The moment I've been waiting for is drawing nearer. In August, I'll be off to Japan for four months.

I'll be studying at Tokyo International University in hopes to gain much needed experience for JET and other endeavors. I've been to Japan once before. Prior to starting college, my high school class and I stayed for approximately 10 days.

This is a list of places I want to go back to. If you're looking for your own Japan bucket list, look no more. If you want some cool ideas about why you should go to Japan, this article is for you, too!

1. Grocery Shopping

The deepest sense of wonder I've ever felt was in a Japanese grocery store.

"What is that?" Well, it didn't matter. It was shiny and cheap and had adorable packaging. Watermelons can cost $50 dollars, but fresh raw fish is in huge supply. Convenient food tends to be cheaper in Japan than it is in the United States. The treats are exciting and totally unique. My personal favorite section is the tea aisle. Cold, hot, bottled, canned, flavored, caffeinated—there are so many ways to take your tea in Japan. It's a tea lover's paradise, but there's something for everyone.

2. Public Baths

While I didn't make it to a real public bath, there was an open air bath inside the hotel we stayed at. The room was wide: No stalls, no walls, no nothing. There were shower heads encircling the floor. In the center was a melt-your-skin-off bathtub. It was adorable. The bath was amazing. The atmosphere was relaxed and quiet. Public baths smell good, make people feel good, and promote a sense of normalcy associated with nudity (which is required at most places)! If you get the chance to go to a bathhouse, take it. It's very relaxing.

3. Highway Exits

Rest stops are scary, right? Not so in Japan.

Not only are they clean, high tech, and full of shops, they're usually adorable. One rest stop I went to had a Studio Ghibli gift shop. This vending machine, also known as a jidohanbaiki, is adorable. Need soup? Fries? Beer? T-shirts? Underwear? All available in vending machines. Bathroom? Well, you'll find western toilets, eastern toilets, heated seats, scary toilet devices, and more.

Starbucks? Probably nearby. I have a highway exit Starbucks to thank for the masterpiece that is a strawberry cheesecake frappuccino. I've wanted one ever since I left.

4. Nikko National Park

Pictured above is the grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Who the heck is that? Well, he and his descendants unified and ruled Japan from 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in the late 1800s. He was really cool. His grave is inside of the ridiculously beautiful Toshogu Shrine located in Nikko National Park. That's not where the coolness ends, though. The area is stunning and receptive to the seasons in its beauty. There's a huge waterfall, plenty of gift shops, awesome restaurants, and amazing scenery. This is the place to be if you want to see a cool shrine in a beautiful landscape.

For me, the best part of Nikko National Park was running through pouring rain to take a peek at a shop full of wood carvings. I also greatly enjoyed seeing deer and monkeys.

5. Akihabara

Otaku Paradise. Love anime? Manga? Video games? Electronics including cameras, computers, and media players? Maids serving you lunch? Cats? Humans? OK, OK, you get the point.

Akihabara boasts of a slew of shops and restaurants dedicated to all things nerdy. It's adorable, colorful, and usually a bit suggestive depending on where you look. You're sure to find the comic book you've always wanted but could never snag in the United States, and probably at a steep discount. Do you import Japanese art supplies? You'll find them here for a fraction of the cost. This place is a blast.

My best memory of Akihabara? Definitely spending two hours in a four-story building dedicated to manga, art supplies, and collector baubles. Either that or the creepy route up to a maid cafe that ended up being closed.

6. Kamakura

Kamakura is home to the world's second largest outdoor Buddha. Second largest in Japan, too. Don't quote me on that. It has been a while.

Nonetheless, Kamakura is for beach lovers. Want candy? Fish? Tons of adorable stray cats? Shrines and temples hidden the woods? Good eats? Sand? Sea? Tide pools you can gaze right into? Kamkura is the place to be. My best memory from Kamakura has to be drawing in the sand with my friends.

7. Edo Wonderland

My host family took me way out of town in order to show me this gem.

Edo Wonderland is an amusement park, but not like the ones you're thinking of. It's a replica of Edo, the old capital of Japan. The employees are dressed as ninjas, courtesans, and cart drivers. The performances are done in the style of the time: Regardless of the gender of the character, the actors are men. My family entertained my desires to check out the archery booth. Archery? Not my best event, but still super fun. Favorite food from Edo Wonderland was definitely yakitori (chicken skewers).

There are koi fish you can feed, haunted houses, tons of shows, and adorable shops. You'll feel like you're in the past, and you're bound to love every second of it.

8. Asakusa

A station in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Asakusa is home to an awesome shopping experience. While I was in Asakusa, I bought a yukata and obi wrap from two awesome ladies who spent at least an hour putting it on me and debating my color options. There is delicious food and more key chains than you could possibly imagine. Some parts of the massive tourist mall are indoors. Some are outdoors. Need some home comforts? You'll see plenty of familiar food choices, including McDonald's. You can also visit Asakusa Shrine.

9. Shibuya Scramble

This is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Shibuya Crossing is a huge crosswalk just outside the station of the same name. It's a crosswalk. Everyone waits their turn. Everyone. When people cross, they do so all at once. The resulting chaos is oddly beautiful. I'm usually not one for crowds, but this crowd made me realize how big the world is. It's an awesome experience. The surrounding area has plenty of shops and restaurants to enjoy.

The Hachiko statue is also right next to the crossing. Hachiko is a famous Akita dog. He greeted his master every day at Shibuya station after work. When the man died and didn't return, the dog went home, but he returned to the station every day at the correct time for well over nine years. Patrons took care of him. He has a huge legacy.

10. Harajuku

You haven't seen it all until you've been to Harajuku Station in Tokyo. This was by far the coolest place I went to in Japan.

"Harajuku" in this context is a pedestrian only street across from Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi park, both of which make up a huge forested area in an otherwise densely populated city. In contrast, Harajuku is more like the antithesis of nature. It's a wonderland of silk, vinyl, rainbow colors, fashion, style, and of course, kawaii (cute) culture.

This is where I ate the single most perfect food on earth: A crepe filled with cheesecake, strawberries, and whipped cream. It's also where I almost accidentally bought a $100 dollar dress thinking it was $10 dollars. Know your yen, people.

The best part of Harajuku had to be Purikura. Purikura are the pictures you take in a photo booth. Harajuku's photo booths are epic, though. You can edit your face, add stickers, backgrounds, sparkles, text, drawings—you name it. The booths all have different themes, and there are probably over a hundred of them in the basements of Harajuku shops.