Japan Pack-Off!

Hello again! Now for this entry, I will talk about what I bought and packed for our Japan trip.

It is always a good idea to create a packing list, so you know what to prepare and won’t forget anything. A neat trick I learned if you don’t want to cram-pack on the last day before the trip is to have your suitcase ready and just dump 1-2 items in it each day.

# 1 thing to check at least 2-3 weeks before your trip is the country’s weather. I use AccuWeather whenever I check what the weather will be on our travel dates. This is important since you need to know what items to pack. You wouldn’t want to have the wrong wardrobe for a different season especially for countries that experience the 4 seasons. Since hubby, R wants to travel during winter season it’s automatic that our clothes are for the cold weather. To get wardrobe inspiration or ideas, I suggest using Pinterest since it will show you various internet results of your search keywords.

Here’s our packing list:

1. Basics
   • Travel aids – anything that you might need for the long wait or long trip (reading materials, gadgets, snacks, gum, etc).
   • Funds – the type of financial funding you will need for your trip (cash, credit/debit cards, manager’s check, etc).
   • Travel info – all necessary documents you need for your travel (passport, visa, plane tickets, other valid ids, itinerary, hotel reservations, etc)
2. Miscellaneous
   • Documents – copies of travel docs, etc
   • Bags – back pack, hand bag, etc
   • Laundry needs – laundry bag, sewing kit, etc
   • Miscellaneous – umbrella, keys, etc
   • Contacts – impt contact numbers, etc
   • Technology – mobile phone, power banks, laptop, etc
   • Work – work documents, anything related to your work, etc
3. Clothes
   • Basics – undergarment, sleepwear, etc
   • Dressy – pants, sweaters, skirts, etc
   • Outerwear – jackets, coats, etc
   • Casual – shirts, jeans, shorts, ect
   • Footwear – athletic shoes, leisure shoes, etc
   • Accessories – belts, watches, jewelry, etc
4. Hygiene
   • Facial
   • Hair
   • Body
   • Medicine/First-aid Kit
   • 

I used to travel with just hand carry baggage since I didn’t like waiting for my luggage at the baggage claim area. It was a good way to get ahead of the taxi queue. Since we travel most of the time to cold places, additional luggage space is needed for your bulky warm clothing. Given that it’s bulky it gets burdensome to carry them too, thus I started to buy prepaid baggage space. Usually suitcases are just thrown in the baggage area of the plane (even with the Fragile sticker on it!), I suggest to get suitcases that are not made of plastic so it won’t break due to the impact of being thrown around.

That’s it for now. Happy packing! 🙂