I write this in Shanghai on the day of my flight to Japan, so I’ll keep it brief. I planned a ten-day trip to Japan for my family and my parents. They’ll be flying from the US. We’ll be flying from Shanghai.

I experimented with using a mind map to plan this trip. I’ve found it’s a flexible way to organize the large amounts of information that you need to collect during the planning process.

For the planning itself, this will be my third trip to Japan, but my parents’ first. Chris Rowthorn’s site Inside Kyoto was indispensable as a source of information for planning the Kyoto portion of the trip, and his Japan trip planning checklist is a simple but useful tool to point you in the right direction. I paraphrase:

1. Decide when and how long to go
2. Decide where to go
3. Settle the transportation and accommodation
4. Book activities and reservations (restaurants, etc.)

Rowthorn’s list is ten steps and covers everything you need to plan a trip to Japan, with lots of complementary information on the rest of his site. I recommend checking it out if you’re looking at taking a trip to Japan.

I did my mind mapping on my e-ink tablet and kept my notes and to-do list in Obsidian. The map is a haphazard mess of Japanese, Chinese, and English, but it’s got a good overview of the trip. It’s also quite visually appealing, despite my chicken-scratch handwriting.

What I like about mind mapping is that it’s concise, quick, and easy to understand (for the person who made it, at least). The words-as-visuals fusion is what gives a mind map its power.

One of the perks of mind maps is that once you’ve built out the basic structure, the thin or blank parts of the map show what still needs your attention. That helped me keep my planning on track. As of now, you might notice that the Nara part of the trip still needs planning.

Mind mapping is also fun. I’ve mentioned before that I’d love to learn how to draw. I like a good visual, and while I haven’t made much progress on my drawing skills, mind maps give me a way to satisfy the urge to put shapes on paper.

It’s time to get going for now. When I get back from the trip, I’ll write about how it went and what I might do differently next time.