Let's Enjoy Traveling in Japan!

When we observed the way the natives travelled, the first thing we noticed was that people never carry anything bigger than an airline carry-on size suitcase. The suitcases are generally hard-sided, and stand upright on omni-directional rollers. People are able to move easily through crowds and wickets because the suitcase is always close by. We've never seen suitcases like this in the States, but we got a couple soft-sided airline style suitcases with extending handles. These fit easily in the overhead luggage racks of most trains. We've travelled for two weeks like this. Including what we wear, we carry six days worth of clothes. This means we've got to do laundry twice. I'll say more about laundry in another post. Since you are carrying everything, you may have to make more use of coin lockers if you are going to do any sight seeing en route. These are very convenient but we have run into a few issues. Coin-lockers will also be an topic for another post.

On our first trip to Japan, people could tell we were Americans just by our luggage. We've noticed that many Americans attempt to travel with huge amounts of luggage. We had brought enough clothes for two weeks! One of our bags was a huge gray suitcase on wheels we called "the elephant". The other bag was a large suitcase to which I had added wheels. It had no tether with which to pull it, so I brought along a piece of dock line from my sailboat. This was gleefully referred to as "the hopeless rope". This arrangement had many drawbacks: We opted for the more expensive first class JR rail pass so we could ride in the "Green Cars" which had more room for luggage. Some trains that we needed to ride didn't have a Green Car. Ordinary trains only have an overhead carry-on rack. It was hard to find a coin locker which would fit our luggage. Since only one pair of wheels was castered, getting out of small elevators was tricky because the suitcases only wan...