From There to Here - a Story.

I never know how to start these things, so let's do it in the most basic way: Hello, my name is Mawb, and I started this blog so that I can record my upcoming trip to Japan. On June 20th 2012 I will be leaving my cosy little terraced house, waving a tearful goodbye to my other half and our two lurchers, then setting off for an insanely long plane journey and three weeks of travelling alone in Japan.

"You're off your head" is probably a fair response to that, and one I have heard a few times since I told everyone I intended to this. Probably, it's true, to an extent. But I've never let eccentricity get in the way of a good holiday, or a long-awaited ambition - mostly it's the eccentricity that gets the job done, in my experience.

So why am I making this trip? Well it's a mixture of things, really. First there's the fact that I have wanted to go to Japan since I was a teenager, thanks to a combination of the Yellow Magic Orchestra and the TV adaptation of James Clavell's Shogun. Don't ask me why I never made it there - I guess something always got in the way - money, other plans, other people... along with Scandinavia (my other "want to go" place), Japan always ended up on the "Tomorrow, maybe" list.

Second there was last year's earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan. Among other things, it reminded me that we're none of us getting any younger, and that sometimes, tomorrows never come. And maybe too, that castle or that temple I've read of in books or seen on TV isn't forever after all. That realisation coincided, roughly, with my digging out a bunch of music CDs that had been buried for a long time during extensive house renovations and rekindling my love for a whole slew of bands I had not listened to in a while - BUCK-TICK included. And so the seed of an idea was sown, which started with my signing up to the band's fan club - FISH TANK - with a vague notion that I would obtain some tickets and go to see them live in Japan. (Why B-T? Well mainly because I don't forsee them ever touring outside of Japan, so if I want to see them, I have to go to them. This is less true of some of the other Japanese bands I like). The fact that this year is B-T's 25th Anniversary was added incentive.

Third, I haven't had a holiday in a while, due to various domestic and work demands - well, not a holiday in the sense of GOING SOMEWHERE, anyway. I have done a lot of "stay home" - just no "go places" - and I have not been on holiday alone for... well, a good few years. And I fear that one's sense of adventure starts to dull if one doesn't exercise it often enough, to be replaced by a vague fear of taking any kind of step alone into the unknown or unfamiliar. I don't want to be that person.

Fourth, I found a blog written by another single female traveller who had spent three weeks travelling Japan. Anna's tales of her travels bolstered my belief that when it comes to life, you get back what you put in, and taking a chance to achieve a dream is a good thing, not something to be feared.

Lastly, there was Neil Gaiman's New Year message on his blog. That kind of sealed the deal, while I was still toying with the idea, and ensured that every spare bit of money went to savings and buying stuff I would need for the (then) still vague trip.

And so here we are, less than 30 days away from the start of my long overdue trip to Japan. I won't bore you with the details of how I planned it all or got the tickets - the answer to these questions is 1) with the help of all the great websites and wonderful people linked under "Resources" right there beside this post and 2) via the fan club, which is pretty much the easiest way to get any tickets for any band in Japan if you yourself are outside of Japan.

Currently I am still planning, planning, planning (though now it's just down to the detail), with the help of some of those same wonderful people - Cayce, Steph and Anna all deserve a particular mention here for their assistance and patience, as do the folks at Japan Guide. I have an itinerary drawn up, flight and hotels booked, and now it's just a case of rationalising my packing list and trying to squeeze as much out of my savings as possible so that I can have fun and come home with more music and B-T merch than is good for me.

What else... oh yes. The title of this blog is a reference to a BUCK-TICK song, and yes, I chose it based on the lyrics and with a keen sense of self-mockery, in case you were wondering. I fully expect the phrase "I'm completely lost, shit" to be a repeated feature of this trip, so I may as well embrace it.

Originally, I had it in mind to call this blog Travels With BUCK-TICK, but that would give entirely the wrong impression and as it turns out, be a logistical lie. No,  I'm not and never was ACTUALLY travelling with BUCK-TICK (let's get that out there right now for anyone who takes these things on the literal side), but more to the point, because of the way the ticket lottery went, I'm actually only seeing them live in Tokyo (twice) and Yokohama (once), both at the end of my vacation, so it's stretching it to say that this holiday has any travelling with them involved. It's more accurately Travels to BUCK-TICK, but that doesn't have the same ring to it and even if it did, it implies that the two weeks beforehand is an afterthought, and that's definitely not true. I have spent more hours planning this trip than I spent entering the ticket lottery for their shows, that's for sure (sorry guys, but it's true).

But, it had to be related to B-T in some way, since they're part of the reason I'm going - if I had not managed to get tickets for the PARADE tour, I'd have put this whole trip off until the next one. So Somewhere Nowhere is what I settled on, for better or worse. The fact that it's the introductory track from one of my favourite B-T albums doesn't hurt.

And now I should get back to that itinerary, and the packing, and the emails I owe to people. And the million other things I need to take care of before I go.