Japan Packing List

Check your charger's label for '100–240V' before assuming it'll work — most modern phone and laptop chargers handle it fine, but some hair tools and appliances don't.

You'll rely on your phone constantly for navigation and translation — convenience stores sell cheap chargers in a pinch, but a power bank means you're never hunting for an outlet.

You'll remove your shoes constantly — temples, ryokan, some restaurants, even certain shops — and you'll walk 15,000+ steps a day without really trying.

Convenience stores sell clear plastic ones everywhere, but a proper compact umbrella saves you buying a new one every time it rains — and it rains often in June–July (tsuyu, the rainy season).

Japan is still a cash-heavy country, and coins go up to ¥500 — you'll accumulate a surprising amount of change fast without somewhere to put it.

Vending machines are genuinely everywhere, so this isn't essential — but it cuts cost and plastic waste on a long trip, and most hotels have water refill stations.

Most public restrooms don't provide paper towels or hand dryers — locals carry their own, and you'll want one too.

Public trash cans are rare in Japan — a hangover from a 1995 security response that never fully reversed — so you'll often carry wrappers and empty bottles for a while.

Hotel rooms and ryokan storage space run smaller than you're used to — cubes make it much faster to live out of a partly-unpacked bag for a multi-city trip.

If your itinerary includes a long-haul flight plus multiple Shinkansen rides between cities, this earns its space; for short domestic hops, skip it.

Useful alongside (not instead of) an umbrella for days with your hands full — hiking the Fushimi Inari trail or the Arashiyama bamboo grove in the rain, for example.