My Complete Travel Kit for Japan

Now that we’re only days away from a trip of a lifetime, it’s time to share a quick guide to my travel kit for Japan. From bags and accessories to my photography gear for Japan, we’ll cover it all!

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Ok, so the cat’s out the bag isn’t it with the title. We’re heading on a family holiday across to Japan for two weeks and, honestly, I cannot wait! I know it’s a little different for a family with a toddler but kids are adaptable and I love the fact that I’m in a position to travel and show the world to my daughter. With the popularity of a certain post on Reddit, I thought I’d head straight to the blog to pull together all of the information to a complete guide to my travel kit for Japan.

This post is written in advance of the trip and therefore this post is a reflection of my research and past experiences as to what gear I need, particularly in relation to photography. It may well be that I’ll update with a summary post-trip below or create an entirely new post to share my experiences.

Whilst I’m not wanting to dive into the full itinerary here, we’re basically just visiting three cities in Japan; Osaka > Kyoto > Tokyo. A great introduction to the country without pushing our limits with Evelyn in tow. Don’t worry though, we have made some fun additions specifically for Evelyn including three days at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea!

Of course, there’ll be a lot of photography, some attempts at videography and research for future blog posts which is exciting. I must however remember this is a family holiday and I can’t just focus on photography, obviously!

So let’s dive right in and talk about what I’ve settled on as my complete travel kit for Japan!

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TRAVEL KIT FOR JAPAN

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BAGS / STORAGE

First up, we’ll focus on the bags I’m taking and storage systems in place for my photography gear. We don’t need to talk about suitcases so this is just around backpacks/slings. No-one wants to know what suitcase I use (some random one bought from Alice Springs whilst hitch-hiking if you’re interested).

My main bag is the Bellroy Venture Ready Pack 26L which I received as part of a campaign I was lucky enough to work on with Bellroy. I’d previously used 2 iterations of the Brevite backpack that was specifically designed to carry photography equipment so it was a little daunting coming up with a way to turn a frankly exceptional backpack into a camera backpack.

The Bellroy Venture Ready Pack has plenty of storage options that I really love though haven’t yet figured out how best to utilise all the space; we’re talking two mesh zip pockets on the inner front, a laptop sleeve (no laptop coming with me though thankfully), a document sleeve, a quick access pocket on the outer top of the bag and space for a water bottle too (I think there might even be more storage options too but I haven’t used those yet). What I’m so pleased about however is that the removable sturdy camera cube that came with the original Brevite camera backpack fits perfectly within the Bellroy backpack. Whilst there’s no separate access to the camera cube, the front panel unzips pretty much entirely meaning that I should be able to gain speedy access to my camera equipment so long as I lay the backpack down.

I’ve talked about Bellroy before in terms of what I love about them as a brand but it’s very clear the products are designed by people who use these items day in day out; they’ve thought of everything and they’re so practical (as well as being sustainably made too). There’s a hidden pocket for an Apple Airtag which doesn’t fit my Galaxy SmartTag2 but I’ve managed to hide that else where for added security and peace of mind.

To keep all of my electronics and other accessories together, I have the Bellroy Tech Kit. This really helps me to stay organised! I worked with Bellroy to create a unique travel bundle where you can order the Bellroy Venture Ready Pack and the Tech Kit for a discounted price.

In addition to a backpack, I’ll have the Bellroy Venture Sling 6L that fits a condensed version of my photography gear; I’m hoping to primarily use this to avoid carrying the backpack every day and every lens with me. I am however not good with a lack of options so I’d miss out on the bigger lenses if I went sling only for the day. I’ve reviewed the sling in detail here so I won’t set out everything here other than to say it’s an essential for a light daily carry and to get the stuff out of your pockets!

My wife will also have her Bellroy Venture Ready Sling 2.5L that she seems to use more than I do mine! I’ll also roll up and shove in the Bellroy Lite Daypack if we need a further backpack for any reason.

