Our trip to Japan has been a long time planning - it has been on our wish list for many years. A month before we were scheduled to go, Japan was rocked by a huge earthquake and tsunami. Many people changed their travel plans, and we were tempted too. We decided to sift through the media hype, do our research and wait for more news. Despite continued concerns from most friends and family we made the decision to go. We ended up changing our itinerary to give Tokyo a miss and only travel in the south away from the devastated area. We were very happy with our decision in the end, but there was never a problem.
Japan was fabulous, it is such a great country to travel in. Everyone is so friendly and relaxed, and although they did not speak a lot of English it was very easy to get around. Japanese people loved the kids, but were more reserved than the locals in Malaysia when we visited last year. In Malaysia people tended to just come and pick them up and cuddle them and carry them off! Japanese locals were really friendly, but less hands-on. It was really quiet regarding the number of tourists, in fact the plane on the way over was practically empty, a strange feeling.