# Shipping belongings



## xhristophe

Hi

I did search, but I cannot find a decent answer to my shipping problem.

I fly out of Japan in Mid-March. I need to take my things with me. I looked at shipping with NekoYamato  but they are hugely expensive. 

I also looked at EMS. I can send a lot of stuff back, but I an concerned that UK Customs and Excise will attempt to "double Dip" the tax and excise duty on what I am sending back, as the majority of my belongings were bought in the UK and sent out to me over a period of time. They've had their money. I would attempt to send by surface mail, but I am shipping mainly books and printed material which it seems does not qualify for surface mail with EMS. 

No, I am not selling any of it because it has either sentimental value or would be difficult to replace. 

The "cheapest" way is to pack up to the maximum for an extra bag and take it through the airport (about 9-10,000 yen).

What do? I basically have clothes, books and a bike. Books being bloody heavy to ship...


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## larabell

No offence, but... if all you found was Takyubin and EMS, you're probably searching for the wrong thing. I just now plugged "international removals" into Google and found any number of places that can ship in bulk. You don't want companies that deal in single packages that you could carry to their office with one arm. You want a firm that does entire households in those huge containers you see on top of commercial ships. Air isn't worth the money -- stick with sea transport. I doubt you'll need everything right away, anyway. What you do need right away should be whittled down to one or two suitcases.

The trick will be to find a company that offers a bare-bones service, at least on the UK side. I don't know about UK customs but when I moved back to the US the first time, I had the moving company just drop the stuff off at customs where I then picked it up in a rented truck and walked all the paperwork through the system myself. It wasn't that hard and it saved me a ton of money. (For what it's worth, I did have them do a pick-up at my place because I didn't have the means at the time to rent a truck in Japan).

As for customs... I'd be surprised if they levy duty on used personal goods. I thought most countries had an exception for household effects. Again, I don't know about the UK but the US doesn't much care what you bring back as "household effects" if it all comes in the same shipment and obviously isn't for resale (and the shipment doesn't contain stuff that's illegal to import, of course). If you buy anything new just before you leave, take it out of the box and re-pack it so it looks used.

There used to be an English phone book from NTT called "Town Pages". That's where I found the company I used but that was back in 1996. I haven't seen the "Town Pages" for years. If it still exists, it's probably online somewhere. If there's an NTT office near you, you could stop in and ask -- they usually have copies of all the phone books they publish sitting in the office for anyone to use. Also check all the usual places where companies advertise to ex-pats in English: Metropolis, Tokyo Notice Board, etc. Look for "moving", "removals", or "relocation" -- not "shipping" (since that's usually associated with single-piece transport of purchased merchandise).


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## jessicalees

What are you sending home? We had an excess of clothes, books, and pottery that we didn't want to sell and mailed it by sea to the UK. Rate was very cheap, though it takes some time, everything arrived when estimated and no problems with customs.


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