Hi everyone, I've been wanting to go to japan forever and I think this summer might finally be the summer I get to do just that. Tynan and others have talked about Japan, their trips and ideas there, and what to do. So I really want to go, but don't know what to do. So here are some of my broad plans/ideas.

1. I want to be in Japan for 30-60 days. 

2. I want to have a good balance of rural, nature and city life. In other words, I want to see urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka, Nature areas like tottori dunes and mt fuji and rural towns/ smaller towns like tokoyama.

So my question is which train passes should i use to travel around japan, for tokyo etc, which airport i shoudl fly into, how fast i shoudl go around, there i should look to stay etc 

Edit 2: I wrote this about two weeks ago after coming to slow life from 10 days of insane social stimulation a.k.a hanging out with my best friends for 10 days straight doing nothing but drinking, partying and eating. I did some meditation, relaxed, hung out with some of my college buddies and thought about this for a bit. I've decided to put this issue on standby-kind of. In other words, I will talk to people, mess around, and go out whenever I can etc., but I won't make a big deal of it or think about it to much. When I wrote this post I was caring too much about this issue, to the point where it was distracting me from my larger goals as well as keeping me inside my head while socializing. I want to focus my time and energy on the goal I want to achieve such as learning languages, becoming part of a startup, learning marketing and business development, travelling, and becoming more informed about the world around me; and, subsequently meet people through those avenues. To this, I am getting involved in organizations, meetups and groups relevant to these goals and meeting people there.

(Edit 3 : I have realized this isn't truly what  I want my dream world to be like , but rather the world I made myself believe others were living in that I thought I would like. Socializing requires time and patience and can be a form of infinite distraction ( I know people who would literally spend hours socializing via every possible avenue including facebook, skype, messaging and real life to the point that a whole summer would go by and nothing productive was achieved). I also I realize that I can't expect to click with everyone, and personally I rather be polarizing and connect with those who I am most likely to get along with and repel those who I am not likely to get along with. Overall, I rather just relax, get involved in my work/passions and seek people in those respective fields so that I can be infinitely more productive and knowledgeable. From there I can branch out and meet people from other walk's of life through six degrees of separation. 

Currently I'm a 20 year old in college. I haven't gotten laid, or even kissed a girl sober. For the majority of my life I haven't cared. Like I truly, to my core, haven't given a flying fuck. Normally I just hang out with my friends,  played some video games (I have since quit) watch movies, write on my blog, read books, and do stuff like learn German, Programming, or how to start a passive business as well as the occasional party here and there

Anyways: I turned 20 this year and it hit me insanely hard, First just how much time I was wasting video games, and how even 5 minutes reading a book is more productive than the 100+ hrs I've spent video gaming (which is why I quit) . But the thing that hit me most was two things 1. How little experience I have with women, and 2. How little new people I've actually met on campus. My best friends are still my friends from highschool, by a long shot. These are the guys I can make fun, push around, say stupid shit, and  I know they will still love me no matter what. I haven't made that many friends of that kind here in college, albeit I have made a few. 

So the first thing I asked myself was: Is this really important? I mean I had been going for a solid year already just minding my own business, doing my own thing. Not really making that many friends, and less girlfriends to boot. But at the same time I don't really care. I want a freedom business, I want to be able to travel on a whim. I know that when I travel being able to be like able will be incredibly important, and thus I know that socializing will be incredibly important in the long run. 

You don't necessarily need to stay there for over 3 months, just where have you worked abroad that you have liked working or think you would like working and why? Im curious to see how different the answers will be

For a place I've been its Barcelona and for a place I would like to check out its Chile/Thailand. I would chose these places because of their relative locations, livability, price for what you get and access to things like fast broadband.

I'm a sophomore in college and with summer coming a long I don't know what to do. Part of me wants to just travel, as I have some money saved up, but another part of me kind of just wants an internship at a small company or start up  Of course I've read tons of post detailing the difference between the start up mentality and the lifestyle business mentality. Personally I just feel I don't have enough work experience in any field or in anything close to a work environment. I much more favor something fast paced, mobile, and people paced, like start up, business development, etc. and In the future I am very interested in starting my own service. I spend a lot of my free time now learning programming. 

A lot of the students I know are spending all their time looking for those big internships at Investment banking firms or consulting firms, but I Know working 80 hrs+  a week for somebody else isn't my idea of a great time. What does everyone else think?

At the moment I am really aiming for an internship at a startup abroad, so I can travel, get some work experience, and see what its like to work in a small evolving company.