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Note: this item was provided for review.

As spring gave way to summer, the jackets went into their dust covers to hide from the heat — and I lost substantial pockets. This happens each year, and each year it takes me a few weeks to find my footing and realize I need some small bag to carry my gear in. I always start too large, but this summer I decided I would switch to carrying a sling full time, and ditch any grand ideas of not needing one.

I’ve been rotating through a bunch of options, so the offer to test the Safari Sling from Pioneer Carry was one I was not going to pass up. This is a small, if not tiny, sling which is about as minimal as I can push myself. It looks solid, has fantastic materials, and in practice is quite great.

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Something I learned rather quickly after leaving the gray of the Pacific Northwest many years ago, was how transformative keeping the sun off your skin is, and how much that can help you stay cool. In order to achieve this for your head/face/neck/ears, you effectively have two options: hat or umbrella. Preparing to head to Japan in the dead-heat of summer, we geared up with sun protection gear, and I picked up Montbell’s Travel Sun Block Umbrella 50 for my wife to use.

By day three of the trip she had moved from her sun hat, to this sun umbrella and she never looked back. By day 12, I bought one for myself, as I was getting jealous with how well this umbrella works. This is primarily a sun umbrella, but Montbell does note it will shed rain (but I think this means don’t buy it for heavy sustained rain).

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“We are close to a Porter Stand location, I am going to pop in and see what they have, catch up with you in a few.” Off I went to see what bags I could see, determined to pick up my second Porter bag in Japan, and to find something that doesn’t dupe bags I already had. I wandered the small store — the staff always gets excited when they see you have a Porter bag already, they thank you, it’s sweet — and I kept pulling myself from the Tanker lines.

Brown, huh, that’s not a standard looking color. Feels like cotton, cool.

I asked about the bag, the staff came over and pulled the stuffing from it and encouraged me to try it on, to pack my stuff in it. I was pretty sold from the feeling alone, but it was small and small bags can be tricky — they have to be the right kind of small. Then my newly minted good pal, the salesclerk, said the magic works “we have a larger size in the back, shall I get it for you”.

This is Porter’s Smoky line, and specifically the generically named “Shoulder Bag” — this comes in two sizes, this is the larger of the two. It’s also one of the best bags I own, and it’s a lot easier to explain why this one is so very good.

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Billed as a versatile backpack for peak bagging, day hiking, everyday carry, and travel — the Wy’east backpack has a lot of ground to cover in a very lightweight and low cost platform. It looks good, and is well reviewed.

In my testing, it falls short, which is a shame for how much promise the bag has — it’s missing a few things which would make it great.

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The Alpha Executive line of pens are among my most used, and most loved. I’ve had my Electroless Nickel model for some time now, and I still use it a ton. These pens offer a lot of great options for ink, as well as an excellent clip, and peace of mind with a secure screw cap — have no worries tossing it in your pocket or bag.

Recently, Prometheus announced a second version of the pens, with titanium being the first material. I jumped and bought one immediately. My favorite pen, is now even better than it was before.

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I am not sure how to start with this bag, but perhaps I should start by telling you two things: this is possibly the best shoulder bag I’ve ever used; and it will be exceedingly hard for me to convince you of this if you have not handled a ‘Tanker’ bag before.

There’s a long history with Yoshida & Co’s Porter line of bags, and I was dying to get my hands on some while I was in Japan. I had ideas of buying just something small as a keepsake — I did not think I would run into the store yearning for something better to use for the rest of my trip.

That’s why I bought the Tanker Sling Bag W Zip (XL) (product number:
622-15153) — the largest of their shoulder bags before you move into travel, or briefcase territory.

It is an exceptional bag.

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I realized that it’s been almost a full nine years of rucking as my primary workout, and wow. It’s been a while since I wrote about it, so I thought I would take a moment to talk about the gear I use.

I previously wrote about rucking gear in 2017, rucking and gear in 2020, and rucking clothing in 2021.

I ruck about 2.5 miles, six times per week — in all weather from snow and ice, to 100°F. Let’s dive into it.

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Over the years, I’ve standardized on bag brands a few times. There was a short-lived period where all the bags I used were GORUCK. Another period was nearly all Mystery Ranch. Then came the Filson bag onslaught — which had less of a take over nature, and more of a playful collectors hobby — but then lead to a takeover. Through those times, I never thought: “I am going to switch everything to this brand,” as much as I noticed I had done it after the fact. Each time consolidation has happened, I slowly sprawl back out to more brands.

I am writing this today, to head off some comments and emails about Porter.

After getting my hands on Yoshida & Co’s Porter lineup of bags, I made a very conscious decision, that I wanted to move all my bags over to Porter bags (where it makes sense at least). And that process is in the works, so I thought I would take a moment to talk about the why of this change.

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I am not immune to a good impulse purchase, and that’s exactly what happened with this knife. I saw it pop up in my email, and clicked through, was impressed by the price so I clicked order. That was quite some time ago, and I’ve been using it since.

This isn’t going to be a go to knife for me, but certainly does have some interesting attributes, and is quite well made. It’s a good value given the overall fit and finish, with the blade being quite the slicer.

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Those who know me, know that I really don’t pay attention to social media. Which means I went to Italy when everyone was going there without knowing everyone was going there (until my wife informed me of the bad news), and I went to Japan this summer — also when everyone was going there. Though, this time, I knew everyone was going and had been going. Japan had been our plan for quite some time.

My grandmother was Japanese, and thus I am a quarter Japanese, and until I was an adult I never realized how much influence that had on our family growing up — how we did things and behaved.

I love Japan. I’ve been a few times before, studied the language many years ago, and have family there. We had been waiting for our kids to be the right age to be able to handle the walking, the differences, and to remember the country. Many years ago, we targeted 2025 for this trip, so it was happening.

We spent 16 days in Japan, in five different cities, with one of my closest friends, his wife and kids. It was spectacular, and I am already itching to go back. But, it had also been a full 18 years since my last visit, and this time as an adult — not as a 20-something playing an adult.

Here’s my thoughts on the cities we visited, and on Japan overall — as someone who deeply loves the country and could not care one lick about Anime. I will note that I found that I am still reasonably conversational in Japanese, which (as I’ll talk about more) helped quite a bit.

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