Notes from Japan - Luggage & Yamato
When I was in Japan on my Honeymoon, I came across a number of things which I meant to blog about in order to help out anyone who was in the same situation. First up, the logistics of taking 2 suitcases and a Snowboard bag with two boards on a holiday which involves travelling from Tokyo to Hokkaido, back to Tokyo, on to Okinawa and back to Tokyo before heading home.
First thing I have to say is that Yamato is your friend. They are basically a luggage delivery company who will send your luggage from place to place at reasonable rates. Look out for the black cat on a yellow sign in airports, convenience stores, hotels etc. There are a few similar companies, I just picked Yamato because their logo is instantly recognisable and we used them and they were excellent.
So first stop, we arrived at Narita airport with all our luggage, we turned up at the Yamato counter (after a brief issue with not having the address of our accomodation in Niseko) and after some explanation in broken Japanese, got them to ship or boards to Hokkaido for us. It cost something like £20 and took 3 days, which is pretty good considering the board bag weighed about 20kg and is 165cm long. Boards arrived safe and sound in Niseko 3 days later when we turned up.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Yamato wanted a phone number, it was a bit confusing as we didn't have one in Japan, but I found out later that UK 3G phones work in Japan (call prices are extortionate, but if it's only for emergencies, it's worth knowing).
Worth checking out if you're flying into Haneda/Narita is the possibility of getting Yamato to send your luggage from the airport to the hotel. This is especially handy if your hotel isn't on the limousine bus route. One of our hotels was in Shinagawa and there is no limousine bus from Haneda airport, you're meant to use the train link. Which isn't all that much fun with 2 massive suitcases. On the way back, we discovered our hotel had a Yamato counter at the Bell Hop station and the night before we gave them our bag and just picked it up at the airport the next morning. If we'd known to send the bags ahead to the hotel it would have been much easier.
So, there you have it, my first tip for travelling in Japan, if you have lots of luggage, let Yamato handle it, they're fairly inexpensive, excellent service and it saves a lot of hassle. I hate to think how much hassle it would have been trying to take a snowboard bag in a taxi or out to Haneda on the train if we hadn't been able to ship it straight to Niseko.
First thing I have to say is that Yamato is your friend. They are basically a luggage delivery company who will send your luggage from place to place at reasonable rates. Look out for the black cat on a yellow sign in airports, convenience stores, hotels etc. There are a few similar companies, I just picked Yamato because their logo is instantly recognisable and we used them and they were excellent.
So first stop, we arrived at Narita airport with all our luggage, we turned up at the Yamato counter (after a brief issue with not having the address of our accomodation in Niseko) and after some explanation in broken Japanese, got them to ship or boards to Hokkaido for us. It cost something like £20 and took 3 days, which is pretty good considering the board bag weighed about 20kg and is 165cm long. Boards arrived safe and sound in Niseko 3 days later when we turned up.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Yamato wanted a phone number, it was a bit confusing as we didn't have one in Japan, but I found out later that UK 3G phones work in Japan (call prices are extortionate, but if it's only for emergencies, it's worth knowing).
Worth checking out if you're flying into Haneda/Narita is the possibility of getting Yamato to send your luggage from the airport to the hotel. This is especially handy if your hotel isn't on the limousine bus route. One of our hotels was in Shinagawa and there is no limousine bus from Haneda airport, you're meant to use the train link. Which isn't all that much fun with 2 massive suitcases. On the way back, we discovered our hotel had a Yamato counter at the Bell Hop station and the night before we gave them our bag and just picked it up at the airport the next morning. If we'd known to send the bags ahead to the hotel it would have been much easier.
So, there you have it, my first tip for travelling in Japan, if you have lots of luggage, let Yamato handle it, they're fairly inexpensive, excellent service and it saves a lot of hassle. I hate to think how much hassle it would have been trying to take a snowboard bag in a taxi or out to Haneda on the train if we hadn't been able to ship it straight to Niseko.
posted by Unknown at 12:22 PM
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