Packing for Japan

I can hardly believe we're leaving for Japan on Saturday! We started packing our suitcases yesterday. My mother, brother, Dennis, Art and I will be going. As all our trips are, it will be economical. No fancy hotels, no grand tour. Art has done all the planning and made the reservations. We'll be visiting relatives in Tokyo and Sendai and then driving around Hokkaido on our own (shiver!) before heading down to Hiroshima. The prospect of driving on the opposite side of the street is daunting. We did it in England and in New Zealand and it was scary both times.

We were worried that all our gifts and essentials wouldn't fit into just 4 pieces of luggage. This photo isn't accurate actually. The small one is my hand carry for our laptop. We'll have an additional suitcase about the same size as the bigger ones. They're medium sized luggage but the expansion is wonderful and we could fit everything in without a problem. What a relief!!! Once we unload our gifts, it will be a whole lot lighter.

We're trying to bring everything we need. With all the bad news on Wall Street and the worry that it will affect the value of the dollar abroad, we want to make sure we don't have to buy anything in Japan. What a difference when I went to Japan while in college. The exchange rate was 360 Yen to a dollar back then. It's now 105Yen to the dollar I think. So depressing. I imagine we'll be eating a lot of noodles and curried rice.