I got annoyed recently when I wanted to leave the house and noticed my bag was half full just with stuff to deal with weather. In Tokyo, I usually carry an umbrella with me, maybe sunscreen, sunglasses, a mini towel etc. Others have fans, “neck fans” (not sure how they are called). Maybe a water bottle also counts.
All of this is “weather stuff” for me. I asked a friend what she carries around, and we started to think about some other categories as well. So I wondered how much of the stuff we carry around is actually about the thing we want to do wherever we go, and how much is just to cope with the environment? Also, I would be curious how this looks like in other places around the world. Things probably vary by gender, age, season as well.
Some categories are:
- weather stuff
- personal hygiene stuff
- safety stuff
- not being annoyed by others stuff
- infrastructure fail stuff (e.g., preparing for when trains get delayed)
Keys, right pocket. Wallet and phone, left pocket.
Done.
Correct
I’m in the mountains, so just a waterproof down jacket. A 15C day can drop to 2C in a couple hours after sunset, or if bad weather rolls in.
When I live in cities, I hang headphones around my neck, otherwise just the usual keys and phone.
Rain doesn’t bother me and I don’t find it hard to be resourceful when needed. I hate carrying stuff around with me so just don’t.
Keys (house, car, bike), phone, wallet,… swiss army knife, handkerchief.
And during the pandemic a fabric face mask.It all fits in my pockets
Then dependent on the weather I will bring sunglasses or an umbrella.
I check Buienradar (Dutch rain forecast app) to see whether I’m going to need that.And sometimes, depending on what I will be doing, earbuds
Swede living in a suburb to Stockholm, 36 year old man, living alone.
Weather stuff:
I put an unbrella in my backpack during autumn, I wear a hat during winter.
I have sunglasses in my car and my new pair in my backpack, I wear regular glasses all the time.
If it is really hot I carry an insulated water bottle, on special occations I have carried a thermos flask with hot mulled wine (glögg) when it is around christmas, very cold and I won’t be driving.
Personal hygene:
Nothing really, well I have some paper towels in my car for emergency nature calls in the woods…
Safety stuff, nothing really, if I am going for a long trip, I will get some supplies, gloves, band aids, dressings, disinfectant, stuff like that.
Oh, as a bit of a planespotter, I allways have ear defenders in my car, as well as a big pack of extra ear plugs for any friend going with me who forgot their own hearing protection.
Annoyance filter, during autumn, winter and spring I allways carry my Bose QC35 II, suring summer I switch to some IEMs, currently using my Jabra Elite 3. I allways have my iPhone with me as well.
Infra fail stuff:
I carry my work phone to advice my work about delays, else my phone has all apps I need, finally I have biked from the suburbs to the center of Stockholm and back again, so I know my way around, should all public transport fail and I can’t get a taxi, I would just start walking.
It would probably take 3-4h to get home, but I’d get there
Very far north in Scandinavia:
Keys left pocket. Phone right pocket. Earbuds right pocket. Wallet (debit card and ID really) right leg pocket.
I check the forecast in the summer, if rain during the day then put on jacket. Peak temp 20°C or above use shorts.
In the winter I check temperature. +5 to -15 thin gloves -15 to -30 thick gloves. -30 to -40 carefully consider if I have to go out. -40 or less: take a picture of the thermometer and send it to people in the south to make them feel better about their life choices.
Since I’m in the US where public transportation is next to nonexistent outside of maybe 5 cities, I (and the overwhelming majority of Americans) are cheating since we can EDC a hell of a lot of things in our cars. My pockets have 3-4 items max, but I consider my vehicle my home away from home, and if I’m away from home more than a night I pack her to the gills.
None. The secret to dealing with other people is to live somewhere where there really aren’t other people around.
infrastructure fail stuff
Living remotely induces one to already have solutions in place. I pump my own water from a ground spring. No water bill to speak of. Electricity is always at risk of outage, so I run a generator regularly, and with lots of battery fail-over devices.
If something happened out in clown town that caused a national grid failure, I would just assume it’s just another outage from trees getting pruned by mother nature.
Spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch. Well, and a pocket knife. But that’s likely because I drive everywhere, and am currently in America.
To chime in, when I spent a few months in Osaka, I definitely carried more. Backpack, hand towel, change holder, plastic trashbag, pen, paper, deodorant (as to not offend Japanese folk, being a Westerner not used to the humidity), etc.
So maybe it’s very much a locale thing?
What’s up with the hand towel? Both you and OP had one in Japan.
Public restrooms typically don’t have paper towels or hand dryers.
I guess it’s local, it only became so apparent to me some time after moving to Japan. It’s also interesting how the types of things to prepare for change. In Japan, I think it’s mostly about weather. No need for safety measures, food and drinks everywhere and cheap, clean and reliable infrastructure (toilets, trains, everything, basically). People are also mindful about the noise they make, so even earplugs are not necessary.
In Germany it’s different. Weather is not so much of a concern, but I used to carry a basic pack of stuff with me in case I crashed at a friend’s place. This doesn’t happen here very often, and cheap hotels or manga cafes often have basics like toothbrushes etc.
In Japan, I think it’s mostly about weather. No need for safety measures, food and drinks everywhere and cheap, clean and reliable infrastructure (toilets, trains, everything, basically). People are also mindful about the noise they make, so even earplugs are not necessary.
Things like this make me really want to move to Japan. But then some basic things like not being able to carry a pocket knife turn me off of the idea.
If you haven’t visited, you definitely should. It’s really an amazing country, and you will hardly miss your pocket knife.
I definitely want to visit! I subscribe to a few Japan travel channels on YouTube and have been itching to go for ages.
Don’t underestimate the weather, though. It’s terrible in summer, unless you’re up on some mountain or at the Russian border. Spring and fall are great, though.
Do you check the weather first? Are you really going to be outside enough on a day you need an umbrella to also need sunscreen?
You can use the umbrella on sunny days to protect yourself from direct sunlight.
As an American who drives a truck, this is moot. I have a full set of clothes, winter outer wear, a jug of water, a canister of peanuts, a blanket, a shovel, trauma sheers, a leatherman, a sun hat, to walking poles, a Midwest level scraper/brush, an air pump for my tires that plugs into the lighter, full spare, spark plugs, an extendable magnet, 10k lumen light that plugs into the cigarette lighter to charge if need be, tweezers, nail clipper, eyeglass repair, a paper book of maps for all 50 states, and a spare toothbrush.
Probably forgot some things. My truck is essentially my purse.
That should keep you safe on the way to Walmart.
Bro’s got the whole Walmart in his truck.
Lol, it’s not a dodge RAM. To be fair, I travel for work sometimes. And I do haul in my truck, complete with added trailer which is a piece of rural living. I’ve never rolled coal or gunned it on a residential street.
Keys, wallet, phone, shopping bag. That’s it.
A bunny hug, keys, and phone/wallet combo. I’d carry less, but I’m already at the bare minimum.
Personally I think you are overdoing it OP.
