When I first bought my suitcases they seemed to be like little hippos. They initially seemed quite impossible to fill. My bewilderment at how I was ever going to fill my two unfathomable portable holes in space time lasted about five minutes into packing them. After trying unsuccessfully to jam everything into them I came to the conclusion that taking everything with you for a year (or more) of teaching english in Japan requires at least two and a half little hippos. Thus, I had to send a box of winter clothes and other supplies later.

The checklist below is fairly accurate as to the preparation work I did. The list does not show everything I took or show what was sent later. Namely, it leaves off a small amount of food, a set of measuring spoons and a cup, a few knives and forks and the JET Programme books and a couple of my own books.

Applicable to only the JET Programme is a warning to leave some room in the baggage you take to Tokyo orientation. You will be given a sizable stack of books teaching English in Japan. As well, your country's embassy officials might drop by to weight you down further with information packages on your country. Americans in the groups before mine apparently got quite a library given to them. Things got more than a little cramped in my suitcase and bag.

Yes, that was a lot of stuff to do and things to buy. Very little of it wasn't worth it, though. The one exception would be I highly recommend trying to get an idea of what the Japanese English teachers at your schools wear. A dress code is good but still probably doesn't tell you what will fit in. It turns out what I packed was fine and matched the other teachers fairly well but my dress code is in fact far looser than my collars.