Ikigai Cases Weekly Pill Case Review

Ikigai is the Japanese concept of a life’s purpose or your life’s work. It refers to the things that bring joy and value to your life, whether that’s the people in it (your friends and family) or your work, activities, or hobbies. It’s a rather profound concept, so when we came upon the Ikigai Cases, we wondered how they connected to such a lofty goal. Well, it turns out that the founders are two brothers who created the sleek, premium cases for their father’s daily medications. If building your life’s work around fulfilling a need for your family member isn’t ikigai, we don’t know what is (not that we actually presume to know much more about this concept than you can find on Wikipedia and in the book of the same name, as Americans who have not studied it in Japan).

Of course, with such a lofty goal (and a premium price) comes our equally lofty expectations. Does the Ikigai Cases Weekly Pill Case live up to the hype? Our tester used it for her daily medications for several weeks to find out.

The Rundown

When you’re looking for the best travel pill organizer or a new pill case, you probably want something easy to use, lightweight, and durable. Well, two out of three ain’t bad, right? That is to say that the aluminum used for the Ikigai Cases Weekly Pill Case, and the rest of their various size options, is a durable aluminum alloy, 6061-t6 to be specific, that looks sleek and shiny. It’s also easy to use but heavy, hence the two out of three. Please stick with us here; we get into more details below.

The aesthetics are part of the draw with Ikigai Cases, too. While you can choose from more than a dozen colors and patterns, at their heart, they look premium and futuristic, with a modern-art vibe that’s hard to dismiss. The only branding comes from a tiny “Ikigai Cases” printed in all caps on the bottom of the case’s backside. When it sits on the counter, all you see is a smooth metal surface with a textured rectangle at the bottom. That’s where you place your thumb in order to slide open the case.

You can pay extra for personalization on the top or opt for the minimalist style of no name. Either way, all you have to do to open the case is grip with your thumb on the textured portion of the lid and slide it open. It slides just to the end of the first open slot, which, in our case, has “SUN” in all caps to let you know those are your Sunday pills. The internal engraving costs extra, too, but you can choose which day of the week you want on top, and we, frankly, think this upcharge is worth it. One of the reasons our tester uses a daily pill organizer is that she tends to forget whether or not she took her pills for the day. If you don’t know which day is in which slot, it may still be hard to recall whether you took your morning pill. If you have a better memory, you can skip the extra engraving, but we’re digging this feature, to be sure.

Inside, there are—you guessed it—eight compartments. What? You didn’t think there’d be more than a week’s worth in a “weekly pill case?” Realistically, the bottom compartment is merely a holding place for the lid when you open it on the last day of the week. However, you can take the lid completely off and use the last compartment for extra pills or to hold supplements or over-the-counter medications.

As you slide the lid open, it clicks into place at the bottom of each compartment. It’s satisfying yet rather loud, so you don’t necessarily want to open this while your travel companion is still trying to sleep. It can’t accidentally open if it bumps into something in your toiletry bag like flip-top cases can, and the lid stays put both on the case and at the end of the compartment that you want to get the pills out of, even if you turn it over to pour them into your hand. That is how you’re supposed to use the case. However, our tester takes two pills at two different times of day, so she had to dig in and pull out the first pill while taking advantage of the dumping feature for the second.

If you have this issue, Ikigai Cases sells an AM/PM version of the Weekly Pill Case, which is simply two weekly cases connected by magnets so they stick together in your toiletry bag and don’t twist and turn. Well, they have slightly different dimensions than the stand-alone case, but that’s essentially what it is. And, if you need something like that, it’s less expensive to purchase the combo than to buy two Weekly Pill Cases, so you should. However, if you only take one pill at two different times, we’re not sure that you really need the added bulk and weight, as most users should have no issue getting their fingers inside to grab a pill, provided you don’t have dexterity issues.

Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of the matter, though. These cases feel premium and look great, but they weigh more than just about any other pill container we’ve ever tried. This case weighs 7.3 ounces (207 g), which will add weight to your Dopp kit and travel backpack, and it also may be difficult for you or the loved one you’re considering it for to hold if you (or they) lack hand strength. We can think of many users who could use this case who would have difficulty holding it to dump out their medication, such as someone with arthritis. So, that’s definitely something that you should consider before investing in one of these cases.

On the other hand, if hand strength isn’t an issue, you can fit quite a few pills into one compartment. To give you an idea, we fit 16 round 200 mg ibuprofen pills into one compartment, which is 0.80 inches long by 1.5 inches wide and 0.5 inches deep (2 x 3.8 x 1.27 cm). You can get different sizes of the Weekly Pill Case, as well, for vitamins or other supplements, which tend to be larger than many daily medications. You can also get cases with fewer compartments, like the Mission Pill Case with three compartments or the Nano Pill Case with one. Either way, when the slider snaps into place at the bottom of the compartment, it doesn’t overlap the opening, so there’s no way for pills to get caught on the way out when you’re dumping them into your hand.

Packability

Please see above for packability. In all seriousness, weight has to be a definite consideration with this case, as it is heavier than most other travel size bottles we’ve used. It is also much longer, so it won’t fit into every toiletry bag, especially the more minimalist ones.

You can fit it pretty easily into the large open compartment of the lululemon Command the Day Dopp Kit, but that’s a 5L bag that takes up a lot of real estate in your backpack or rolling carry on luggage. Something on the larger side of minimal, like the Bellroy Toiletry Kit Plus, can still accommodate it, but you’re going to be sacrificing much of its capacity to carry your pills with a case that’s so large. However, that’s an issue with a lot of pill organizers, and it may be worth it for you to divide your medication into different days of the week instead of dumping it all together.

Quick Comparison

For comparison’s sake, we’ll check out another aluminum bottle, the Matador Waterproof Travel Canister, which come in a taller size that looks like the container you’d get from the pharmacist or a short and fat size that looks more like something that you’d scoop pomade or hand cream out of. The taller one is what we have used for pills when traveling in the past. It has just as secure of a lid (though it’s silicone, not aluminum), so we’re not concerned about it opening while en route, but all your pills will be in the same canister without any organization, so you’ll have to keep track of what you take each day. Also, if you knock it over, everything can spill, whereas with the Ikigai Weekly Pill Case, you’re only going to spill one day’s worth at the most, and its short, squat shape is hard to topple unless you completely knock it off the counter.

If you want something with divisions, you might do what our tester and many others do and hit the dollar store. They offer many different options, including ones with separate compartments for the time of day and days of the week. They’re definitely much lighter than the aluminum options, and you can open just the compartment you need instead of having to slide past several empty spaces to get to the day you’re on. We’ve found that they can accidentally pop open while you’re traveling, though, and they feel much flimsier and (of course) cheap. We’re fairly certain that a lid will snap off at some point, and we’ll have to buy another. Even with inflationary prices at the no-longer-just-a-dollar-store or other discount retailers, you can still go through dozens and dozens of these before you hit the price point of Ikigai Cases.

However, if you have to take daily medication, you might want something that just looks and feels more sleek and durable. If you’re looking for a premium pill case that can last a lifetime, you might want to make room in your Dopp kit and carry on bag for an Ikigai Cases Weekly Pill Case. We don’t think there’s any way you can break it as easily as you can a cheap plastic container, so it should last through trips for decades to come, as long as you don’t mind the extra weight and the click, click, click as you find the right day.