Snow Luggage storage/delivery Japan

ukulele on 17/12/2015 - 09:25

Heading to Japan in February for 24 days in total. The first 8 days will be in Okinawa scuba diving, the last week or so will be snow in Myoko and then a night in Tokyo. Just wondering what options anyone has chosen to store their snow gear?

We get into tokyo (narita) in the morning then later that afternoon we will fly to Naha Okinawa, so we have a few hours to organise the snow crapola.

Pretty open to lockers or some other storage service. I have heard of Blackcats which I think also have a delivery service, anyone used them?

Cheerio!

On another note the middle week we are still not sure where to go. We will most likely fly from Naha to Osaka or Fukuoka and work our way back to Tokyo before the snow. Open to suggestions.

Travel

Comments

  • bs0 on 17/12/2015 - 18:11

    Try "luggage forwarding" - some hotels/3rd party can send your luggage on for you whilst you travel elsewhere. Not sure if it will help tho

  • captobvious on 19/12/2015 - 02:10
    +1

    I use the black cat all the time, they are at the airport just fill in the forms and They can hook you up and get your board/ski bags delivered to the resort. Just let the resort know they are expecting bags, ive done this for most of the snow resorts in nagano, myoko kogen being one of them. It will get there a day or 2 after you send them off. Japanese people are very reliable and trust worthy. I am sure if your bags go missing or it misses the next train they will perform seppuku for loss of honour

    Go to kyoto aswell its along they way. There is not much in osaka.

    • energyryu on 19/12/2015 - 15:22

      Hi, I'm planning to use black cat aswell from Tokyo to Niseko then back to Tokyo. I will be travelling Japan for another 2 weeks after Niseko, so I was wondering if you knew if black cat can store the luggage for the two weeks at Tokyo airport. I've been told to ask my hostel to hold the luggage and send it for us, but my hostel said they can't do it.

      Can you think of any other solutions?

      Thanks!

      • captobvious on 19/12/2015 - 16:04

        They dont really store they only deliver, if your final destination is a hotel in tokyo then just give them the heads up and they will hold your luggage until your arrival. If that doesnt work out i have lugged my board bag accross japan. Its not too bad just dont do it during rush hour in a train station. I had people tripping up on my board bag.

  • ukulele on 19/12/2015 - 15:12

    It looks like black cat is the go. I went to their website and got a bit confused because it says "Parcels larger than size 160 are not accepted by TA-Q-BIN" and they calculate that by L+W+H = size (cm). Surely that has to be a mistake? My snowboard bag is 166cm in length, not even including the width and height. Who has snow gear less than 160cm long when you add up the linear measurements of the bag? Most likely our bag will be a touch over 25kg as well because it will have two full setups, helmets, goggles and some outerwear, will this be an issue or do I just pay more?

    Thanks for the tip regarding Kyoto; we went there last trip in January this year and loved it. We want to see the castles of Osaka and experience the food scene there. Also some flagship stores of brands I like are only found in Osaka. We'll probably stop by Kyoto again though.

  • captobvious on 19/12/2015 - 16:00

    They take 166 snowboard bags, ive got the one with wheels and ranges around 25kg aswell with all the snow gear. About $60aud depending on the exchange rate at the time. Work everything out on arrival , they usually have someone that speaks english at the counter. Get the resort you are going to to send you a photo of their address in japanese just incase and let the staff write it out for you on the consignment i have had a language barrier before.

    I haven't made it as far as okinawa but i heard the food there is great.

    Also just a tip, the hospital in iiyama is pretty good and not very expensive, the taxi trip will cost more than seeing the doctor. So no need to hold out if you are in pain. Lolz

  • ukulele on 21/12/2015 - 17:50

    Ok so for anyone else interested I've just called Yamato transport via skype on +813-6757-1061. The dude spoke pretty awesome english and was really helpful.

    Yamato can store luggage for up to 7 days. In my instance my snow hotel also holds luggage for up to 7 days. I arrive on the 5th of February and asked if they could deliver on the 12th of February to my snow hotel and he said yes that's fine (7 days). Then the snow hotel can hold it until I come to shred the powder in full domination mode on the 19th. The best thing about it is that Yamato don't charge for holding it! I swear Japan is just so awesome…

    So if you are travelling around check with your hotels to see how long they can accommodate the snow luggage if you are travelling for a couple of weeks before or after the snow part you should be sweet.

    this link is also useful:
    http://www.kanpai-japan.com/travel-guide/takkyubin-sending-l…

    Cheerio guys.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join