So here I am, just less than 3 days away from the moment I
take off for Tokyo. I have been a mess of planning this past few weeks,
suddenly realising the amount of time I had left between work and other
commitments to finish my planning. Going through and updating my previous
information was a long process, but I am proud to say that a couple of days ago
I was able to print and bind my new personal guidebook, with personalised maps
and lists of all of my preferred sights, shops, restarants and other experiences
in each suburb I will be visiting. I know that in this day and age a smartphone
renders a lot of maps and lists moot, but I’ve found it works better when
looking for specific destinations. I still find a printed book or list useful
so that I when I think, “Hmm. I’m in Shibuya. I’m hungry. Where should I go?” I
can use a quick glance at my map to find the nearest restaurant that I
personally wanted to visit. The same can be done with experiences on unplanned
afternoons, and thankfully, for atms or police boxes in emergencies. I also
love the experience of taking a book like this with me, as I write notes or
corrections on it as I experience the places on the list, which not only has me
going away much more informed, but with a book full of memories I can look back
on whenever I choose.
Having said that, I would say the biggest difference between
this trip and my trip in 2010 BY FAR is the fact that I now own a smartphone.
After some looking around my smartphone now possesseses:
- A packing list
- GPS map guidance
- A train travel app to plot the course, duration and cost of any trip I want to make in Tokyo
- An app that calls Japanese emergency numbers at the touch of a button without the need to remember a list of foreign numbers
- Chat apps to speak to my friends at home including Skype
- Japanese language learning software
- Japanese guidebook apps
- Books for the plane
- A blogging app to geotag my photos and upload my posts here live
- A browser to find any new trip information I might need, at any time.
All of this assistance is available to me at the cost of a
$40, 1 gb Japanese data sim that I bought online and had sent ahead to my hotel
for the day of my arrival. I won’t be able to make traditional calls, but I’ll
have Skype which costs less, and I have free wifi at the hotel. Gone are the
days where I feared getting lost on the train or in the backstreets of
Harajuku, my phone has my back. My only extra tip is this: If you plan to have
all of these apps and use them, make sure you either have an incredibly good
phone battery or one of the mobile recharging devices, because you’ll need it.
Once I had this sorted I finally had to get to the nitty
gritty: finalizing the packing list. Now as I have previously mentioned, I have
a catch-all, fairly light packing list that I use for all trips by simply
crossing out the things not applicable for the season/type of trip, and
changing the exact item packed for each use. The trouble is while I know I’m
bringing two shirts, I now had to decide WHICH two shirts. Clothing was a
decision I had been mulling over since I booked the trip so I already had some
ideas. When choosing I had to consider:
- Weather
- Fit
- Comfort
- Quick-dry fabrics
- Cultural appropriateness
- Suitability with other clothes taken
- Suitability to clothes I likely to buy there (Let’s face it, I’ll buy.)
- Adaptability/Re-wear potential (How many outfits could I make with this one item?)
- Packability/Weight
- Stylishness (I come to Tokyo partly for the fashion, so no shorts and knee-socks for me)
It took me a while, but I finally managed to come up with
two t-shirts that between them could suit almost any casual occasion or street
style outfit I planned to wear, two pairs of black pants (one comfortably
stretchy and classy looking, one black pair of jeans), a black scarf/pashmina
to suit a variety of purposes, a jacket, a cardigan, and a nightdress for
sleeping in which with the right accessories also made a frighteningly good little
black dress for evening occasions! I am confident that if I bought nothing on
this trip and did laundry a few times, I could use these items (plus some
accessories and some coloured tights), and barely wear the same outfit twice in
the trip. One of the shirts has multiple colours on it, which allows me to
create different outfits by wearing accessories that highlight the different
colours. I can also change the look of it by wearing it with a jacket, with the
scarf tied differently over it, or by wearing the shirt over the dress to make
a skirt outfit. Seeing as those are just the looks I can do with one shirt, I’m
pretty confident with my selections. My only concern is that once I start
buying clothes I’ll feel I brought too much! To be on the safe side though, I’ve
brought what I feel I’ll need, plus backups (eg. the pants) in case something
happens to the first pair. Foreigners beware, you may not be able to find
certain items of clothing to fit you in Japan! I know for a fact that it’s
quite hard to find pants to fit my generous butt, or bras to fit my bust over
there, so I’m bringing two of both.
So now I have come to the big, exciting, scary part of the
trip. I know where I want to go, what I want to do, and I’ve booked it all and
written it all down. I have cleaned out and backed up files on my laptop and
made sure I saved and installed all of my lists, documents, bookmarks, and
games on it for mid-trip reference or entertainment. Last week I did a big
house clean, so that my room will be clean when I return (I’m sure I can trust
my roommate to make a mess of the rest of the house while I am gone).
I then
had room on my nice, clean bedroom floor to set out all of the items on my
packing list next to my suitcase, and check that each item had a valid use (or
multiple uses) and couldn’t be disposed of in favour of something else I was
bringing or something lighter. Again, for shoppers like me, the golden rule is
the less you take there, the more you can bring back. The list has given me an
item to deal with nearly every possible need without having to buy anything,
which is a very good position to be in to start your trip, and it all weighs
less than 8kg including some items (toiletries, snacks) that I will use up or
leave there. A further kg or so is represented by items (old ballet flats, old
tights, disposable cheap items) that I would be happy to throw away at the end
of the trip, as I brought them specifically as they are on their last legs and
therefore do not need to return with me. If I were trying harder I could make
my bag a bit lighter than this, but as a fashionista and a traveller that likes
to allow herself some luxuries, I like leaving myself a little room to bring a
few extra accessories or that really useful gadget that makes my morning go
smoother. Luckily, thanks to new policies with my airline, I have 30kg baggage
allowance on this economy class flight, so I’m allowing room for over 20kg of
souvenirs should I need it! My wallet is hoping I won’t need it, but it’s still
good to have.
So here I am, basically organised, with just a few last
minute things to pick up and do. Hopefully this will lead to less stressful
updates in the next few days, but no promises! Thank you for reading, see you
soon.
xxx
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