Finishing up our 15 day vacation in Japan. Thanks to all of the advice I found here, our trip went smoothly. One bit of advice I wish I had known: there are lots of options for doing laundry while traveling. Hotels have coin machines you can use. Our air BnB had a machine. Laundromats are easy to find. I would have brought half the amount of clothes I did, had I known that.
Also, machines often auto-dispense soap, so you often don’t need to add soap as a separate thing.
by Able-Concentrate5914
29 comments
Chiming in: I’ve seen people here complaining that the tumble dryers are weaker than what they had at home due to the voltage difference and what’s not, which IMO is not *usually* that much of a concern. Just go with the laundromats with bigger and newer machines and you’ll be fine.
Bonus points: some washing machines also tumble-dry your laundry for you, but don’t expect it to come out *dry*-dry, just “schranktrocken” (i.e. dry-enough-for-the-wardrobe-dry). Also, to take full advantage of such machines, you’ll have to ditch the laundry bags/nets.
Yes, Japanese hotels provide so much more than back home
Tumble dry twice the duration and it will be dry
Extra tip: even if your hotel has a machine, check if there’s a separate laundromat nearby. Their machines are so much better. When using hotel machines we had to use the dryer many times in a row while the 24h laundry did everything in one go. It might cost more but it’s worth it.
I guess it goes to show that even advice we think everyone always knows, can bear repeating. It’s one of the reasons the advice is also to pack light!
I used hotel facilities a couple of times.
Just expect to go through the dryer cycle 2 or 3 times and you’ll be fine.
The hardest part is a lot of Airbnb’s don’t have western style dryers, there’s a bit of a learning curve to the drying rooms and even then they don’t all work that well.
We just spent 3 weeks all over and only took carry on size suitcases and personal item sized backpacks and it was manageable. I think we each had 4-5 changes.
Japanese secondhand clothing stores are great. Amazing quality and style for so cheap. My wife and I came with carry-ons and left with a checked bag full of great clothes.
You don’t have to do what we did, but I would suggest packing one or two fewer outfits and buying them while in Japan!
I’d even go as far as saying don’t take clothes except undergarments if you plan on shopping especially Uniqlo. My daughter got plenty of clothes at Wego and few items from GU that she too didn’t wear clothes she had packed from home. My sons returned home earlier than me so I sent all my clothes back with them because I had purchased a lot in Japan including shoes. Our airbnb laundry facility had hours of operation so we used laundromat as needed. Ofc always stay safe but it’s the safest I’ve felt— I went with my teen son to laundromat at 1am & some machines washed and dried the clothing. Have cash with you and use Google translate. It was inexpensive and not as inconvenient as many may believe.
I’m planning on just wearing polyester type of clothing, my clothes should be safe in the dryer? There’s a way to adjust the heat setting?
This is one of my few japan trip “regrets”. We stuck to airbnbs (like we always do for long trips) to make sure we could do laundry, leave clothes rack-drying while we were out and about. Learned later that nearly all hotels have washing machines.
The hotel machines are tiny. The one we stayed in Tokyo had one that was a combo washer/dryer. For our family of 4, we would toss everything from the day before and start the machine before we head out. The dryer doesn’t get everything completely dry, but if you leave it in long after it’s done it gets pretty dry. We didn’t care about wrinkles.
The apartment hotel we stayed in Osaka just had a small washer. So we would start a load during breakfast and hang everything up before we head out. Most stuff was dry by night time or the next morning.
I think we could have gotten away with only 3 changes of clothes and buy more as needed.
In Japan, you always underpack cause if you forget or need something, you can literally find it across the street at the convenience store
I’m hoping there’s somewhere to hang washing where I’m staying because nearly all of my clothes aren’t dryer-friendly (running gear and merino wool)!
Do hotels (or nearby laundromats) provide wash & fold services too, or just access to machines?
I am very interested in this. We’re going for 18 days in October. Do the machines have instructions that are in English or easy to figure out? Do they take any form of payment besides coins? Auto soap dispensing sounds like a great feature. One less thing to worry about.
Is it all self serve? Do some laundromats do drop off and collect?
We iron our wet clothes if one is available. Helps a lot with drying and our clothes look neat.
One little caveat. The auto machines (which include wash/dry and soap) are almost all hot wash/dry. If you’ve got anything delicate or shrinkable it’s hand wash and hang to dry.
If you are staying in one spot that long (aka one city for two weeks), finding accommodation with a machine in the building should be your highest priority.
There are several nice “apartment hotels” you can also book that has a washer/dryer inside your actual room so you can just run the washer while you shower.
Just get a family style hotel room at some point during the middle of the trip. A lot of them will have a washer dryer combo unit that you can use to wash. Load of laundry.
I’m a one bagger who only uses a backpack that is carry-on compliant. I spent a month there last August and only had 5 shirts and undies. To pull it off, I brought quick-drying clothing only, a dry bag and a travel clothesline. Each night before going to bed I’d wash what I wore that day in my dry bag just using a pump of whatever shampoo the hotel had and water from the sink. Close the dry bag, agitate like a madman, let it sit for a few minutes while I watch TV, check my email or brush my teeth. Agitate again, rinse the clothes, wring them out, put in a towel and twist the towel to get out even more water, then hang to dry overnight while I sleep.
I did use the coin laundry a couple of times during the trip where my hotel had it right in the building, just to get a marginally better quality wash, but still dried them by hanging in my room.
Oh yeah I’m 100% bringing only half the clothes I’d normally bring if not even less than that to pack less and then just wash stuff over there multiple times, plus whatever new clothes I’ll buy there and just wear.
100% agree with this! I also did NOT need to pack my bathing suit, toothbrush, shampoo or razor, and slippers were always provided too.
i mean…just look at your hotel amenities next time? lol. should easily be able to discern which will have washing machines.
Went for a 10 day trip, only brought 3 days worth of clothing, and 5 days for our undies. We bought the rest (and more), and did laundry at both our hotels.
Both hotels had the exact same type of washer/dryer combo, but one came out noticeably dryer than the other. We have to hang a bunch up in front of the AC to fully dry them.
My gramma always said, half the clothes, twice the money!
But in seriousness, we found the hotel laundry machines to be in use a lot so we ended up staying up until 1am one night to catch an empty one. The laundromat would have been more difficult since we were traveling with our then 3 year old, so keeping him up in the room while one of us ran down was easier than trying to go somewhere and wait it out. Just keep in mind you may need to adjust your schedule, and please keep a timer if you do use one so you’re not tying up a machine the whole time!
Surprised to not see this mentioned at all- A few hotels we stayed in had only washing machines, but had vents that blew hot air in the shower rooms with racks for drying clothes. It was such a cool feature!
Did you think it was Japan and you’d have to wash your clothes in the river with a rock? Why wouldn’t there be laundry machines and laundromats.