>Last night, minutes before 4300 Krisflyer points were about to expire forever, KH and I booked our business class tickets to Osaka for April 2011. In celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary together, I think the theme for Japan in 2011 will be flowers and romance. Nice? I shall have to plan an itinerary centred around that. And for once, for me at least, we will travel in style – frog in a well that I am, I have never sat in Business class so I am excited about that.

We booked only the first leg of the journey leaving our options for the return trip wide open for now. We could go deeper into central Honshu to explore Kamikochi, Takayama, the Japanese alps and the Kiso Valley. Or explore the backroads of Shikoku and the islands of the Seto-Naikai National Park by car. Or wend our way up the northern coast towards Niigata, and the Tohoku region, ending in a loop back at Tokyo. We are also toying with the possibility of flying from Japan to Beijing and then returning from there.

So that will be something to look forward to. I am already gleefully anticipating the planning!

But for now, in the immediate future, there will be good old Malaysia for us in a couple of weeks from now. This time we are headed for Tioman where we will join Rita and her brood at the Paya Beach Resort. The kids are very excited to vaca with the Tans again after having a blast in Tokyo Disney with them a couple of years ago. We will be driving the usual Malacca-KL-Kuantan route, looping down to Tioman and then home.

Can’t wait.