticed that I change my mind often - not only on travel-related things.
I'm a bit worried and I'm not sure what I should do.
I know that I think too much about it.

But maybe this time I should try a different approach and just see what happens / how I like it?
I was thinking that maybe instead I should just do a few day trips in the Kansai region (there are still a lot of castles on my list and they'll look nice with the cherry blossoms!) - and I'll only go on the days when it doesn't rain!
It will be cheaper and I can quickly change my plan and stay home if the weather is different from what they said the day before.
I could stay home on the rainy days and just relax / work on my blog and plan my longer Golden Week vacation (9 days) instead.


On the other hand I think I might regret staying home or "only" doing day trips.
It's so rare to have more than 3 consecutive days off, so it's worth going somewhere farther away. And I also already spent quite a few hours to plan out everything!!! -___-;
On the other hand my list of possible day trips is so long that it will be very difficult to do all of that on "normal" weekends. And if I spend half of my weekends doing those day trips, I'll be stressed again because I won't get other things done.



I know that this is not a big issue, but I just don't want to waste the bit of time I still have in Japan ....
Only now I have the chance to travel wherever I want in Japan!
Once I don't live here anymore, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to travel as freely as I do now.
And it's just the worst time to not feel like traveling as it's cherry blossom season! -___-;;

On the other hand, I'm not sure how much I still care!
I'm not even sure why I still travel so much? Is it for myself? Is it for my blog? Is it for others? Is it to break another stupid record? Or is it because it has just become my routine for my vacation time?

I'm just very blah with EVERYTHING in my life recently.
My job, my life here in Japan ... EVERYTHING!

And I hate being like that, but I don't know how to get out of it.

I thought getting out and traveling around a bit might clear my mind, but then again I'm always very busy rushing from one spot to another ... and I will just feel miserable if the weather is bad.

I guess, I'll try something else this year and do day trips instead.

After all I might have some MAJOR (and expensive) weekend trips ahead of me later in April (if the weather is good) because I want to visit the Takayama Festival OR go to Kawaguchiko and take photos of the cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji.
As both of them are far away, it's a bit crazy to put that into only one weekend, but it's possible.
And yes, those are things I really want to do opposed to right now where "I'm supposed to go somewhere because I have vacation time."


Sorry, I guess I just had to get this off of my soul! :/ ....