The MacGyver List
(photos link to Amazon)Blackburn Mountain Mirror
These should just be standard on all bikes. This one's easy and will fit any mountain bike (even one with bar extenders). Also perfect for touching up my makeup on the go. 
Cateye Cyclo-Computer
My max speed so far is a measly 45 kph... must work on that. Lots of models out there, this one gets good reviews and is simple and not too expensive.
Leatherman Squirt
Except for street-fighting, I always found pair of scissors more handy than a knife when travelling. This one's got both anyway and is tiny. Better than a Swiss Army Knife.
The Kitchen Sink
This is my kitchen sink, laundry basket, washing machine, water tank, shopping bag, and the ultimate in windproof headwear. Folds up small enough to fit in your pocket.
Miner's Light
Once you switch from the old-school handheld MagLite-style torch to a headlight, you never go back. Petzl make the best ones and this one weighs next to nothing. Also perfect incase you ever need to go mining.
Sleeping Mat
So much more comfy than the closed cell things I used to use, and they pack smaller too. There's the prolite version as well, but given they have less padding, it's hard to justify the extra cost for the little bit of weight saved - I'll cut the handle off my toothbrush instead.
Camp Chair
Turns a foam mat into an uber-comfy chair. This is the most civilised thing I have in my kit. So comfy that lately I've been using one in my living room at home in place of real sofas.
Silk Sleeping Bag
Summer sleeping bag, winter liner, perfect for HOQS (hostels - of - questionable - sanitation). I took a cotton one with me to India, but the silk one I've got now is tiny and worth the extra cost, especially if you get them from JagBags - much cheaper than anywhere else.
About
A little info about me, my gear, this site and how to contact me.
Andrew Wallace
This is not Andrew Wallace the intrepid investigator of tumor cell responsiveness to anti-cancer drugs by proteomics and mass spectrometry. Not Andrew Wallace the flamboyant French and German speaking expert in international industrial research. Not Andrew Wallace the renowned Head of the Contemporary Communication School at Queensland University. Not Andrew Wallace the prestigious co-author of 'Edge Classification and Depth Reconstruction by Fusion of Range and Intensity Edge Data.'
This is the not-quite-so- well-renowned (though no less wind-swept and interesting) Australian-born Andrew Wallace currently living and working in Japan amid the rice paddies of eastern Shikoku.
(The photo is a self-portrait taken in infra-red at about 4,800m in Tibet - my reflection in the back window of the 4WD that took us over the Friendship Highway and into Lhasa. The somewhat pained expression is probably the altitude sickness.)
Gear
Travelling light can be a liberating experience. This is all the gear I'll have with me on my 3 month trip. Not the most spartan kit ever, but still a refreshingly far cry from the house full of stuff I normally think I need:
This Site
If you're wondering how I found the time to put this site together (it took a long time), you'll find the answer here. I taught myself 2 new languages — HTML and CSS (both much easier than Japanese) — and a little bit of Javascript, and managed to code almost everything by hand (with a little help from dreamweaver). It's not really that hard if you've got the time.
The journals are all maintaned through Blogger. Blogger's defintely the easiest way to get up and blogging (though now I kind of wish I'd gone with WordPress instead). I'll be mailing in daily updates from my mobile phone while I'm on the road, which is a really cool feature.
I'm using JustGiving for my fundraising. I got the idea from an old friend of mine from Korea, Marcus, who used it and raised quite a lot of money when he ran the London Marathon. Very easy to set up. I did find an Australian equivalent too, but it just doesn't seem to work as well.
If you find any broken links etc, please let me know.
Contact
email: sowhatsitallaboutthen [at] hotmail.com
mobile phone: 090-4505-6106
mobile email: andrewinkitagawa [at] docomo.ne.jp
