I would visit Tokyo and start my trip from Helsinki, Finland. My trip would start later this year, possibly September since that is a good time to visit, weather-wise. Budget for the trip would be shoestring and duration two weeks. The budget would mean I would be confined to mostly Tokyo and wouldn't be able to go on extensive train trips since that is quite expensive. I would probably spend my nights trying to sleep in Internet kissatens or possibly some cheap ryokan like the Kimi Ryokan.
I'd commit to maintain a day-to-day (but not necessarily daily, if I happen to not be able to get on the net some days) weblog of my experiences of the Japanese culture. This would include any interesting differences I've noticed, any useful information for other travellers and any possible fun stuff I've encountered. I would listen to any user-made suggestions as in what to tell about. I'd spice up the page by taking some interesting photographs.
One thing I would like to make a page about is nattoo. How it is made (my guess is by stuffing someone's rear end full of beans and leaving it there for a few weeks) and why people eat it. If possible this would include interviewing gaijins and possibly some Japanese. I'm not ruling out visiting some nattoo-manufacturing place if I happen to find some.
I would also like to meet Justin and tell the web my impression of him on links.net so others would know what kind of a person he REALLY is. That might to turn out to be as pleasant as hunting down nattoo information.
Background info
I have visited Japan once before. Saying that might not improve my chances on getting selected, but there we have it. I haven't however written anything about my previous trip and would now like to make up for it.
I've kept a weblog before. I did it for over a year and it was about the mandatory civilian service here in Finland. The pages are not in English. This time I would of course use English in the Bemmu's Japan Trip (tm) weblog. I'd like to think my English skills are nothing short of excellent. I have some leet Japanese skillz as well (toile wa doko desu ka? doko? bakabakabaka!).
I have extensive skills with web pages. I make web services in Java and Perl for a living. I know HTML very well in addition to PHP3, Flash (don't worry I won't use Flash) and whatnot. I'm able to make HTML that is readable to both the reader of the page, reader of the source and might even pass HTML validators.
I'm 21 years old and study comp.sci. in a university. I'm really nice and write such interesting things your readers won't be able to leave the pages I'll make. I'm really the best guy in the world for this task.
There's some coherence for you!
Bemmu Sepponen | www.bemmu.com