I'm looking forward immensely to seeing my Japanese friends and to meeting new ones. If you're attending Web Directions East this year, please don't be shy, please come and say hello.

When the conference is over, I have planned to spend a few days travelling down to Hiroshima to experience a little of Japan outside of Tokyo. As a life-long anti-nuclear campaigner and an advocate of unilateral nuclear disarmament, Hiroshima is a name and a place that has has a particular fascination for me. To visit the city will no doubt be an experience that I'll never forget.

Things may be a little quiet around these parts and on Twitter for the next couple of weeks. I'm very excited (and not a little nervous) about taking the long flight (KLM via Amsterdam) to the East, but hey, if Judas Priest and Deep Purple (to name a few) had a rocking time in Japan, I'm sure I will too.