^ My itinerary in Mexico
was pretty ordinary, though. I mean, all I did was to go through a couple of online lists of "Top Places to Go in Mexico City" and picked out those that seemed to be the most significant or pertinent to my interests. I do like to throw some oddball sites and museums into the mix when I know about them, though. Places like the !!! CUPNOODLES MUSEUM in Yokohama, the Meguro Parasitological Museum in Tokyo, and the Zentrum für außergewöhnliche Museen (Center for Extraordinary Museums) in Munich, for instance. But for Mexico, I think the only really unusual place I went was the ℃-ute concert.
The trick to going where you want to go is: TRAVEL SOLO. Being the master of your own itinerary makes all the difference. That doesn't mean that you can't meet up with friends along the way and do some stuff with them, too. Do things together when interests converge, do your own thing when they don't. I wouldn't want to force anyone to go J-pop shopping in Tokyo who isn't similarly willing to spend HOURS flipping through CDs, but it was fun doing it with icey and Bryan, who bought even more crap than I did.
My best vacations have generally been ones where I've spent some time with friends AND had the freedom to go where I wanted.