I can't sleep.

I don't mean ever. Just this week. Amongst other things, like nonsense going on at work, I am too excited.

Today I have been awake since 3 am, because tomorrow we (as in The Spy and I) are returning to Japan for the first time since our first visit 2 years ago.

Why are we going back you may well ask? and yes, that is a fine question.

We spent a week in Tokyo last time, and we both fell in love with the place.

But this all started for me way back, in the mists of my childhood. You see my sister is called Nara (after a boat, don't ask, it wasn't my choice) and for some reason I remember looking in an old atlas (yes I was quite a strange little child) and finding that in this series of islands known as Japan, there was a place with the same name as my sister.

I suppose it would have looked something like this!

This was quite magical (and for me at least always imbued that name with a level of mysticism, I mean, where is there a place called Jason!?)

(I just googled it, there are some roads named Jason blah di blah in the US, but nothing of note.)

Anyway, it turns out Nara was a former capital city of Japan, so that planted a seed in my brain in my childhood.

There are other attractions.

Dragons... didn't see any last time, but am more hopeful for this visit.

Fashion... This is a strange one for someone such as me, with legs which may have been spliced with a giraffe's proportions, however, there is something in the aesthetic of design in Japan, simple great ideas, clean lines, attention to detail, which really appeal to me.

Art... The simplicity but sheer precision of woodblock prints and how, whenever and wherever I saw them growing up (as an arty farty kid) they would stop me in my tracks, and to this day, are so evocative for my imagination.

Food... now you see, I was under the impression there would be sushi everywhere. And I am not a fish connoisseur, unless you count tuna/mayo sandwiches, fish fingers, or fish and chips... don't get me wrong, as an adult I have been known to delight in the occasional spicy tuna roll. However, I don't get on with salmon, or any smoked fish, or eel, or in fact many other fish apart from the white varieties with no bones.

So I was delighted to find that sushi is just a tiny part of what is on offer. Tonkatsu and yakitori are just two of the things we sampled last time and I am really looking forward to revisiting them this time. In fact our first night we want to go to a simple yakitori (pieces of all different parts of mostly chicken on little sticks) place we found last time, near our hotel. More of that when we get there. Let's just say, I get to eat cooked chicken skin on a stick, and it is so good!

Also though, there were unexpected finds, like Hawaiian influences, as in we stumbled on a branch of Teddy's Burgers, a delightfully nauseous cacophony of gaudy flowers and overly colourful decoration, but the burgers were so good!

Drinks... Mostly different kinds of beer. Japanese seem to love beer. Strangely I was always intrigued by the advertising campaigns of Sapporo lager when I was growing up (with a subscription to both Vogue and Rolling Stone magazines) and was convinced it would be my favourite. I want to try Sake this time, I have always been a bit wary of it, but am determined to give it another chance, especially as I saw on Sunday Brunch the other week there are different kinds, as in, with bubbles, or yuzu.

The people... So very polite, helpful, stylish, bashful, confident, great to watch and study to find new influences for what to wear.

Feng shui... not really, I don't get the details, but I do like the idea of the right thing in the right place.

I think that is enough for now, I am not even there yet. I think it is time for coffee and a couple of beta blockers to calm me down.

I can't wait to write about this wonderful place, thank you Sazzle for planting the seed.