Whats in YOUR purse?

In the States, many women carry huge purses. They fill it with crazy non essentials like extra makeup, pens, receipts from a department store three years ago, or a crazy amount of extra just in case the world ends, weigh you down crap. My purse is not like that. At home, I carried my wallet, cell phone, swiss army knife, mini flashlight, chapstick and the occasional pen. I felt that a large purse was just a nuisance and an obnoxious thing to carry around.

 

I am kicking myself, now.

 

The need for certain essentials grows exponentially every day here. Even men carry bags here. What could you possibly need to carry in Japan, you wonder?
Ah... the essentials of the purse or man bag must include:

1. large wallet for money (Japan is a cash based society, you seldom come across places that accept credit or debit cards and they use equal amount of coins and paper money and the average shape of paper money is larger than in the States. Also a coin purse is essential for average monetary transactions)
2. Cell phone: heaven forbid you don't have a cell phone in this country! You spend a crazy amount of time trying to figure things out without one..(trust me, I know)
3. large sweat towel. ACon (A/C) is not as readily available in Japan and its humid hot weather has you dripping excessively. Think.. 20 minutes and you need to rehydrate. Also, Seldom are there paper towels or hand dryers in the bathroom, so this is nice to keep on hand unless you like a wet handshake.
4. on that note.. maybe a cloth napkin, too those are rather rare in some restaurants as well
5. Clean white socks for the occasional entering of someone`s house. You don't want to enter with dirty feet. (they take off their shoes upon entering most upscale restaurants, doctors offices, homes, and offices)
6. Spare hashi. Sometimes you find it necessary to bring your own chopsticks somewhere.
7. I still like to carry around my swiss army knife and I am looking into buying a new flashlight because Japan is on a conserve energy campaign... often times in rural areas.. all the lights are out, streetlights included.
8. Chap stick. Cause OMG, it hot and you can dehydrate quickly.
9.  can you get a water bottle into your bag? You might want too. There are vending machines but it gets quite expensive. Also, there are not as many trash bins in Japan and litering is quite frowned upon.
10.  for the quintessential traveler, phrase book/translator/electronic dictionary (this maybe your phone if you are lucky...)
11. sunscreen if you don't want to wear a hat or use a parasol. Trust me though. Wear a hat or you`ll be applying SPF every ten minutes.

 

So, As soon as I get paid I`m off to Kurume to buy a purse the size of a beachbag. Oh how I wish I hadn`t criticized those women back home for their large purses... There truely is a need for them.