3 weeks

I'm both super excited and scared at the same time, because after three weeks I'm going to Tokyo for the first time in my life (with my mom)! I've been trying to save money like crazy, I even worked two jobs at one point. I have also sold away a bunch of old stuff I have no use for in order to get some extra income.

While I am mostly excited, I am still a little worried over some things.

• First off, the flight itself. It takes 9-10 hours to fly to Tokyo from Helsinki. How the heck am I going to get the time to pass?
• The time difference. Japan is seven hours ahead of Finland. Like when it's the middle of the night in Finland, but in Japan it's already next morning. I hope I won't be too tired to function.
• The language barrier. I don't speak or understand Japanese except for the few words here and there you'll eventually learn if you watch enough anime. 
• The amount of people in Tokyo, the thought alone scares me.

***

We're going to stay in Tokyo for eleven days and I'm having a real hard time to decide what to pack with me. I'm going to need my bags as empty as possible when we go there, because they are going to be filled when I come back. I'm not going to lie, I'm probably going to shop like crazy!

I probably will buy a bunch of random stuff just because "they looked nice" and such, but I have created a shopping list of things I want to buy, that should take top priority above any impulse buys.

Wish list/Stuff to buy, in no particular order :

-Dragonball Z, on the top of my wish list is a character I don't have in my collection, (or I do, but not in the form I want) and that is COOLA!!  I need to find at least one! And of course I can't say no, if I happen to find a Freeza figure I like. I'd also like to pick up some of the new characters from Dragonball Super such as Beerus, Monaka, Hit, Caulifla, Zen-oh and so forward!

- Moomin figures, Finnish Moomin toys/figures aren't really the greatest looking, I'm looking forward to finding something super cute and perhaps a Japanese moomin mug would also be a nice.

-Pokémon, I've been thinking  3 plushies would be nice and lots and lots of TOMY figures! The plushies have a high chance of being Eeveelutions, because they are one of the cutest things in plush form. As for the TOMY figures, anything goes! 

 -Star Wars, I find anything Darth Maul, I'm buying it! If I were to pretend to limit my shopping, SW would be the first to get off my shopping list, but since you never know what you'll find....

-Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku), This is getting kind of specific, but I want to find the Japanese version of the game Yakuza 3 for the PS3, because the western release had so much unnecessarily cut content. Oh! And I also want a Kazuma Kiryuu figure!

 -Doujinshi, I have a small collection of doujins, but what I'm missing is a DBZ doujin! I might be wrong, but to my understanding all doujins are in the adult section of the shops regardless if they contain riské stuff or not. I like my doujins as parodies or light romances and not straight up porn, thank you very much. The worst thing is, you have to judge the comic by its cover, since you aren't allowed to open the plastic pockets they put the comics in. So you might get hentai, or maybe not. I hate it when there is an innocent looking cover, but the inside is anything but innocent.

 -Gachapon, Capsule toys! I LOVE gachapon, any coins I get are going into these machines!

 -As I was writing this, the idea came to me. Wouldn't it be awesome If I found some Dragon Quest 8 figures as well? Especially that Jessica figure that would complete my collection...

Aside from shopping, the other things we've planned to do in Tokyo, we're still a bit undecided. We've talked about the Natural History museum, Madame Tussauds, Tokyo Disney Resort, Ueno Zoo and much much more. Luckily, there is still time to finalize our plans. One thing is sure, we are going to the permanent Pokémon Cafe! That should be fun! I also want to check out the Moomin Bakery & Café. At first, eleven days sounded plentiful, but as you research things to do in Tokyo you realize how short that time actually is. The main point is to have fun and not getting stressed over running around the city trying to visit EVERYTHING. We'll just have to decide the few key things which sound the most fun and just enjoy our time there. 

On a final note, I got myself this journal that originally had horribly pink covers. I went a little arty and crafty on it and covered most of the pink with this, I dunno, collage? of pictures I clipped from different magazines. As the cover says now it's my little guide book! I've been writing down information about anything I wish to see & do in Tokyo, useful phrases and everything important regarding our reservations. Once we get there, it will also serve me as a journal. 

I can't wait! (/^▽^)/