Lost Baggage

Depending on where you are arriving, lost baggage can be a blessing, a nuisance, or a tragedy. If you are going home where you have plenty of other clothes, lost baggage can be a blessing. Especially if it’s heavy since the airlines will deliver it for you. If you are traveling, lost baggage either becomes a nuisance or a tragedy. (Unless, of course, you wanted to go shopping for a new wardrobe. In this case, arriving at your destination sans equipage may be just what the shopping gods ordered.) Whether this is a tragedy or a nuisance is dictated (in my opinion) by who you are and your place of arrival. If you are a Westerner arriving in Japan (or another Asian country), this is usually a tragedy. Doubly so if you did not pack any underwear in your carry-on. Good luck and happy hunting for clothes that fit.

I always like to have a contingency plan. I make sure that I keep all my underwear as well as one or two outfits in my carry-on when I am outbound. I had a wake-up call as I arrived in Sydney, only to discover that my backpack and pilates mat were still State-side. I had one extra outfit and one extra shirt in my carry-on. I was thrilled to discover that I had packed a pair of dress shoes in my carry-on as I was wearing turquoise sneakers. (What was I thinking?) My luck continued when my backpack showed up the following day. However, this has forced me to reconsider how much clothing I actually need for a business trip or even just a vacation in addition to what I actually wear on the plane. I have gotten to the point where I really hate lugging heavy bags, so I have been paring back. My current philosophy is to bring clothes that I was going to donate to charity anyway and leave them along the way so as to lighten the load on the way home. I hope that one day I will get to the point of one small bag to last a week or two, but at this point, I just don’t see that in the cards.