A day after I received my Japan tourist visa, I became busy packing stuff to bring. We claimed our passports on a Thursday, June 2, and our scheduled flight was June 6 and I haven’t even done any preparation at all because I thought I would be denied! So yeah, you could say I panicked, but only for a brief moment haha.

So what are the things you need to prepare for the trip?

 

Passport 

– This is very important. Never ever forget your passport when preparing for travel abroad. Put your passport and other documents in your carry-on bag for easy access.

Plane Tickets 

– Another important stuff you can’t forget to bring. If you’ve bought your tickets online then have them printed days before. Put them in your carry-on bag too together with your other documents.

Identification Cards 

– Bring some identification cards. When I was already in the immigration booth, the staff asked for my company ID and even my PRC ID. Good thing I decided to bring more than one ID with me.

Money 

– How much cash should you bring? Friends say the ideal dollar amount would be $500. I went for $400 haha. I figured it’s more than enough cash already. I just went to my bank and exchanged peso to dollar. I use BPI by the way. You can have the currency exchange in any branch. You can actually exchange your peso to yen but only a few selected BPI branches can accommodate such. Just in case, I also had my BPI Express International debit card activated for international use/access for the 4-day trip. Just tell the bank personnel that you want your card activated for the duration of your vacation and they’ll activate it.

Clothing 

– Because it was summer in Japan during our stay, I only packed light clothing. It was still cold when we arrived there but it wasn’t something I couldn’t tolerate. I only brought a small backpack and one other medium-sized bag. I should have brought a larger backpack though as I had a hard time trying to squeeze in all the pasalubong later on.

Camera 

– Oh yes don’t forget this one! Tokyo is such a picture-perfect place you’ll be missing out big time if you don’t have a camera with you. Phone camera is okay but if you have a digicam or SLR then bring them too! Just don’t forget to bring your camera charger or you’ll be totally screwed! Use a high memory SD card too so you won’t have a problem taking lots and lots of photos.

 

Don’t forget to double check your stuff before you get out of the house. You don’t wanna be wasting time going back and forth just because you forgot to include some things.