Have you seen others travelling by van and enjoying endless adventures? Are you thinking about starting van life but not really sure where to begin? We have been living in our van in Japan for most of 2020 and we have learnt many things along the way. Living in our van has been a wonderful experience overall but there have also been many challenges!
In this blog post, we will share our top tips and advice and tips for van life! We wish someone had told us these things before we started van life since they are really helpful tips which make our lives much easier everyday.
Tips & Advice For Van Life:
1. Park On Flat Ground
When we first started living in our van, we made the mistake a few times of parking somewhere which wasn’t completely flat. The main problem with parking somewhere which isn’t flat is that it’s more difficult to get a good night of sleep, especially if you are sharing a bed with someone! It’s not much fun if one person keeps rolling over to your side during the night.
If you have drawers in your van, they will also keep opening if you are parked on an angle and they will need to be secured after each use. It’s also more difficult to cook and live in your van if you are parked on an angle. Basically, you should avoid it if you can!
We have sometimes seen people use spirit levels and wheel chocks which are big pieces of plastic that can help you level your van if parked on an angle. We don’t personally use them as they are quite bulky and would take up too much space inside our roof box but they are an option if you are worried about finding flat places to park.
2. Eye Mask and Ear Plugs
We always imagined ourselves parking up in nature and only listening to the sound of the peaceful ocean or nearby chirping birds.
However, once you start van life, you realise that an eye mask and ear plugs are extremely useful since it’s not always possible to stay overnight without anyone else around and you are in control of the noises outside your tiny home!
We sometimes park in roadside stations where there are trucks coming and going during the night which can easily wake a light sleeper. We have also parked near street lights and we find it quite hard to sleep if there is light shining into the van all night.
3. Every Item Has A Home
Since the van is such a small place compared to a normal sized house or apartment, it is important to be very organised and allocate a home for each item. In addition, it is also important to bring only what you really need.
It’s unlikely for example that you will need 10 different pairs of shoes! If many items are always lying around inside the van, it becomes annoying and you need to always move these items to access different parts of the van.
This is an especially important point if you are planning on enjoying van life as a couple. If one person’s belongings are always lying around and getting in the way of the other person, this could be the cause of an argument.
We also wrote a blog post about how to survive van life as a couple, check it out below!
4. Use A Small Rubbish Bin
It’s difficult to dispose of rubbish in Japan since it’s normal for people to take trash home with them and there are not many public rubbish bins. During van life, the most common places to throw away rubbish are convenience stores, supermarkets, gas stations and camp sites.
If you throw away large bags of rubbish at one time, it might be mistaken for household rubbish which cannot be thrown away at supermarkets or convenience stores. When we started van life, we had a large bin, but after a few months we changed to a small bin which has made it much easier to throw away rubbish.
5. Use Small Towels & A Hanger
When travelling by van in Japan, it’s common to visit onsens or sentos as a way to take a shower and bath. When we first started van life, we brought 2 large bath towels with us and would hang them outside our van overnight after visiting an onsen. Sometimes the towels did not completely dry and they often became smelly.
We decided to purchase 10 small and fast-drying towels instead and hang them in the cab area of the van on a hanger after visiting an onsen. The morning sunlight usually heats up the cab area and the towels are dry by around 9am.
This was a small change we made but it has made a huge difference and we really enjoy having a fresh towel each time we visit an onsen.
6.Install Curtains
Curtains are a great idea if you like privacy and don’t want anyone to see you sleeping inside your van or vehicle. It’s possible to purchase pre-made curtains for vehicles or if you are feeling creative, you can make your own!
We made our own curtains for our van and we wrote a blog post explaining the steps involved. Check out the blog post below!
7. Stay Overnight For Free
We have almost spent 200 nights in our van and the number of times we have paid to stay the night somewhere can probably be counted on one hand! There are many free government owned campsites all over Japan and some of them are fantastic!
It is also possible to stay at roadside stations or other random places! If you are travelling long term, it is worthwhile researching free places to stay the night and marking these places on your map. Staying overnight for free can really reduce monthly costs.
8. Pack Everything Away Before Driving
It’s easy to jump into a car and just start driving. However, in a van this is not the case! It is important that everything is packed away securely and nothing will move around while driving.
If your van has drawers, it is important to lock them shut so they don’t open while turning corners. We once started driving and forgot about an unfinished coffee cup and it fell down and spilt all over the van! It was a nightmare!
9. Condensation
After spending the night sleeping, body heat inside the vehicle can sometimes cause condensation on the inside of the windscreen. If you plan to start driving soon after waking up, it can be annoying.
We purchased some anti-fog wipes and a sponge that soaks up condensation from the ¥100 store Daiso. It’s an easy way to remove the condensation quickly so you can get started with your day!
10. Portable Electricity
If you will be spending one night or more away in your van, it is a good idea to think about a solution for charging your electronics such as a mobile phone, ipad or camera. Nowadays, there are many power banks available to purchase which can be charged up via mains electricity and can be used to recharge devices.
A simple solution would be a portable battery like this one which can charge a mobile from 0% to 100% 4 times. We use this one when we go for day hikes and we like that we can see on the screen how much battery percentage remains.
For our van, we use two big portable batteries since we work online and need access to a huge amount of power for video editing and charging devices such as drones and cameras.
The two batteries are called EcoFlow Delta and Jackery 700. We also wrote another blog post about our van electricity system which you can see below.
Our Overall Verdict
We hope this list containing tips and advice for van life was helpful for those of you who are considering this alternative lifestyle. We are constantly learning new things while living on the road and these are just a few things which have helped make our lives easier!
We have made many videos about van life in Japan, check some of them out below!
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