Packing Light. Yes, Please.

Backpacks.  For two main reasons:

1) We're doing a lot of train travel, and there's not much room for luggage on trains.
2) We want to avoid airline luggage fees.

The goal is to pack only what we need, do laundry at strategic points of our trip, and bring home functional souvenirs (read: clothes).  The places we will be in Japan will be between 30F and 60F in mid November.

Here's a look at the backpacks we chose:

Looks like Sophie's wondering where her bag is at...

The Osprey Porter 46 (regulation carry-on size) with one main compartment that features two mesh zipper pockets; a compartment at the top for easy-to-reach items; and a zippered flat pouch on the outside.  The compartment at the top is where we'll be stashing items we'll need to get to on the plane and upon arrival (reading book, iPhone, hand sanitizer, etc.).  This backpack also features padded shoulder straps, waist and across-the-chest straps, and compression straps.  The waist strap is so important!!  It distributes some of the weight to your midsection instead of having it all on your shoulders.

As the Porter 46 only has one large compartment, packing cubes/folders were a must to organize our clothes and toiletries separately.  I bought two sets of the packing cubes and a folder from Magellan's.  I utilized two existing organizers from my Samsonite luggage which coincidentally fits the regulation size bag perfectly.

No cubes for Dillon, though.

Any unused packing cubes will be traveling with us to hold souvenirs for the journey home.

The Packable Daypack by Eagle Creek is the little orange pouch seen in the picture above.  We'll likely be shoving items needed on hand into this and touring with it while keeping our backpacks either at the hotel or in a train locker.  I have a feeling that this daypack will be the extra space we need on the flight home.