Japan luggage transfer services

[Gill H]

Any experience? I hear they are commonly used.

Our itinerary now is Disney, Kyoto, Hakone, Tokyo.

Thinking of sending cases on separately.

[disneywiseowl]

My daughter always does this. Never had a problem. I can ask her for any details you need.

[Wordsworth]

Done this several times on both our trips and never had a problem - our hotels have always known exactly how to handle it.

If I were you, I’d at least consider sending your suitcases from Kyoto to Tokyo and going hand luggage only to Hakone and back, as the smaller train from the Shinkansen station to station at Hakone (at least the one we went to) had less space for luggage. That said, we did it with all of ours and it was fine.

We did Osaka to Disney with all our luggage, using the same trains I think would cover Kyoto to Disney, and it was fine. We generally take two medium wheeled suitcases.

[Gill H]

Thanks. I am thinking:

Disney 4 nights - the night before checkout we pack one case with all our dirty clothes and inevitable Disney merch, and send to be delivered to our Tokyo hotel for when we get there.

We pack an overnight bag - underwear, toiletries.

Then everything else goes in the other case and we send it to Kyoto to arrive next day.

So on checkout day we just have our overnight bag with us. Head to Kyoto and explore until we can check in, and our case will be waiting.

Three nights in Kyoto - the night before we check out, pack our overnight bag. Everything else goes in the suitcase, and we send to Tokyo.

Next morning, check out, travel to Hakone with just our overnight bag, do all we want to and then get hotel shuttle (it’s 30 min from station).

One night in Hakone, then travel back to Tokyo where our suitcases will both be at our hotel.

[Wordsworth]

I’ve never sent a case that I needed the next day, but if they offer that service, all sounds good to me.

There was a bag storage at hakone station that we used too, might be worth thinking about if you don’t want to carry your overnight bag around that day.

[amy56]

Gill so sorry to crash your thread but I am very tentatively planning our first ever trip to Japan and this is the first I’ve heard of luggage transfers - is this essential? Are you not allowed to take luggage on the bulletin train for example? (Not sure I fancy being separated from all of our things, so just need to get my head around it if it’s necessary) - thank you so much for any info! 👍

[AntonyJ]

I never used it as had not heard of it before my trip, and once there we did not have a bag / small case to use as overnight bag for sending cases the day before. Wish I had.

We had 2 big cases each, one inside the other, so on the way from airport to Hilton Tokyo Bay was fine, as it was off plane, down escalator to coach stop.

However moving from Hilton to Shibuya was a bit more of a faff with cases as so many steps at stations and did not appear to have lifts where we needed them.

Shinkansen - I read a story that JR said if your cases are above a size, you need to book the space in the carriage.

As others have said, sending luggage is the norm for Japanese it appears, you only tended to see us tourists struggling with huge cases.

japantoday/category/feat...ge-rules-start

[Gill H]

All the videos I have watched say if you have oversize luggage you now must book the seats in the back row on the Shinkansen. However, the size allowance is generous.

We are going from Tokyo Bay to Kyoto, then Hakone, then Tokyo. So I think luggage transfers could save us time and effort.

We did it in Amsterdam a few years back and it was great. You can do it in London too.

[soraia]

We did the same but the other way around Gill H - we transferred our luggage from Kyoto to Tokyo and it was a lifesaver.

We had planned 2 days in between to go to Miyajima so we just took hand luggage and it was so much easier to get around on the Shinkansen, the ferry and especially once we got to Tokyo station - would have been a nightmare to maneuver with our bulky luggage.

It was very efficient as when we checked in to our hotel in Tokyo they had even taken the luggage up before we arrived so my bag was there waiting for me when I got up to my room. Sooo convenient and definitely worth the money!

[Olympiad]

We never got the chance to try it out as our planned trip to Japan last year was cancelled, but we were planning on using a luggage transfer service on a couple of our longer journeys.

For much the same reasons as already mentioned - ease and convenience (your hotel will arrange for you etc) and also the potential lack of space on the shinkansens.

As already mentioned you now need to make a reservation for both oversized luggage and a seat near the luggage area (so a max of 6 seats per carriage so could limit train options). Oversized is classed as 160cm in total across all dimensions which I think is roughly a medium size case (airline carryon is around 120cm). Less than this can be put in the overhead racks.