Joshua Jackson has long been one of the cooler gentlemen on television. Since his role as Pacey on beloved teen melodrama Dawson’s Creek cemented his legacy as a luminary of television, the Canadian actor has kept us entertained with shows like The Affair, Little Fires Everywhere, and the titularly similar but unrelated Dr. Death and Doctor Odyssey—the latter a particularly guilty pleasure that asked the question: what if the incessant medical disasters of Grey’s Anatomy occurred aboard luxury cruise ship?
While not TV, Jackson’s latest project still has an air of adventure. He’s the face of Banana Republic’s Archive Reissue campaign—which was shot in the storied halls of The Explorers Club, a historic professional society for scientists and their benefactors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side—sat down with us to talk about a ski trip he took to Hokkaido, Japan. Well-traveled and therefore well-versed in the art of going carry-on only, due to his work shooting on location around the world, Jackson shares what he brought with him for the journey—including the one luxury item he swears by.
The trip
What trip are you unpacking for us?
I am unpacking a ski trip that I took to Niseko, Japan a couple of seasons ago now, and it is indicative of the way that I travel in terms of last minute adventures. The hotel was Ichiseko — Annupuri Garden and I was on the mountain every single day. It’s a beautiful location, where you basically just ski and eat this local cuisine of noodles and seafood. It was a fantastic trip. But the best part of it is the onsen. After a day skiing it’s perhaps the greatest thing ever.
How was this trip indicative of the way that you travel?
I pack pathologically light, firstly just because I don’t want to deal with the pain in the ass of losing baggage, or carrying extra baggage and all the extra weight. But I also think that when you pack light, everywhere you go will have most of what you need, and it forces you to interact with the place that you’re in, to fill in anything that you might need locally. So I try as best I can to just pack the essentials and then figure out everything else once I’m there. However, I recently decided to get a proper piece of grown-up luggage—a Sterling Pacific carry-on. I always do carry-on, I even carry my boots on with me, but this time I brought my own skis [and checked them.]
What was the reason for such a last-minute trip?
