with twiddle thumbs being unemployed for so long, i thought we wouldn't be able to go to japan afterall this fall. but my mom has said that she would help us out and use her frequent flyer miles to give us 1 plane ticket. wow, that makes a world of difference! of course i'll try to pay her back but at least now this allows me room to fantasize about not only going to okinawa, but doing what i wanted to do in the first place, which is to show twiddle thumbs 1 or 2 cities in mainland japan. tokyo is a must. the second city is harder to pick. my mom and i talked over it a bit and we thought we could do something we did similar almost 10 years ago, which is to take the bullet train from tokyo to osaka, then use osaka as a base to see kyoto. since nara is close by, we could possibly even see there. that time we went to osaka and kyoto was the only time my mom has ever been there. plus, she has never been to nara so this game plan interests her. i could travel around japan by myself if i had more flexibility in my length of stay, but seeing as how this is a rushed trip, i'd much prefer to have my mom along. i just don't know the geography of the land nor am i familiar with the train system. not that she understands the train system either, seeing as how there are no trains in okinawa(!), but she is a native japanese so she knows more than me. now it's time to work hard, save money, and hope that some sort of tragedy doesn't strike before our trip that prevents us from going.