When you live in a city, bags are a snapshot of life. Lugging a backpack or duffel-or conversely, a garment bag-equals gym membership, a laptop case means you work too much. Leather attachés are for the make-or-break clients.

Problem: Most of us are jocks, workaholics, and masters of the universe, all in one. Result: Bag schizophrenia. The wrists ache at all this stuff that carries our stuff.

Your sherpa conscience may be hurting, too. Too many of our travel companions are made of nylon. And personally, I could do without buying another petroleum-based product. That's why I couldn't wait to get my grubby tester's hands on Bag-Kaku, the briefcase from the brand Monacca. This little friend is made of two featherweight sheets of cedar harvested from reclaimed wood in Umazi Village, in Japan's Kochi Prefecture.

According to government forest management policies, Japanese cedar groves are regularly thinned-trees and voted off the island, if you will, which improves sunlight exposure to those left standing. The villagers, who formed the company Ecoasu Umazimura to make products of the felled wood, collect the material, cut it to practically veneer-like depth, and then press it into wafer shapes. (Monacca is a traditional wafer snack.) For Kaku, the two sheets are connected by a hand-sewn band of canvas, and finished with double zippers and a leather-clad handle; glue and urethane finish don't contain formaldehyde. Besides finding a use for good wood, you have to smile at the fact that, according to Monacca's designer, Takumi Shimamura, the business is helping sustain industry in Umazi, where jobs and population were declining due to outsourcing and urbanization.

Of course, without knowing a whit about the briefcase's background at first, I was seduced simply by its handsomeness. I'll never be suited in gray flannel, so there's no need for a somber briefcase. The cedar's flowing grain pattern is hey-I'm-different noticeable without screaming so, and it's the kind of smooth that will have your hands running over the thing while you're waiting for the subway.

Kaku performs how it looks. Folds in the canvas allow the storage capacity to expand, and interior pockets keep pens and pocket change from jostling around the bottom. And it's a multitasker, because it was designed to hold a laptop as large as 17 inches. Eliminating the ‘need' for another bag is as eco-friendly as you can get. Better still, the hard cedar surface makes for a great tablet for typing, writing, or playing a shell game on the go. Just note that if you travel heavy, then get the briefcase in brown; that one includes a shoulder strap.

Like any wood product, Kaku can get scratched. And that's a shame, considering its $265 price tag. Well-to-do parents may consider it for their college grad's gift, if they haven't bought the quintessential watch yet. For those of us who want a more affordable piece of Monacca's beauty, check out the $63 Calculator or, better still (considering that we all have calculators on our aforementioned laptops), there's the Monacca Light, still too new to have a price. This wafer not only displays all the sensual qualities of the cedar, but its internal bulb illuminates the wood in an ethereal reddish cast, and creates a pattern of dots on the ceiling. The briefcase is available through monacca.com.