[nihonde]

I think the article mentions that these are made in Seki city, in Gifu prefecture. Seki is famous for knife makers and they have a really neat knife festival with a street market. If you’re into that kind of thing, it may be worth visiting. If nothing else, you can get a sense of how traditional Japan manifests in these little industrial enclaves in small town Japan.

[harisenbon]

Note that if you don’t go during the festival, the downtown is pretty much dead. There is a nice knife shop that caters to tourists (刃物センター blade center) but the festival is definitely the best part of the year.

[magduf]

The big problem I see with being a tourist and going to this thing is that you'll have to pay to have your knife purchases shipped home (or pay a hefty checked-baggage fee), since you can't bring sharp blades in carry-on luggage.

[kilbuz]

In this hypothetical trip to Japan, with airfare, lodging, food, drink, local transportation, and luxury knife purchases (including duty), a 25 USD checked bag fee is 'hefty' and a 'big problem'?

[magduf]

I don't check bags. It's usually more than $25, and it's a giant pain in the ass dealing with checked luggage. If I can't fit everything in my carry-on backpack, it doesn't go. So yes, it is a big problem. Don't forget, when you change planes in the US, your luggage doesn't even change planes automatically.

And how is "drink" a significant cost anyway, to get in that list of yours? In Japan, they give you free water at every meal.

You can easily buy luxury knives from Seki, Japan at specialist websites like jp-knives.com and have them shipped for free.

[xxpor]

>Don't forget, when you change planes in the US, your luggage doesn't even change planes automatically.

What? Are you sure you've ever flown in the US?

[celestialjeu]

They might mean at customs? When you go through customs you have to get your bag and then recheck it but they do have a place to drop them off without having to go through security again so it's not that much of PITA.

[com2kid]

Try traveling without checked bags sometime. For part of your stay, get an AirBnB that has laundry facilities.

Only having a single small roller bag (or less, I know people who just have a single backpack!) makes travelling a lot easier. I often miss being able to bring stuff home in checked luggage, but I love getting off an airplane and not having to wait for my baggage, or worry if I'll be in the 1% that doesn't get my bag back!

As an example, I landed early morning in London, walked off the airplane, went through customs, and got right on public transit, then right to a tiny cafe and had some breakfast.

Could I do that with a giant checked suitcase? Sure. Maybe. But it'd suck. And the first thing on my mind would be getting to lodging to drop off my bag. Landing at 9am and having a giant bag I need to drag around until 2pm or whenever check-in time is means a large chunk of my first day is ruined, and I get to repeat all that after a 10am checkout dragging a big bag around until it is time to go to the airport and fly back home.

Bonus: in Japan, with only a small roller bag, taking public transit to/from the airport becomes very doable at any time of the day.

tl;dr smaller bags mean simpler logistics for the entirety of a trip.

[magduf]

Exactly; this is the only way I travel now. I have two backpacks, a large "travel backpack" that fits in carry-on, and a smaller one that holds my laptop and some other stuff and fits under the seat in front of me. The smaller one clips onto the larger one when I need to carry it around, and then when I've left the large one at my hotel/hostel, it becomes my daypack to hold a raincoat, souvenirs, brochures, etc.

In many places, hotels have laundry facilities. Every place I stayed in Japan had them, so it was easy to just bring enough clothes for 4 days and do laundry every so often.

I'll also add that any kind of roll-around luggage is a giant PITA if you're in Europe, because the streets and sidewalks are largely cobblestones.

[com2kid]

> In many places, hotels have laundry facilities.

In most countries I have visited, the laundry facilities are cost prohibitive and the cost of 4 days of laundry is greater than the hotel bill!

Super cool if you found a place that had free laundry services!

[nihonde]

Well, the knives at Seki are surprisingly affordable, if that helps! I’ve shipped knives back to the US before. It’s a luxury, but not an extravagance.