What's in your handbag?

I think I'm the last one from the NTW Tokyo contingent to blog about our travels.. You've heard from Abdul, John, Michelle, Matt and Alan (click on names for latest blog posts) about why we're heading out there, and what we'll be up to while we're there. Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have my name pulled from a hat in the office raffle for the remaining place to go to Tokyo with the rest of the team. I was already quite involved with the digital elements of Abdul's final Assembly in Japan, so I'm over the moon to be able to go out to work on them with him and the rest of the team.. and, of course, get chance to see some of the brilliant sights around Tokyo. I realise though, that when we've been talking in the office about must see sights while in Tokyo, the top of my list is slightly different to everyone elses.

GADGETS. I LOVE THEM. and Tokyo is my idea of gadget heaven. Akihabara Electric Town has been a place on my 'must visit' list for many a year. Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, games and otaku goods, including new and used items. I can't wait.

So, on this gadgety theme, I thought I'd write my first #ntwJapan blog on the subject of Tech which I'm planning on taking out to Tokyo with me. The photo above pictures some of the kit I'll be taking to Tokyo.

1. mp3 player. Plus This brilliant album and This playlist
2. usb cable x 4. I'm sure I pack hundreds of these, and always only come back with one or two.
3. iPod Touch. Very useful as a back up camera for videoblogs on the go.
4. iRig Mic. Costs about £40 on Amazon, plug this into the ipod touch/iphone for an immediate bump in sound quality.
5. usb plug + an unpictured mulitplug and adaptor
6. notebook. It's okay to have paper.
7. Laptop. I would usually travel with a tablet and bluetooth keyboard, but I'm going to take my laptop on this trip incase we need any last minute work doing that a tablet couldn't handle.
8. Headphones. These ones are on their last legs.
9. iPhone. With these brilliant apps:
   1. Lonely Planet's Tokyo Guide
   2. Pocket Lingo
   3. MyTokyoNavi
10. Business Cards.
11. TechNet iEP387 Power Bank. This has transformed my travel. Charge it up, and it has up to 4 full charges of iphone/ 3 charges ipad. It only costs about £20 from Amazon.
12. Pink Pen. So all the analogue things match.
13. iPhone to VGA adaptor. I'll probably also take one for the laptop. You'd be surprised how useful they come in.

You can usually find all this stuff in my laptop bag each day. I'm trying to pack light, but you can add to that travel tech bag an ipad, DSLR, British multiplug with a plug adaptor, A couple more USB chargers, back up headphones,  A few more cables.. maybe I'm not packing so light.

I'd love to hear if you have any recommendations for Tokyo apps/ useful travel tech or brilliant places to visit while I'm out there.

Until the next one,

Kx