Hey,
I'm new to this thread (in fact, new to this forum
), and I don't really want to read the whole topic, buuuuut....
I've been to Japan last summer, for 1 month, and that was way too short. But it was a lot of fun, met a lot of people, etc.
Pictures can be found at:
http://jesse.ssnt.org (categorized as well!).
With just a little bit of Japanese and a lot of english you can get around easily. Sometimes you have to adjust your english to how they say it, which is pretty funny. (One time I asked for the "subway" in Tokyo. This guy didn't understand me so I said "metro". Still didn't work so I tried "me-te-ro" and bingo!).
The Japanese are very friendly and the country itself has a lot to offer. I plan to go their again next summer!
Cheers,
Jesse.