No other artform gets your inspiration going quite like cinema, but, in the spirit of thinking beyond just the armchair when it comes to travel, we thought we would ask for the help of an old friend, the founder of Studio Ghibli and the Walt Disney of Japan, Mr Hayao Miyazaki. But which films were inspired by which places? Well, buckle up and join us as we tour Japan from north to south - the Ghibli way!

The BFI's Japan Season, with over 100 years of Japanese cinema' has had us itching for more films and trip to the locations that inspired them! Must be that Japan-shaped hole in our hearts... So whilst we can't yet travel to Japan, we thought we'd properly introduce you to some of the locations featured in some of the season's finest films, while travel is confined to the armchair and silver screen. Read on to find out more!

Japan is very well known for the bright neon lights of its cities but far away from the hubbub of the larger metropolitan areas lies a much quieter, rural Japan. Upwards of 60% of Japan is classified as woodland (and around 73% as mountain) so the truth is those big cities are only far less than 50% of the picture. Sam was born and raised in Somerset, UK, but after moving to the remote region of Shimane as a part of the JET programme, he fell in love (in more ways than one!). Now he lives on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, where he runs tours as Hidden Japan Travel for visitors looking to dig a little deeper.

They went from 0 to 5000 subscribers in just the space of a year and a half - Nick and Ryo (from NikoRyo Channel) are a jet-setting British-Japanese couple currently living in London. They originally met in the most unexpected of places in Japan but, joining Ryo in the UK, Nick moved to London in 2018 where the two of them later got married in the summer of 2019. They now run their own Youtube channel introducing everything about their lives as a British-Japanese couple living in London!