Preparing the equipment

Adeya's bag

What am I going to bring to Japan?

This question has been in my head for the last few days. Even though my article (in Italian) about what to put in your bag for the Camino has been one of the most successful on my blog, I still haven’t fully decided on what exactly to bring with me this time.

Ideally, I would like to make everything fit in a 25 L bag. That’s rather extreme, considering I’ll be away for two months, but not impossible.

The bare minimum

the bear minimum
The bear minimum: sorry for the horrible word play and drawing.

The second question was: what is the absolutely bare minimum equipment that I will need to carry for 1200 Km? Every gram counts and I already know that.

I can put in this must-must-have list:

  • Walking shoes (to be defined)
  • Three white t-shirts
  • Three pairs of underwear
  • Three pairs of socks
  • Rain jacket
  • One long-sleeved shirt
  • Two pairs of shorts
  • Bag for water (2 L)
  • Marseilles soap for body and clothes
  • Towel
  • Toothbrush and toothpaste

It might not look as “much stuff” but believe me, it is.

Things to bring with you out of common sense

Here I will list a few things that I want to bring with me that are not strictly necessary for survival, but will be needed for a successful journey:

  • Mobile phone with its charger
  • A journal
  • One pen
  • A camera
  • A torch (or flashlight if you’re American)
  • A lighter, even if you don’t smoke it can be useful
  • First-aid kit
  • Sleeping bag
  • A space blanket (a.k.a. thermal blanket)
  • Some nuts and dried fruits for the march
  • A pair of slippers

The camera will be the heaviest element in this list, but it would be crazy to embark on such an adventure only with my phone. The pictures I took on the Camino are priceless to me. I hope that the ones I’ll take in Japan will be even better than those.

Things that I will likely bring because of YOU!

Finally, there are a few things that I will need to write about my journey here, on Rovering Life. I’ve been thinking for days whether or not I need a heavy SLR camera or if a normal one will be enough.

On the other hand, I cannot write blog articles with my phone alone. I would go crazy with the touch keyboard. A tablet + a Bluetooth keyboard would do the trick, but I wouldn’t be able to get the pictures from my camera. And still, any tablet would add at least 500 grams to my bag.

The light-weight option would be to get only the keyboard and write articles from my phone. Not ideal, but better than nothing. The all-in option would be to bring even my MacBook to have maximum writing comfort and the possibility of editing the pictures from my camera.

We are talking about a few “free” kilograms here, just because of you readers.

Will you be worth it?