On top of all that, we’ll have a backpack for the little one’s bits and bobs that we can shove under the pushchair – it’s not straight forward travelling with a toddler but entirely manageable with planning and staying organised. For the parents out there, the stroller we use is the Zummi Eden Compact Stroller in Fern as it folds down super small and is relatively light!

PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR

That’s bags done so now it’s the fun part; my photography gear. I’ve already covered what’s in my camera bag a few times but as time moves on, my style of photography changes ever so slightly and I never seem to stop adding lenses to my collection. I’ll therefore summarise the camera and lenses I’ve settled on for this trip to Japan:

Fujifilm X-T5 – An obvious choice, my go-to body these days. Read my long-term review here.

Fujifilm 18mm f/1.4 – This, combined with the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4, is my travel photography set up that I feel covers nearly all bases. Daily life, street scenes, food, coffee, portraits and architecture, the 18mm f/1.4 does it all. It’s so versatile. Read my review here.

Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 – My favourite lens and one that I could never travel without. Read my review from a few years ago here.

Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2 – I’ve watched so many YouTube videos now and can see that the streets of Japan just seem so well suited to being captured at the full-frame equivalent of 85mm. Yes, the lens is a bit slow to focus but it renders beautifully and it will come into its own capturing photos at night thanks to the incredibly fast aperture of f/1.2. Read my long-term review here.

Fujifilm 18-55mm f/2.8-4 – My back-up zoom option for when switching prime lenses isn’t an option. I still class this lens as a very good lens for travel photography; it does the job better than most! Read my review here.

Fujifilm 50-140mm f/2.8 – I think I might already regret taking this beast of a lens with me already. I was in two minds whether to take it or not but after painstakingly reviewing photos of Japan taken with this lens on Flickr, there were some incredible shots that really stood out and I couldn’t achieve a similar look without this lens. It’s the sharpest lens I own in my view and, whilst it’s massive and weighs a tonne, I’m looking forward to a bit of compression on the Japanese city streets and, with everything crossed, I can hopefully capture Mount Fuji from the top of skyscrapers in Tokyo. Read my first impressions here.

The lenses I’m leaving at home – 16mm 1.4, 23mm 1.4 & 50mm f/2. I could argue a case for each of those to come with me to Japan and the 50mm f/2 could easily replace both the 56mm f/1.2 and the 50-140mm f/2.8.

VIDEOGRAPHY GEAR

I’m definitely a travel photographer but recently I’ve been taking a keen interest in capturing more video and therefore there’s no time like the present with a trip to Japan to test this out! I’ve therefore gone with quite possibly the most in-demand video camera at the moment – the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. I’ve got the creator combo so it comes with a microphone, little tripod and I’ve added ND filters too.

I’m not going to write too much about this but honestly I’ve been so impressed with the ease of using the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. I’ve pulled together all of my initial thoughts here if you fancy a read.

ACCESSORIES

As you can see in the photo, I’ve got quite a few accessories that I’m taking with me! The Eki Stamp book and Traveler’s Notebook are two items that I’m really looking forward to using; collecting stamps across train stations and tourist attractions is a different way to create and capture memories. I’m going to also try (not sure when haha!) my hand at travel journalling – probably more as a place to store and display things I like to collect during travelling like stickers, maps, business cards from cool stores etc. Everything else below should be relatively self-explanatory!

Eki-Stamp Book
Traveler’s Notebook
Sony WF-1000XM4 Headphones
SD Cards – 256GB x 2 (set up as RAW + JPEG) & 128GB x 2 as back up
Peak Design Camera Strap + Wrist Strap
Tens ‘Original’ Sunglasses
Anbernic RG35XX Plus
Anker Nano Powerbank 10,000mAh
Chargers/Cables
Plug Adapters

Thank you for taking the time to read through this post, hopefully I’ve managed to cover everything as best as possible. Of course, if you have any questions or would like to know more, let me know in the comments below.

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