Going to Japan has been a life-long goal of mine. I took three years of Japanese in high school and another year of conversational Japanese in college. Sadly, I was never fluent, and I've lost much of what I did learn. I also have also studied Japanese history and culture both officially through college classes and unofficially through my own initiative. Despite all of this, I have not--until now--made any attempt to visit; life just kept getting in the way.
The trip might be almost two years away, but my excitement is already heightened. I plan on brushing up and expanding my conversational Japanese and perhaps even working on revisiting its three alphabets so that the signs there will not be completely alien to me. It's going to be a fantastic trip!