Met up with some very special friends (by special I mean old, old… old, we go way back) this morning for coffee and a Japan pre-brief.

We are leaving for our own trip at the tail end of next month but Deb and Anna are off on their expedition to Japan next week. And whilst we have self-planned and booked our trip (like what could go wrong…right?), they are travelling with a tour group.

After some preliminary small talk about world peace and ending poverty and the existential subtlety of Kantian phenomenology, the discussion quickly zeroed in on important topics like (but not limited to) Japanese electronic toilet etiquette,
general global male vs female toilet behaviours specifically when expunging number twos (we did not cover non-binary),
maintaining optimal bowel regularity on an unfamiliar diet,
travelling with only carry on luggage (Kelly threatened to include my testicles in the carry on if I even considered trying it)
and the vicissitudes of travel for an extended duration in close confines with other people and their exponentially expanding annoyances.

Yup, that pretty much covered it. We are excited. Lock and load.