We are going to Japan!

After perusing the net for cheap airefares, we finally found one where there were actual seats still available at that low, low price! When we realized that yes, indeed, we can proceed to the next step in booking the tickets, we had to discuss whether we really want to do this or not. Needless to say, it did take us all of 5 minutes to decide to go ahead and book!

And where did we find these cheap tickets? AirTicketsDirect.com It seems that they deal with consolidators for some flights. In any case, we're just glad we got these tix!

Now that we've got the tickets, we put our itinerary together. As we will be going in October, the weather should not be too hot nor too cold. It's still the tail-end of typhoon season, so there is still that chance of foul weather.

We scoured the guidebooks we had on Japan and game up with the following itinerary:

Tokyo - Hakone - Kyoto - Hiroshima - Miyajima - Tokyo

Essentially, we will arrive in Tokyo, spend the first night there, then head straight to Hakone. We will finish up the trip in Tokyo so that we won't have to worry about racing back to Tokyo from our last stop in order to catch our flight.

Hotels were a bit of a challenge. After spending an entire weekend deciding on our itinerary, we spent about as much time researching hotels. We knew that Japan was not going to be cheap. We figure that if averaged about 15,000 yen/night for the two of us, then we would be OK. In the end, we managed to find rooms that cost less than that. This brought average cost per night down to 9525 yen! That's not bad considering that we are going to "splurge" for a hotel close to Tokyo Station the first night. But the bargain rates we got for Kyoto and the main Tokyo stay more than made up for that!

Anyway, we're both quite excited about the trip. I bought a travel pack from MEC this past weekend. It's about 58 liters and comes with a removable daypack. It's not a terribly large daypack, but I think it will have it's uses. We still need to find some travel towels as the Tour Club does not provide towels (they will rent them to you). I think Black's has them. We might swing by there this weekend to have a look.

Also on our shopping list is shoes. We figure that if we will be entering a lot of places where we would be required to remove our shoes, then something that's easy to slip on/off as well as be able to handle a lot of walking will be the thing to wear! We might poke around a couple of stores this weekend as well to see what's available and affordable.

Clothes. I need lightweight (not summer-weight) pants. I don't want to buy them now as I am hoping to lose a little weight and get into reasonable shape before the trip. If we're going to be doing a lot of walking, I want to be able to handle all of that without losing my breath! I might consider getting a skirt if the occasion arises and we go somewhere "nice". I saw one at MEC that might fit the bill.

The trip there will be long. We will be flying out of Chicago on JAL. From Montreal to Chicago, it will be Air Canada (code-share United flight, phew!). It will be early in the morning (6AM out of YUL). And it will be 13 hours from ORD to NRT. I hope we will have enough to keep ourselves occupied if we can't sleep during the flight!

Seating. I called JAL to reserve our seats. Unfortunately, bulkhead and emergency aisle seats are airport controlled (prob as a result of 9/11). The JAL rep on the phone put us in row 47, but also made note that we requested bulkhead/emergency aisle seating. We'll find out when we get to the airport, I guess, if we can get those seats. I wonder if we can get upgraded if we pose as blissful newlyweds! ;-) We'll see!

Less than a month and a half to go!! Woo hoo!!!