[Japan: Kyushu self-drive road trip] - Pre-trip preparation

This is the first time I'm planning a road trip round an entire island so let me try to walk you through the steps I took!

Step 1: Read up on Kyushu
I try to go for websites that are more authentic - http://www.japan-guide.com, www.japan-talk.com, www.welcomekyushu.com. These are all Japanese websites, so I would suppose their recommendations would be a bit more local compared to others. TripAdvisor does give good tips as well! I also searched for other blogs that have done road trips round the area since it's good to learn from the experiences of others (that's what globalisation and the internet is for, isn't it?)

Step 2: Select locations you wish to visit
After reading up, I managed to pick a couple of places along a certain theme. Kyushu is full of mountains and onsens, so I went with the more scenic route as compared to city-life. I searched for places that were off the beaten path, or things that were more localised and less touristy in that sense.

Step 3: Pin these locations on a map
Google map works well for me. I created a "Kyushu self-drive" list and added all the locations to it. It also makes for easy reference because when I was in Kyushu, I basically referred to that all the time and used it to log the places I went to as well.

Step 4: Connect the dots
It may sound like child's play, but determining the route was rather tough because I tried to create a U-shaped route and planned the region of accommodation each night so that I would break up the long drives.

Step 5: Find accommodations
With the route in mind, I searched for the accommodations based on the regions I would like to stay at. You can refer to my post on "General guidelines for trip planning" on which websites I use for accommodation booking. For Japan, my recommendation is to go with some airbnbs. It's becoming a thing there.

Step 6: Consolidate everything into one note
I'm a mac fanatic, so I use the "Notes" app since it syncs with my macbook pro, iPad and iPhone. You can also add in the pdf files and pins on the map into notes, so it's an all in one consolidated guide for you to refer to when you're there. It eases a lot of stress because you won't get frazzled trying to find things from all the different places you booked the accommodations from.

That's about it! Pre-trip preparations are important to maximise the enjoyment when you're there (: It's a little tedious but being neat and organised goes a long way so I highly encourage it!