A lot of lovely people have offered advice or helped me in some way so it seems only right to say thank you to them:

• My mother Ann who has to put up with over a year of listening to me talk about this trip – and taking care of my girls while I’m gone. She has the patience of a saint!
• Kageyama Eri-san
• Solloway Akemi-san
• Jonnie Bryant
• Ian Rudd
• Ian Brown for helpful travel advice
• Simon Wilkie for helping me adapt the default header into something unique
• Craig Turner of Project Studios for designing my meishi!
• The BBC’s Previews and Pictures departments
• Jessica Ainley of Rosetta Stone
• Kara Brovsky of VIZ Media
• The Kyoto Tourism Council for allowing me to use some of their images to illustrate my posts
• The Japanese National Tourism Organisation for allowing me to use some of their images to illustrate my posts
• Sarah Roff of the JNTO’s London office
• Murata Yuka-san of the Hotel Granvia Kyoto
• Enomoto Misa-san, Kinugawa Yoshimi-san and Aoyama Taeka-san of the Karasuma Kyoto Hotel
• Sato Takuya-san of the Ryokan Yachiyo, Kyoto