How Did Things Get This Way?

Early 1990s. Elementary school. Fourth grade. Summer camping excursion. Beachfront cabins. If I'm remembering correctly, we were to be gone for 3 days. I packed one tiny duffel bag, probably 16" long and 8" in diameter (that's about 800 cubic inches for those of you who are counting). Everyone else in class was lugging larger bags. Many had huge rolling monstrosities. They were all extremely amused by how little I was taking along. I did not understand how they were taking so much; we'd only be gone for three days, so I had three changes of clothing in there, a swimsuit, some sunblock, a towel, and basic toiletries. My underwear went in one Ziploc bag, toiletries in another. Everything turned out more or less fine, although I admit I should have brought two other things along: A pair of flip-flops (didn't occur to me at the time) and one extra Ziploc bag (sunblock exploded on the way back).

Flash forward to a certain trip in 2009. This is after OneBag.com, after TomBihn.com, after much military travel. Something went wrong.

Japan. Nagoya. Summer. Just came from Morioka, where I'd re-injured my knee in an indoor rock climbing fall. For this trip, I'd decided that since I was carrying a laptop, the extra laptop bag didn't count against "onebagging" so I was carrying a Tom Bihn Western Flyer and a Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer, both stuffed to the gills! Did not count on getting injured. To get to my hotel, I had to traverse (read: limp up and down the steps of) two pedestrian bridges, and cover a lot of distance from the station besides. Reverse and repeat for getting back to the station on the return. That trip had me schlepping all my gear to 3 more Japanese cities, 2 Chinese cities, and Taipei on my injured leg before the ordeal (I mean my 6-week long vacation) was over.

And what about China! For whatever reason I didn't feel out of place in Japan, but in Shanghai it was painfully obvious to me that I stood out like a sore thumb! Apparently the only adults that wore sneakers, shorts and/or capris, and t-shirts were either foreigners or from the countryside... Being non-Caucasian, I was effectively treated like I was a country bumpkin! Shameful!

That brings us to this blog:

1) Don't just one-bag, pack light!

I'll discuss my trials and tribulations in the quest to travel light (15 pounds and under, including the bag). I have probably not ever achieved this since that trip in the fourth grade. This will include commentary on luggage, electronics, clothing, and the like with special emphasis on weight.

2) What the heck do people wear in these areas anyway?

I'll take pictures, and post pictures I've taken, of people on the street at places I've been to, tagged by city and months (DecJanFeb, MarAprMay, JunJulAug, SepOctNov) along with any observations I may have had.

A travel note-keeping journal, if you will.

With that, let's lift this blog off!