President Obama today departed for his eighth foreign trip since taking office. He's making a brief stop in Alaska to speak with troops and arrives in Tokyo at 2 a.m. eastern time.

Obama will have a full day there before going to Singapore Saturday for the annual Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum known as APEC.

Sunday after APEC he'll head to Shanghai, China. After a full day of events there he will travel to Beijing. Obama will hold a press conference in Beijing and stay through Wednesday. Then he travels to Seoul, South Korea. He departs late Thursday to return to Washington.

According to unofficial White House statistician Mark Knoller, Obama has been to more countries in his first year than any predecessor. This latest brings his total to 8 foreign trips and 20 countries.

The administration's Ben Rhodes told reporters recently the theme of the trip is "that America is a Pacific nation, it understands the importance of Asia in the 21st century, and it's going to be very engaged in a very comprehensive way to make progress on a whole series of issues that are critical for our prosperity and our security."

"This is the fastest growing economic region in the world. It supports an extraordinary amount of U.S. trade and jobs. It's also home to very critical political relationships to the United States in our efforts to combat a series of global challenges," said Rhodes, recently promoted from national security and foreign policy speechwriter to be the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications.

"So the President looks forward to this attempt to really renew America's alliances in the region, to continue to forge new partnerships, and to make progress on a whole series of issues ranging from our economic recovery agenda; our efforts in Afghanistan, which are supported by several of our Asian partners; our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, including our continued efforts in relation to North Korea and Iran; and also our effort to make progress on clean energy and combating climate change," he said.

The White House is trying "something new" - posting videos to help Americans stay in touch with top administration officials during the trip.

Rhodes offers the first video update: