I’m headed back to Japan again in November after 8 years! This time around I’ll be travelling with my wife, and in normal fashion I’ll be one-bagging it - Well, 1.5 if you count a 3L sling.

The focus of the last trip was very much photography. I was laser focused on shooting. I’ve changed a lot in the 8 years since my last visit though - I have a bigger appreciation and desire for incredible food, and I’m a lot more focused in my photography. I prioritize lazy tourism - I’m not seeking out every single experience possible. I’m also thankful to have a larger budget to work with this time around.

We’re visiting for 14 days, and are currently planning Tokyo > Osaka > Kyoto > Tokyo. There’s some potential to drop into Hakone for a night between Kyoto and Tokyo, and also a couple day trips for Kobe and Yokohama, but we’re keeping it pretty loose other than hotel bookings.

Packing list is looking to be somewhat standard. If you’ve seen previous packing lists from me you know I pack relatively light. Japan in November is like late summer - early fall in New Brunswick, so I’m not overly concerned with heavy layering, just the usual capsule wardrobe. I’ll drop a packing list at some point, likely post-mortem on the trip so I can note what did and didn’t work as usual.

I will talk a bit about camera choice however. To keep it short, I’m planning on bringing my X100V over an X-T5. Why?

It’s a fixed lens that’s reasonably bright, and a focal length I’m very familiar with shooting on. No analysis paralysis, no fumbling lenses, just composing with one focal length.
It’s small and unassuming. Japan is a tight country, so the less I can pack the more mobile I can be. The quieter shutter is great for street photography or indoor photos. We’re also likely to be walking around a lot so the low weight is a huge advantage.
The built in ND and flash add just a bit more flexibility, no extra filters or flashes to carry around.
26mp is plenty of resolution while maintaining a reasonable file size.

I’ll be bringing the WCL adapter along with it, but it’s more because it’s very small and doesn’t require a lot of additional bag space. For additional accessories I’m also planning on bringing:

Not pictured: Cables and microSD reader for backup. Pretty compact setup.

A relatively cheap Neewer Fuji dual battery charger. I really wish Fuji made a more portable USB-C powered dual charger like for the X-T5 batteries, with thermal protections built in, but I haven’t had any issues with this Neewer one and it’ll only be used attended.
Two spare Fuji NP-W126S batteries. I’ve moved over to the official ones due to concerns of swelling in the third party options, a potential for a longer service life, and overall a longer battery life. I’ve designed and 3D printed a couple cases for these that are slim, protect the softer faces of the batteries, and have a small cutout that can act as an indicator of charge status.
A pair of Samsung Evo Select 128GB SD cards, one in the camera and the second stored in a 3D printed case I designed for maximum fidget factor. I don’t plan on formatting any cards, just swapping if they get full.
Both my Peak Design leash and cuff. The leash doesn’t take up a lot of space and lets me keep the camera relatively ready but my hands free if I want that.

The Lexar Professional Go SSD w/ Hub comes with a tiny male to male adapter to allow you to use the hub/SSD combo as a backpack of sorts. Also pictured here is a 6 inch 20gb/s cable that I plan on packing as well.

Much like last trip I do still have a desire to back up my data on the go. I got rid of my Western Digital My Passport Wireless a number of years ago, and the options now on the market for self-contained drive backup solutions are few and far between. I have however come across a very neat product focused on mobile videography that looks to fit the bill - The Lexar Professional Go Portable SSD w/ Hub. It’s a combination USB 3.2 Gen 2 1TB SSD that comes with a detachable 4 port USB-C hub of the same spec.

Like a tiny backpack. Apple USB-C SD card reader attached for demo purposes.

Although it’s not all in one like the Passport I used to have, with the Lexar app on the phone it’s easy enough to attach the tiny hub, SSD, and a super tiny Micro SD card reader to my phone and have the app do a delta of the SD card to the drive. Best part is it’s tiny - The SSD+hub comes in at less than 3”x2” with a thickness of .32”, and the total package weight around 50g including a tiny male-to-male USB-C adapter. My Belkin hub + T5 combo is close to 3x as heavy.

The SSD on it’s own is incredibly tiny - Compared to my Samsung T5 here. The Hub and SSD combo is still smaller than the T5!

It’s certainly not a speed demon on my iPhone 15 Plus, but that’s USB speed limitations on the phone. On my iPad Pro or on an iPhone Pro model backups would be considerably quicker. It’s still reasonable enough at about 1 minute a gig, so I can always just start a backup and grab a shower or something. I’m excited that this is going to free up a lot of space in an already tight bag.

That’s about it for camera gear reasoning for now - Until next time, maybe a packing list!