moving from japan 2 – shipping

i previously made a post here about shipping items using the post office, and i stand corrected:

the post office DOES do pick-ups.

i discovered this entirely by chance when purchasing boxes from the branch near my house; once again this has proven that JPO has some incompetent people in their employ, at the officers at the City Hall branch informed me that there’s no such service and that i’ll have to rely on one of the private takuhaibin companies for this.

anyway, pick-up service is called shuuka in Japanese (集荷), and the website is here. It’s in Japanese and I dont think there's English service available.

You can arrange for a pick-up online, or call 0800-0800-111. The service is available from 8am - 9pm daily. I believe the pick-up schedule is the same as for the redelivery service with 4 different time periods to choose from; basically you can call before noon to have them come pick up your boxes that very afternoon/evening.

Do also inform them while scheduling the pick-up that you will require customs labels (raberu; 1 for each box) or get them in person at a post office near you. I don't think there's an extra charge for this pick-up service, which is awesome.

I’m really happy my Fukushima-ku post office had this great, helpful person present. Although he gave me the wrong number to call, at least he equipped me with labels etc to go with my box – which led to questions from me that resulted in today’s important discovery - which the people at the City Hall branch didnt. I’m not sure why they didnt, since you have to affix labels on to box for both domestic and international deliveries anyway.

moving from japan – shipping and softbank

i’m finally, and somewhat belatedly, starting to get ready to relocate – where exactly i’m relocating to i’m not sure yet. but seeing as i definitely have to move house, preparations have begun, and what i’ve discovered is somewhat disappointing.

firstly, shipping. the cheapest option is still, of course, the post office. Japan Post has this SAL option where items are shipped via surface mail domestically but via airmail between countries. it’s faster than seamail but cheaper than airmail – 2 weeks for SAL compared to 2 months for seamail to Singapore, and only 5000yen more!

unfortunately, the post office doesnt do pick-ups from your house. which means that you either have to call a delivery service to send your items to the post office – how you’re gonna pay for the shipping in that case i’m not sure, but that’s what the post office pple suggested – or you bring them there on your own.

i’d suggest not bothering with those larger moving/shipping companies, as all who’ve responded so far have told me that the amount i want to ship is way below their minimum shipping volume. in other words, because i’m not moving my entire house per se, they’re gonna be much more expensive than the post office.

PAKMAIL is a moving company that advertises in Kansai Scene. They don’t provide boxes and are slightly more expensive than the post office, but they have pick-up service from your house for a charge. they have English services, but i’m still not sure whether i’ll choose them over the post office. we shall see about that i suppose.

now, for my softbank mobile phoneline. i’m rather annoyed by them actually, as i have to go down to a softbank shop – note that yodobashi camera and big camera aren’t allowed – personally to cancel my phoneline. the day that i go down to the shop is the day that i cancel my phoneline, because i have to return my SIM card to them.

i find that really dumb cos it’s not like they dont have the capabilities to lock my SIM card and prevent me from using the softbank service past a certain date. i mean, people cancel phonelines all the time back home, and i’ve never ever heard of them having to go down personally to a shop to cancel it, without being able to choose a date of cancellation in advance.

plus, i’m cancelling my internet before i leave, so my phone is my only means of communication with anyone once my internet is gone. yet, in this day and age where everyone in the developed world is so highly connected, softbank is forcing me to be disconnected from others by making me cancel my phoneline before i actually leave japan.

gah. i’m so not looking forward to deal with these kind of little annoying things in the last few days before i leave japan, when all i want to do is to relax and enjoy the last of my time here. especially when these things, really, shouldnt be so troublesome and such a hassle to settle. and im going to be totally uncontactable sometime in the day of the 1st of August, so if you want to say goodbye, please do so before then.

**** softbank.