It’s getting closer and closer, and yet it still feels very, very far away. Like it’s not going to happen. Like I’ve still got forever to plan.

What do I still need to do, anyway?

1. Pack! Which I shall do tomorrow. I imagine I’ll print out my inventory and check everything off. I am seriously concerned that my brother will end up “borrowing” several of my possessions when he heads back to Cardiff, leaving me stranded without some widget or knick-knack or what-you-may-call-it. But, yeah, shouldn’t be too much of a problem as long as I tick everything off. Blimey. It’s like the Apollo moon missions.

2. DVDs! I wonder which I will pick to take with me. Star Wars trilogy, natch. Lost in Translation, also. Eh, I’ll bung a mix in. Not like I’m going to have much time to watch movies. One hopes.

3. I keep asking myself: what am I going to do with my four-hour stayover in Sri Lanka? Probably just sleep or read or something, but if I’m thirsty or hungry I have no rupees to buy anything. And you can’t get them just by running around and chopping grass. I guess I can always get tap water. I gave out enough free tap water in my former job, so hopefully karma will smile on me. I wonder if there’s a Caterleisure-esque franchise in Bandanaraika Airport?

4. Learn Japanese, or at least emergency phrases. There’s not much time left, but I really should be cramming for situations that will come up - I’ve lost x, where’s the train to y, no thank you I’m not into z. Problem is, all the books I have have outlasted their novelty value and I can’t get anything useful out of them any more. It’s… weird. I’m hoping it all comes back to me when I get there.

5. Install last.fm on my Mac, and work out if I can get tracks to scrobble smoothly from my iPod. Though I’m not sure why it matters. Wait, scrobble isn’t even a word!

And… that’s… about it. Not even like there’s anything huge that needs doing. I hope and pray my debit card gets here in time, though. I will aim to get everything (i.e. pack and study a little Japanese) done by tomorrow, then I can just relax over the weekend. Get some cycling done. Take photos of Norwich. Try and shake off the unnerving feeling that this is just another ordinary week.

Jesus. I’m going to Japan!