Some Female Wisdom

Spring break is almost over... nooooo!  Time to reflect and complete these half-done blogs before I'm busy with work again.



One of the places which we visited during the New Year's holiday

Back in New Year's holiday, I was on vacation with my gf.  Looking back, I realized that I learned a few things on how to travel.  Now, I've been known to do lots of travelling: been to many places, seen/done/eaten many things, and landed in many situations, from amusing to downright difficult.  Above all, I've built a reputation as a frequent traveler.  So I was a bit surprised by the new and useful tips from her.

 

Well, I guess we always have room for improvement.  The teacher became the student.  Wax on... wax off...

 

For our 5-day trip, I brought my 5.11 Tactical Rush 72 backpack.  It's full of compartments and pockets, and weighs a bit by itself.  It was half filled for the trip.  When my gf arrived to pick me up, she was shocked by how big my bag was.  She even tried it on, but quickly dropped it.  I was just as surprised, by how little she brought.  She was basically using a school backpack plus her usual messenger bag.

  

* In these photos, my 5.11 backpack is empty, while my gf's purple backpack is full.


 

What are her secrets?

 

 

1. Compression bags

 

These bags can be bought at 100-yen stores.  They come in various sizes and in packs of whatever: the smaller the size, the more you get.  Unlike the ones that I remember from As-Seen-on-TV, you don't need a vacuum to suck out the air.

 

Then, I remember having a stash of compression bags, tucked away in my closet... 



One of my bags has a vacuum hole.  That sneaky bastard...

Normally, I just roll up my clothes.  However, I gave the bags a try on a recent trip to the Kanamara Festival in Kawasaki.

The verdict: It was a 2-day trip, so I only brought an extra set of clothes and a bath towel.  The space saving wasn't significant, but it helped.  An added benefit was organization: the compression bag separated my clothes from everything else in my backpack.  I'll remember this handy tip from now on.

 

2. Doing laundry every night

 

One of the things which my gf asked, when we were booking hotels, was whether or not they have washing machines (I didn't give it much thought at the time, but it made sense in hindsight).  Every night, when I was passed out on the bed, she was doing laundry.  For our hotel in Osaka without washing machines, she did laundry in the bathroom sink, with a small pack of detergent she carried.  She was even nice enough to wash mine, every night.

In the winter, hotels usually have heat on pretty high, which makes the rooms dry; our clothes easily dried overnight.  Because of this, most of my clothes were left unused, and became dead weight.

* Tip #2 may not work out too well if we were staying in hostels or travelling outside Japan.


This is me when it comes to laundry during a trip.

 

That's it!  They seem like no-brainers, but after years of travel (mostly alone), I was stuck in certain ways, I've forgotten things, blah blah blah.  Sometimes, a bit of female wisdom is what an old stubborn fool needs.