shipping costs from Japan

Hello again...

I just got a solution for my "hardware purchase rush" project next year. I want to buy the biggest box available in the closest japan post office to my Ryokan and buy Hard&Soft untill its filled so that I can send it away.

Well there's just one problem... I don't know what matters. Weight or size or both? A package with a few Mega Drives, N64s and Saturns will weight about 30KG and is quite big. What will I have to pay if I send it via SAL i.e. to Europe?

And another question... does anyone know how big the biggest box is? I hesitate to buy an even bigger box in a shop or somewhere because that may result a gross increase of shipping costs.

I would appreciate for information! :033:

 

Both matter. Look here at the English language version of the Post office price guide. there you can see everything you need to know.

http://www.post.japanpost.jp/english/fee/index.html

Yakumo

 

Thanks a lot Yakumo! Thats all I need

 

To Germany...

30 KG max for EMS, SAL, and SEA.

Max box size is 3 meters and the length cannot exceed 1.5 meters. To get the box size use the Length plus 2 x width plus 2 x height.

Good luck...

 

Some 3rd party carriers will go higher (38kg, for instance) but it will start to cost you a pretty penny. The size gets tricky here as well, as posted above.

 

Which companies are you talking about? FedEx? DHL? Other?

 

30kg is more than enough. In fact, I "just" want to send max. 3 15kg boxes. If I understood right, size doesn't matter except when its over the max?

 

Here's a list:
http://www.kaigaihassou.com/hassou.htm

FedEx will go stupid high if you pay them.

 

Well, if I recall correctly (and I think I do) sending for instance 3 boxes of 10kg costs a lot more than a single 30kg box. Of course, you'll also increase the chance of losing the whole thing (happened to me once), but I assume that's negligible provided you pack well.

 

Well the problem is the transportation. I don't know if its a comfortible way to travel with a huge, 10 or even ~25kg (on the way back to Tokyo) weighting box.:noooo:

Anyway, I will see how much everything comes. And even more important: how much money I can spend on shipping fees if I still want to spend it on something else as well

 

Can't you take a lot of it back on the plane with you? The boxes will be large but it will be free...

FedEx Japan is pretty horrible. They only offer one service which is the most expensive kind.

 

All luggage has weight and size restrictions. Plus, it can be heavy to carry. Depending on your airline, some of them really fuck you w/ this. If you fly JAL, and you have on bag that's a couple of kilos over the max, and one that's under, you have to move the stuff from the heavy one to the light one.

Fedex US ain't that great either. But, they will at least send it oversized. I'd love to send a container of these Wega CRT TVs back to the states. It's just not affordable unless they can be sent for 30,000 yen each.

 

Yes, thats something I already had to do (flying US Airways). The airline which carries me to and from Japan is Air France, but I don't want to do the same thing with gaming stuff whose boxes could get damaged by that.

20kg is allowed. I already plan to take a bunch of games with me on the plane (the few expensive ones in the hand luggage and some SFC crap games somewhere else^^).

ps: Will they speak english at the post office in Japan? I can speak a little Japanese and maybe even tell them what I want to send but nevertheless, english is safer^^

 

I forget where I heard this advice (probably here) but I'd recommend bringing clothes that you don't really need anymore (old clothes). Wear them during your trip...and for the trip back...toss some of the clothes, fill the space with games and such. Huzzah! Cheapness!

 

Oh, when it comes to exceeding airline luggage restrictions and not paying, I wrote the book. On both my trips I brought a coat with pockets EVERYWHERE - way too warm for the summer but ideal for carrying stuff. In the end I managed to stuff about 15 CD cases, 8 GB cartridges, 2 ST-V games and more stuff in it, and on both occasions my hand luggage consisted of a huge duffel/gym bag stuffed with about 20kg worth of stuff
(good thing they didn't check)

 

:lol: Don't be silly mate. This is Japan, not any other part of Asia. Japan has the worst rate of English speakers in all of Asia.

Simple Japanese to use will be
(country name)made, (Postage service) de, onegaishimasu.

So say to the UK by SAL is - Igirisu made, Sa-ru de onegashimasu.

EMS = ii em esu
Small Packet (ideal for a few discs etc) = Suma-ru pakketo
SAL = Sa-ru
Surface mail = Funabin

Probably if the staff are young you could use easy English such as Air mail and the country you want to send the goods to. For some reason I think you are from Germany so you'll be glad to knwo that the Japanese call it Doitsu not Germany.

That should help you but then again it may not since if you don't pronounce stuff correctly they can't for the life of them guess what you mean. That's one thing that really used to piss me off about Japanese. They just won't take a guess most of the time.

 

Thanks for the small vocabulary glossary. I consider it to be worth a lot when I finally entered a japanese post office. "Sumaru pakketto".. hehe, I'd have said chiisaku hako or something like that.

I have studied Japanese for one year yet, so I know a few basics. And in respect of the jpn language, I want to talk in japanese to every japanese I met English is only a safety in important situations such as at the airport or Ryokan. And of course it could happen that I ask something in polite-perfect japanese but I don't understand a single word of the answer...^^

Doitsu...yes^^ Its affiliated from Deutschland just like "Arubaito" from german "Arbeit" (work). I already thought about talking eng/jpn only, like "Hero! Do yu hebbu samu geemusu foa mii?" :110: but thats dumb I believe

 

Is it more dangerous to send a big package (~25kg) with Surface Mail than via Airmail? Or is the only handycap the long waiting period?

I think about sending my packages on a long jouney over the ocean but I don't really know if it is too dangerous (damaged parcel maybe? because of seaman's rough manners?^^) or more common that something gets lost. It wouldn't be insured anyway to save toll fees so thats not the issue.

 

Hmm, I have no idea to be honest. Well, if it gets lost then there's more to loose I guess. Still you can insure surface mail you know against such a thing.

Yakumo

 

Korea is worse if you can believe that. I've been 4 times, and every time it's like pulling teeth.

There's no way to register surface mail, AFAIK, so that alone would make it more risky.