I know these EDC posts are popular on the internet, but I usually don’t give in to them. Still — with nothing else on my mind today, we might as well take a look!
Here, have a look!
What do we have here… let’s see.
Pen Case
The pen case is a three pen case I got for a few hundred yen from Aliexpress. At that price I kind of doubt if it is good or quality leather, but it looks fairly nice anyway and has held up for the couple of years that I’ve had it. The inside slides out, doubling as a desk holder while I’m working.
The pens inside I rotate. Today it is these three:
Notebook
The notebook cover is a B5 sized leather portfolio style cover that I got from Aliexpress for around ¥2000 yen. Not cheap, but not really expensive for leather. It claims to be real crazy horse leather (a high-quality, full-grain leather) and seems like it from what I can tell.
Inside I keep…
You people outside Japan might not be familar with the Campus paper.
It’s a fairly good quality paper for fairly cheap. I like these binders. With so many holes, you don’t have that problem of US 3-ring binders with the paper ripping out and the need to reinforce the holes.
Misc
[No photos here, but use your imagination]
I’ve probably carried one form of headphones or another since my Walkman days. The big problem with wired headphones, at least for me, has always been that if you coil them for easy carrying in a backpack, after a year or two wires inside break and one or both of the speakers stops working. Also, the wires tend to get caught on things as you move about. The AirPods eliminate these problems. The noise cancellation is pretty spiffy too!
The iPhone may be obvious. I forget what brand makes the wallet connection. I even forget where I bought it. It might have been a cheap Chinese copy on Aliexpress. Whatever the case may be, the magnet in it is strong enough that it sticks to my phone like glue. So tightly that my kids struggle to pull it off. It has room for 2–3 cards, an ID, a little cash: all plenty for me.
And… that’s it. No, no pocketknife. I know that is a staple of EDC posts. The laws for knives are very very strict in Japan. Anything longer than 6 cm (2.3 inches) is illegal and can result in arrest or imprisonment. Yeah — they are serious. Even small knives might result in questions. The law is vague and actually has a clause stating that anything that could be used for bodily harm is illegal. If police don’t like the look of you and they can almost certainly find a reason to stop and question you. And in Japan, those questions can be multi-hour in a police station. So it’s all around safer to just leave it at home.
How about you guys? What is in your EDC?
| David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Mastodon. |
