First time Japan Travelers, trying to figure out what to pack
Ok so my husband and I live in Eastern Washington. The only traveling we do has been anywhere we can drive to, so that’s usually MT, ID, Southern BC, anywhere along the WA or OR coast, or on rare occasions to CA for certain family or friend events. This year was my 40th birthday, and will be our 10 year wedding anniversary in September, so we decided we should do a big international trip and Japan was calling us over anywhere else. We found out one of his best high school friends is getting married, so now we are trying to plan that in tandem. We also have a 1.5 year old dog that would be very expensive to board at a facility (nobody we know in town would be willing to take him for THIS long, thus a boarding situation), so our cheaper option is to travel 3 hours west to my parents house in Montana where they said they would LOVE to have him for two weeks! They own his mom and his sister, so a little family reunion time anyways. So logistically the trip would look something like this:
Drive to Missoula, MT, stay the night at parents house (leave car at their house for free, free dog care)
Fly out of Missoula to Sacramento for wedding (3 days) - Wedding is October 3rd
Fly from Sacramento to Japan
Japan for 10 days (Osaka and Kyoto) - Oct 5-15
Fly from Japan to Missoula
Stay in Missoula for another day to decompress before driving back home
We were thinking of each having a carry on and the extra “day bag” or whatever it is the airlines allow you to stash under the seats so we don’t have to check luggage. We are light packers and NOT fashionable people. He owns mostly just Vuori shorts, joggers, and tees. My wardrobe is….not great. Mostly band tees and sweatpants. We both work from home and don’t go anywhere so the clothing game has really taken a dive since COVID. 😂
I’ve never purchased anything from Quince or Uniqlo but I like both brands from the looks of things. I’m a little apprehensive on Uniqlo’s tops because while my body proportions are normal (usually a medium to large in shirts depending on brand), the looser crop or higher hemline shirts just look so weird on me because they just hang straight off my boobs and I feel like that look makes me look huge! I usually have to go for the 2010’s style more form fitted longer hemmed shirts lol. Otherwise the AIRism fabric sounds fantastic.
Being 40 now, I feel like I sweat easier than I use too in the pits so that’s unfortunate and I’m a little worried about how the humidity will play with that even in October. I know it will probably still be in the high 70’s or low 80’s that time of year. Mostly, will I be drenched all day?
So ok, we could talk about shopping all we want but I’ll try to get to the point. Carry ons, two trips in one. We will have to haul our wedding clothes (whatever they will be) to Japan with us. The wedding attire is cocktail, at daytime in Sacramento so still hot. I was thinking a silk midi or maxi dress from Quince (says washable) with flats. That’s something that can probably pack down and could wear out in Japan for dinner or something (as long as it’s modest). My husband, idk. They say suit but I don’t want to be hauling a suit with us to Japan so how do we work light cocktail into this? Also for 10 days, how many and of what types of basic garments do you all recommend so I can get an idea of a shopping list before hand? I’m not sure shopping in Japan for our sizes will go too well. Thanks! 🙏