Remember how long before my Europe trip I started preparation? The Europe photo trip countdown started at 58 days prior to departure… This one for Japan starts at, hmmm, 6ish days.
So where are we going? Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Osaka, Takayama, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka City, Koyasan, Nagoya… There will be plenty of photos to come of course 
On the photography front I know I’m sorted thanks to the Europe trip last year.
I’ve got the Lowepro Fastpack 350 camera bag:
Handheld GPS for geotagging (and helping out if I get lost):
Will be carrying the heaver 7D this time, but it’s not too vastly different to the 40D in that respect.
Same selection of lenses – 10-22 for the wide, 17-55 f2.8 IS for most stuff, 70-200 tele, but with a heavier tripod:
and the Netbook in the form of the Asus EeePC for photo backups and blog posting if I get a chance.
Yeah, no excuses for new toys this time.