So in about 4 months, I'll hopefully be living in an area a little north of Tokyo for long-term work as a new graduate. The only thing that pops up into my mind in terms of luggage is just proper clothing, full sets of electronic necessities, documents, toiletries, etc.
With that in mind, what are some specific things that you regret NOT bringing to Japan? Like perhaps good walking shoes, or certain personal items, or perhaps any other things not within the categories above?
by staling_lad
32 comments
Deodorant.
If you’re POC, hair care products.
Clothing and shoes if you’re not in normal Japanese size ranges.
But you can get so much either in Japan or through Amazon, iHerb, etc these days that it’s not an issue. You may miss perishable items (food), but you sadly can’t really pack it.
Make sure you have all of your health and personal documents with you.
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Pepto or Imodium. Your favorite snack from home.
We don’t regret giving away and selling almost everything, packing extremely lightly and just rebuying stuff here-it has been a joy to start over.
The only very mild regret I have is leaving my gaming PC behind-I thought I would just build a new one here, but components are not that cheap, and I miss the easy access to parts. On the other hand, I don’t think a full tower power hungry PC would work out well for our new place.
Taking the problem from the other way round, if your plan is indeed for a long term stay, you’ll be in trouble if you must bring over anything each time you need it.
Really nothing. All my clothes were replaced within a year, kitchenware is inexpensive and easy to replace. At least in my case moving from the US to Japan it has been easy to adjust to using whatever Japan has to offer.
Pictures and video of your loved one in your phone. often you’ll need that.
– functioning working western Deodorant
– heating bottles which don’t look like a curling stone
– toothpaste that actually works
– as a woman, pads that are not scented (it’s.. just no)
– Painkillers that are stronger than this baby aspirin they sell here
Aleve, Tums
Also, you won’t find any Matzoh Ball mix.
Have a big cheese plate and some sausages before you come.
Deodorant, medication like DayQuil/NyQuil… that’s about it. I found decent substitutes for pretty much everything else. Lived there for five years and would always haul a ton of deodorant back with me when I visited the US. They have deodorant in Japan, it just… doesn’t work.
My pillow and a bath towel. I was staying in some very basic furnished departments for training and didn’t want to sleep on the cheapo pillows that come with the cheapo futon set. It was so worth it all that extra space it takes up to have a good pillow and then not knowing what my situation would be in terms of having access to a towel or washcloth, etc., so it was nice just to have it and to be able to shower right away.
A cloth to carry with you for use as a napkin.
It’s really hard to find deodorant here.
Others have said it, but medication is the main thing.
I used to bring toothpaste and stuff over but
1. Costco often has Western brands (assuming you’re from a Western country, if not this may not apply of course)
2. you can get a LOT of stuff on amazon.co.jp these days – you might pay a 2-5x premium for things like tooth paste, but I don’t go through THAT much toothpaste so maybe once a year I do a bulk order of toothpaste and call it a day.
The opposite I guess but I don’t regret bringing so much deodorant.
chewing gum if you use it often, I had trouble finding Extra or somewhat simar kinds here.
For me I researched extensively so I don’t have a lot of regrets but I also did some bulk shopping prior. Here’s my list of things I need.
My toothpaste
Deodorant
Medicine, including over the counter
Coffee creamer (had to do powdered so I could put it on the moving container)
Favorite seasonings that are from the Americas. Latin flavors have been the most elusive, which is hard coming from southern California.
Hair product/body creams -(Varies with ethnicity, I’m black so it’s extremely difficult to find things for my texture hair)
A weird overlooked one: if you get tummy troubles, Pepto.
They have this weird holistic Pepto stuff here that smells like ass and it’s little brown balls of something ? It’s holistic, barely works, and makes whatever cabinet you store it in also smell like ass :p there’s other ones but this is the only one that doesn’t something for me.
If you’re a woman: yeast infection cream or that one pill applicator. I ended up in the hospital with a fever of 41 degrees because what is such a simple fix back in Canada (just run to any store that sells toothpaste and you can grab some canesten as well) turned into a huge ordeal in Japan including a 5 day hospitalization and 1 month of being sick. Absolutely insane.
I didn’t treat it seriously because again, in Canada it’s not, but you can’t get over the counter medicine in Japan except for tummy meds that suck, hangover *cures* and Advil/Tylenol (to my surprise). So what started as a minor infection turned into a full blown shut down of things.
TLDR; the more frequent medicine you don’t think about until you need it
Be careful about the recommendations some people are giving you about medications. Some seemingly innocuous medications like OTC cough medicines are prohibited in Japan. I’m not sure what kind of trouble you’d realistically run into trying to bring them, but personally I’m fine with not finding out for myself what happens if you try to smuggle prohibited drugs into the country.
Protein shake, nitric oxide supplements, creatine, workout supplements in general
Vimpto and Steak Pie
I packed pretty light. I travel frequently, and the stuff I brought and tend to restock from the US includes: deodorant, shoes (I think 30cm is about the cutoff for men where shoes become difficult), clothing, toothpaste, and antacids.
I bought a whole bunch of new shirts earlier this year to try to cope with Tokyo’s humidity.
For me, shoes were really hard to find in Japan as a woman because in Japan I’m a 25 (39 or US 8.5) and many stores just carry up to 24.5 which is slightly too small.
Other than that, meds and European chocolate. Japan is great for a lot but chocolate isn’t really one of them.
Everyone says deodorant and toothpaste but I never had an issue. The soft stone deodorant was great!
I wish I packed more wide width shoes. Not only do I have a larger shoe size than many women’s shoes carry (I am a 26/26.5) I also have an extra wide foot. My shoes from home are wearing down pretty quickly from walking a lot, so I am dreading having to buy new shoes. I have brought a pair of under armor sneakers that I’ve been using for work on Amazon, but I think I’m out of luck getting some pretty shoes 🥲
Another thing to add that I just found out yesterday and I don’t want to even test bringing it next time I visit home because I don’t know how that’ll end up but: Melatonin. I usually get magnesium to help with my sleep these days through iherb but I ran out so I was looking for something to aid my sleep in the meantime. Apparently it’s illegal to sell otc in Japan and you need a prescription for it. So I was out of luck
My manners.
Sweat rag. Multiple.
Fibers, Japanese food is very light on fibers, tried in vain to get psyllium here (Osaka).
more of my preferred body wash and toiletries!
Tampons!
If you cook, any local sauce/ingredients that you can hardly find in JP