WHAT to TAKE/BRING to JAPAN

Background Knowledge:

A bit of reading preparation that you do before you depart will enhance any travel experience, even if it's something like "Dave Barry Does Japan.".

Luggage:

Probably the most important decision you'll make is your piece of luggage. It affects your comfort, mobility, and mood. Even though you see Japanese tourists in the US with hard shell luggage that could hold your grandmother, or float across the Atlantic fully outfitted, the Japanese DON'T travel like this in Japan. There's a reason: that huge luggage doesn't fit on trains, buses, or in cars. They travel domestically with the equivalent of a briefcase and a shopping bag. Most lockers in Japanese train stations are only about a foot square and 2 feet deep.

Try adjusting and carrying your FULLY Packed luggage up and down some stairs BEFORE you leave. If it's a little difficult in your house, imagine 60 steps up and then down on a train station overpass, or trying to handle your over-sized and over-weight baggage and possessions on a crowded, hot and humid subway, commuter train, or street car. The less you have, the less you have to carry, worry about, and for your travel companions, complain about.

Quotes from the JNTO Railway Timetable Pamplet, page 4:

"HINTS FOR PLEASANT RAIL TRAVELING:

Clothes -

• Bring 1 set of clothes that look OK; i.e., they won't embarrass you if you have to meet a lot of people wearing suits and ties.
• Bring clothes that dry quickly. Japanese driers are either solar or none-too-efficient (the new ones at the Nikko Youth Hostel actually had outside vents and did work). If you bring jeans and cotton, consider this: one year's students came up with this formula: 1 load = 30 minutes in the washer + 2 days to dry. The cheap stuff at K-Mart that's 55% cotton and 45% nylon dries pretty well and doesn't wrinkle. 100% synthetic clothes work but can be uncomfortable unless you get TravelSmith, Sportif, ExOfficio, or other big $ items. However, 100% nylon sports pants are fashionable in Japan (along with 12" high platform shoes and hair dyed red or blond).
• Bring a good pair of walking shoes. You will be walking a lot. Don't think a test walk around the shoe store is going to give you any information about shoes. If you get a new pair, wear them constantly for 3 or 4 days to see if they will work. "Roger and Marilyn" (below), thought they walked 12 miles per day in Tokyo alone. We'll be getting into the multiple miles in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara with no trouble. It's a long way between places, and even subway transfers can be a long walk underground. Be aware that sandals are considered to be bare feet, and therefore your feet are as dirty as shoes (which must always be removed). Some hotels don't allow guests who wear sandals. However, as a foreign barbarian, you can get away with a lot.
• Bring a hat of some sort. It gets hot in the summer sun in Japan, and a hat keeps you from getting heat exhaustion (tired, nauseous, no appetite) or at the extreme end of it, heat stroke. Braised brains and sunburn aren't fun. Sunscreen also helps.
• Laundry - Coin laundries can be found around Japan. They are usually between Y400 and Y700 for a wash, and Y100/ten minutes to dry. Some have automatic soap dispensers, but most you have to add your own. Even though many machines give the option of warm or hot wash, most only wash cold on every setting.
  

Toiletries -

• Bring SMALL bottles of stuff. Japan is a modern nation. They have shampoo, shaving cream, contact lens solutions, and toothpaste. You don't need to bring the supersized 1 quart shampoo and 1 quart conditioner bottle with 1 quart of body soap. Buy refills when you need them. In Japan.
• On the other hand, makeup is a lot more expensive in Japan. So bring what you need with you.
• One student thought that Japanese deodorant didn't, and suggested bringing enough to last you through the trip.
• Your electric razor should work in Japan. It's 100V AC, 50 cycle in the east and 60 cycle in the west (US is 120V @ 60 Hz). It may run a bit slow depending on its design.
• A small lightweight fast-drying towel for youth hostels and hot springs is a good idea. (You can buy one at the hostels or onsen if you wish - Y200.)

Prescription items -

• If you have any of these, bring enough for the entire trip. If you wear contacts, bring spares. You don't want to have to go through the procedure and cost of getting them in Japan. You can't just show your prescription and get some; you have to have a Japanese doctor examine you and write his own prescription. He will then order them and with "just-in-time" production, you should have your replacement in 1 to 2 weeks.

Camera -

• I prefer a good camera but they're a pain to carry with extra lenses, etc. A good point and shoot camera works well.
• A digital camera works the best for adding photos to essays and papers as you don't have to scan anything. Just bring enough memory cards for the trip or lower the resolution of the pix in the camera.
• You can bring disposable cameras if you want. You can get them in Japan also.

Other -

• BRING an Umbrella or some rain gear! A country that grows rice needs and has lots of rain (160" per year). Some students prefer to buy the inexpensive Y300 umbrella available at most Japanese convenience stores. They are lightweight, and if you forget it and leave it behind somewhere, another Y300 is not too bad. They also come in clear, orange, purple, and blue translucent colors for the fashion-minded (lower right of the below photo).

• Electronics - If you bring a notebook or electric item that has 3 prongs (2 and the ground in the US), you need a 3-to-2 prong adapter. Japanese sockets only have 2 small slots.

Japanese plug and outlet

Adapter needed for US equipment.

• Radios/TVs in Japan: Be aware that the Japanese use different broadcast frequencies (purposeful trade barrier?) so that your SONY made-for-the-US-market FM radio for instance will NOT work in Japan (it will work but will not pick up any stations), and a TV or radio purchased in Japan will NOT work in the US. Check out the SONY tips link for details.
• Cell Phones in Japan: Forget it. Below was a notice from the 2002 World Cup Japan Page:
  
  

The best phone rental place in Japan is RentaFoneJapan. The price is approximately Y4000 for the first week and Y300 per day afterwards, with discounts for periods longer than 3 weeks. Incoming calls are free. They deliver the phone to your first hotel. Just give them the name of the hotel and the phone will be waiting for you at check-in. When you depart, you just place the phone into its padded bag, put it into an already addressed and stamped envelope, and drop it in any mail box.

• A notebook that will fit easily into your daypack. Large unwieldy-sized notebooks tend to be left in the hotels.
  
  
• It's not as quite as bad as pre-Euro Italy, but you're going to need a coin purse. The smallest bill is Y1000, or roughly a US $10 bill. You'll get used to stuffing these in all sorts of vending machines, but you'll also get change, lots of it. Coin purses are MUCH cheaper in the US than in Japan. In the US, they're a functional item; in Japan they're a fashion statement. Pick one up before you leave, otherwise you'll be using the "baggie" method and at some point, crawling along the shinkansen floor picking up your change.
  
  
  

  Coin purses that will put you right in style in Japan!