Countdown to Japan

At the end of my month my husband are flying to Japan for two weeks!

This will be the first time for both of us to visit Japan, and while I'm very excited, I know my husband is even more excited because this has been a dream of his for a long time.

We will be flying Turkish airlines because they had decently priced tickets Toulouse-Istanbul-Tokyo and also let you travel with 30kg of luggage.

After arriving in Tokyo we will use Japan Rail passes to travel down to Beppu on the island of Kyushu (just off the tip of the main island Honshu). After one night in a traditional ryokan, we'll take the train to Hiroshoma for 2 days, then 2 days in Kyoto (but sleeping in Osaka due to the exorbitant hotel prices in Kyoto), and the second week of the trip in Tokyo.

To prepare for our trip we talked with a number of our friends who have already been to Japan, but we also read a lot of tips on the following websites:

Kanpai
Un Gaijin au Japon 

We booked out own accommodations on the following sites:
Japanese Guest Houses
Hotels.com
Rakuten Travel (this website lets you check out which hotels/B&Bs have the cutest cats)

We should be in Japan right during the cherry blossom season, so we're looking forward to some beautiful scenery (but probably a lot of crowds too).

We've been fans of Japanese culture for a while, and since we watch a lot of Nolife, we've seen quite a few episodes of Japan in Motion. A similar show has recently joined the Nolife line-up: Esprit Japon. Both of these shows visit lesser known locations and often showcase traditional arts or artisans.

We had a period when we watched NHK quite a bit (it's the Japanese equivalent of BBC or CNN), and one of their slightly ridiculous shows is Cool Japan. Your Japanese Kitchen was also fun because the Japanese-American co-host who tried to follow the chef's instructions was a terrible cook and he chopped vegetables always looks terrible next to the professional chef's. There was another short show that showcased nature and always seemed to use high speed cameras way too often, but I don't remember which one it was (list of all shows in English).

Since it's Friday I'll leave you with a link for franponais.