tickets make it official

日本に行くよ!

Having bought the plane tickets yesterday, I can now say with confidence that kniedzw and I are going to Japan!

I've been once before, briefly (over spring break my senior year of college); he's never been. We'll be heading down to Kyushu, where kurayami_hime is currently living, then enjoying about a week and a half of sightseeing in Kyushu and western Honshu. Our exact plans haven't yet been nailed down, but are shaping up to include Nagasaki, Kyoto, and points in between.

If you're familiar with that area, feel free to recommend things in the comments: sights to see, hotels or ryokan to stay in, etc. We'll be there during Golden Week, so this will need to be the kind of trip that's planned in advance, with reservations secured ahead of time.

(True story: when I was in Japan before, I arrived right when cherry blossoms were blooming in the Kansai region. kurayami_hime and I had vaguely planned to stay in Kyoto for three nights, starting on a Wednesday, but when we got to the city and went to make a reservation at a ryokan, there was a sign above the desk warning us "NO VACANCIES IN KYOTO FRIDAY OR SATURDAY NIGHTS." The entire city was sold out. So we stayed two nights instead of three, and that's how I ended up going to Takayama, which had not been on my original itinerary.)

Now I'd better get to work dusting off my language skills. It's been a long time since I really tried to speak Japanese . . . .