Good story of lessons learned. Glad you turned out ok.

I love the outdoors and anytime I can spend some quality time in it, I do so. Being prepared is very important. For instance, even if it is not supposed to rain, water-proof your stuff. The weather-person is going to be wrong (go figure) or you might end up getting wet, even if you don't intend to.

I was stationed in Okinawa twice. Although one could argue that culturally it is not really Japanese. Where were you when in Japan?