Yesterday a most excellent package arrived from Tokyo. A beautifully put-together city guide from Ebony Bisyz of Hello Sandwich—and she happens to be from the neighbourhood where we'll be staying, so the pages are packed with places to eat, enjoy, bike, shop and hang out exactly where we'll be. And she's plotted them all on google maps too (my hero!). Highly recommended for tips by a super cool Aussie with an eye for design. You can get it for $25, fresh off the press. In the last few weeks I've also dug up my dandy Monocle guide to Japan in all its slick glory, and dusted off some of my dad's stunning vintage books: Imperial Villas of Kyoto by Tadashi Ishikawa (1970) and Ikebana by Senei Ikenobo (1966). Plus for my last birthday a friend with a premonition gave me a Tokyo mini-guide from Toronto antique goldmine Monkey's Paw. Ahhhh, my favourite kind of reading.

Now I just need to get my hands on a killer English Road Atlas on the cheap, and we're off....