Setting expectations for an exceptional visit to Japan

I haven't gone travelling for more three weeks since I was in my 20s, and that was probably the last time I prepared so long, and so thoroughly, for a trip. We reserved our spot on England Rugby Travel's client list for the World Cup 18 months ago. That's left a lot of time for research.

I've worked my way through my husband's favourite Samurai films. I've researched top travel magazine's guides going back five years. I've immersed myself in Japanese historical fiction and the loving observations of American expat and Japan expert Alex Kerr. I've listened, twice, to Cameron Foster's excellent 35-episode podcast on the history of Japan and assembled my own YouTube library of useful videos. Over 18 months I've compiled, then distilled, "must sees" and "nice to sees" into an excel spreadsheet, studied maps and read etiquette guides. I even dabbled with language lessons, though I can't claim much success.

All that pre-trip immersion means I've also had a chance to form a lot of expectations. They may be informed, but will they be right? As we kick off 21 days across Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Nikko and Kamakura, I thought it might be worth setting those expectations down here so I can come back on the 15th of October without any hindsight bias to check where I was right and wrong.

And thus, I expect to...

• Feel like Gulliver in Lilliput. I've always been over the average size, even in Western countries that lean towards obesity. Add in height and skin colour and I suspect I'll stand out everywhere I go. I think it will be deeply uncomfortable, but probably a very important life lesson in what it's like to be in the minority. (And perhaps an inspiration to diet.)

• Be incredibly frustrated by the language barrier. Between the two of us, my husband and I can make our way in most European languages. I can even sound out Cyrillic, having taken Russian in University. But this is our first experience of being functionally illiterate. I know we can use digital translators to help, but I think I'm going to be incredibly frustrated by the gap between what I want to know and what I'm going to be able to learn. We'll get by, but be unable to plunge into detail. That will be especially frustrating in restaurants, where we'll want to understand lots about what we're eating and how it was prepared..

• Be uncomfortable with ... and quite possibly horrified by ... all the modernity. Tokyo, in particular, looks daunting for a person who hates urban sprawl. Endless tourist photos of skyscrapers, neon, crowds and computer gaming meccas make my skin crawl. I'll be working very hard to find history, traditional architecture and nature, but I suspect it's going to be tricky.

• Be overwhelmed by temples and gardens.  As the daughter of an art historian, I've never really understood those people who talk about "another bloody cathedral" or think all the paintings in a museum look more or less the same. Having been doused in high culture since childhood, I can happily wander through 20 Georgian country houses in succession and point out their nuanced differences to you. But I'm on alien territory here. My reading has given me a bit of insight, but only enough to know that I won't be able to differentiate much between the scores of sites on the tourist trail. Thus I've tried to narrow the itinerary to a handful of significant or particularly quirky things, so I can spend time really trying to appreciate them.

• Continue to be perplexed, mystified and deeply turned off by Japan's pre-occupation with the juvenile. The obsession with the cute, the weird cafes, the obsessive cos-playing all seem at such dramatic odds with a culture of deep elegance and sophistication. Even if I don't like it, I'd like to leave Japan with a better understanding of it.

• Be deeply impressed by Japanese design. From the "logos" of ancient noble houses to the fine points of ceramics to the placement of rocks in a garden, this is a culture that takes the visual very, very seriously. I think my eyes will be delighted with many small details. And I expect to find a new pair of garden secateurs and some ceramics in my luggage on the way home.

• Love the toilets. They seem to make every travel writer's article. I can't wait to try them.

• Not notice the rugby very much. The excuse to be out here is the World Cup, but we're only going to three games and we don't join up with the "official" tour ... which is really only a shared hotel ... until half way through. So I'm not expecting to be hanging out with a lot of England fans or doing much related to rugby outside of our game nights. But who knows...

• Consider these to be the highlights of our trip: Himeji castle, the gardens and temples of Kyoto, our 2-night luxury ryokan stay and the National Museum in Tokyo.

• Travel at a very different pace than the last time I set out on a trip this well-researched. In my 20s, I could vault off a trans-Atlantic into a packed day of sightseeing. I'd jam in four to six significant sites a day, never sitting down or "wasting" time on a meal until all museums and tourist attractions were closed. I generally came home totally exhausted. I'm not that girl any more. It's 3 in the afternoon in Osaka. We took our time getting to our hotel. We've showered, My husband is napping. We might go out for a stroll later. We have time. 21 days, to be exact...