Travel Gear

Before I left for Japan, I wanted to be sure I could take my gadgets with me while I was on the road, but more importantly, I didn't want to lug around any bulky items.

With this in mind, I went shopping online and in stores about a month or so before my trip to find 

1) Netbook , and 

2) a back pack to keep the netbook and other items in that would fit underneath an airplane seat.

The Netbook:

Acer Aspire One

The netbook I chose is the Acer Aspire One.  While I won't be playing the latest FPS on this thing, it handles just about anything else I throw at it.  It was great for taking out on short trips, and worked well with skype when I was able to catch a free WiFi signal.

Specs: 160GB HDD

1GB RAM

2 SD card slot

3USB port

Windows XP (dual booted with Windows 7)

   6 Cell Battery ( last ~ 5 hours on full charge)

The Backpack:

Ful Brickhouse

As I mentioned earlier, my ideal bag needed to safely hold my UMPC and easily fit under an airplane seat, but I also like sling backpacks. The Ful Brickhouse Laptop Backpack fit all my needs and then some.

 Has plenty of space for the netbook, plus room for my cords, headphones and other gadgets I need for the trip.  Cost me about $30 and is a really good quality bag!

Other Accessories:

Noise Cancelling Headphones

The Sennheiser PXC300 are a great pair of Noise Cancelling headphones.  I typically use them at work, and they block out most of the background noise from computers, AC units, etc., but they really shined in flight.  I had never used NC headphones in flight, and now I can't imagine flying without them!  If I were rich, I may have jump on the Bose QC3s, but these are foldable for better storage and are about as good as the Bose QC3s in NC performance.  If there is a difference, it is definitely not worth $200.  Check them out, you won't be disappointed.

Power Inverter

The Micro Innovations NBP150S power inverter came in handy on the plane (when the plane had the connects at my seat).  I also used it charge up my camera battery on the drive between Gero and Takayama.

Mouse

16GB SDHC Flash Card