Japan 2012 - Introduction

So here is the thing - I am currently on a brief holiday in Japan, combined with a business trip next week to Tokyo (which has now been cut short to a couple of days to make time for another business related "stop over" in Kuala Lumpur), and even during the week's holiday, the emails don't stop coming in and the answers won't wait very long either. 'Enough typing for one holiday', I thought and therefore decided to not update my blog. I am very much aware that I haven't updated the blog in ages and that some really worthwhile mentioning impressions remain unshared (amongst them some top restaurants in Sydney and Paris), but didn't want to spend even more time on the iPad writing. So what has changed? I am up straight with my emails, without WiFi for the next three hours on a train from Nagano to Shiojiri and then to Nirasaki, and more importantly did I feel the urge to share some of my most recent impressions from my Japan trip. So here goes...