Travel Easily with Luggage in Japan

To travel easily with luggage in Japan, you need to have a solid plan for what to pack and how to move your bags from city to city.

Travel Easily with Luggage in Japan

If there’s one thing that traveling around Japan for six months out of every year has taught me, it’s the importance of making my travel as easy as possible. Today, I want to walk you through how to simplify your packing, the real-world downsides of bringing too much, and the best ways to get your suitcases from city to city.

Packing to Make Travel Easy

The first step is to focus on what to pack in your suitcase. Just about everyone who returns from a trip to Japan will tell you they did a ton of walking. So, you’ll want to make sure your wardrobe is smart, casual, and above all, comfortable. I would avoid packing outfits. Instead, I recommend having clothes with colors that can be easily mixed and matched.

One of our tours from this past spring wearing casual clothes.

Also, I would expect to rewear outer layers like shirts, shorts, and pants a few times before washing them. This allows you to bring fewer items and save space for all the goodies you’ll be bringing home. Most importantly, you’ll want to pack a lot of socks and underwear, as you’ll go through these the fastest.

Most people on our tours ask if they need to bring dress shoes. The quick and easy answer is no. Traditional Japanese-style restaurants will have you remove your shoes before entering, so a nice pair of socks is more important than dress shoes.

 

When it comes to footwear, we always recommend bringing two pairs of shoes, max. One pair of high-quality walking shoes and perhaps a second pair that is waterproof and slightly dressier. I usually bring a pair of Adidas Handball Spezials as my second pair.

Adidas Handball-Spezial Shoes

Many people get preoccupied with the thought of having to take their shoes on and off. The more important factor is that you’re going to be doing 10 to 20 thousand steps per day, and maybe you’ll take your shoes off once or twice throughout that day. That’s why we always tell our tour participants to prioritize comfort when deciding on shoes, rather than ease of taking them on and off.

 

The Cost of Overpacking

I believe that packing less and traveling easy is the secret to a stress-free trip with luggage in Japan. While some travelers haul two large suitcases per person from city to city, you’ll find that keeping things compact gives you a lot more freedom.

One of the biggest perks of traveling light is the increased space in your hotel room. Japanese hotel rooms are often designed for efficiency, so having a smaller suitcase means you’ll actually have more space to move around.

Our Tour Group Traveling Easily in Japan

It’ll also make navigating the train stations and riding on the trains easier. Instead of worrying about taking up a disproportionate amount of space, traveling with just a carry-on or one manageable medium-sized suitcase lets you move around easily and settle in quickly.

A Tale of Two Travelers

This past spring, Becki and I were traveling from Nagoya to Kyoto with a tour group after a fantastic few days exploring Inuyama Castle and Takayama. Everyone in our group was traveling light, and the energy was high with excitement.

When we arrived at our boarding area on the Shinkansen platform, it wasn’t clear where the line started, so Becki asked a fellow traveler if he was in queue. He snapped at her, clearly displaying feelings from a long and stressful day.

Guy on Platform with Too Much Luggage – Generated by Gemini AI

It turned out he and his partner were managing 5 large suitcases. Watching them struggle and hold up the boarding process really made me appreciate how lucky our group was. While the couple dealt with the stress of 5 oversized bags, our group was relaxed and ready for the next adventure.

How to Travel Easily with Luggage in Japan

If you want to travel easily with luggage in Japan, you need to keep your number of bags to a minimum. My recommendation is to bring only one suitcase and one backpack. This makes it much easier to navigate crowded train stations and get on and off trains quickly.

Your suitcase shouldn’t be any larger than 25 inches, and it should definitely have 4 wheels. The 21-inch and 25-inch suitcases fit easily in the overhead racks on the Shinkansen and only take up the space directly above your seat. This allows other passengers to fit their luggage on the train as well.

My Medium 25-Inch Suitcase Easily Fits on Shinkansen

Another very important piece of advice to follow is that you should be able to lift your suitcase over your head. If you can’t lift it to put it in the overhead bin on the Shinkansen, then you’ve packed too much.

Luggage Delivery Service

If you find that you absolutely need a larger bag, you should consider using a Takkyubin Japanese luggage delivery service. You can send your larger suitcases on to your next hotel for a very reasonable fee.

To use the Takkyubin service, talk to the staff at the front desk and tell them you’d like to send your suitcases to your next hotel. Give yourself a lot of time on departure day, because this is not a quick process.

• First, the hotel you’re checking out of will call the hotel they’re sending the luggage to and confirm your reservation.
• Then a hotel staff member will measure all your suitcases.
• After that you’ll have to fill out some paperwork and pay for the delivery. The staff usually helps with this, but it takes a few minutes to do.
• Finally, they’ll hand you your receipt (it’s usually a pink carbon copy). This is an important piece of paper! You’ll need it to claim your luggage after it’s been delivered, and it has your tracking number!

Takkyubin Luggage Delivery Form

Keep in mind that this is usually an overnight service, so you’ll go one evening without your larger suitcase. All you need to do is pack your backpack with some overnight essentials and a change of clothes to get you through the next 24 hours. Sending your luggage really makes the Shinkansen experience so much better.

The Take Away

You’ll find that your trip is so much more enjoyable when you aren’t weighed down by a bunch of heavy bags. For stress-free travel with luggage in Japan, I highly recommend packing only the essentials and taking advantage of luggage delivery services. By choosing to travel lighter, you’ll replace frustration with relaxation, which is the key to having the Japan trip of a lifetime.