# Relocating from Japan to Australia



## jeanieofoz

Hi, sorry if this is a repeat thread because I missed the original in my searches.
I need to move back to Australia soonest because an immediate family member has become seriously ill. I have been in Japan for 5 years and, being a pack rat who loves books, I have a heap of stuff that I want to bring back.

So I am looking for advice on affordable, trustworthy movers from Japan to Australia. 

Currently my last resort? only option is to post stuff back by surface mail, which does not take into account anything that I have that doesn't fit into a large post-pack. 

Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers,
J


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## larabell

The last time I had to move a huge amount of stuff from Japan on my own was maybe 12 years ago so even if I remembered the name of the company, it might not do much good. But what I did was look through the ads in Metropolis (and I think at the time there was also an English phone book available from NTT -- Japan Yellow Pages) and just picked one. There are a number of companies who do bulk moves. They consolidate smaller shipments into frieght containers that go on a ship. The price was very reasonable, as I recall. But if you ship with a consolidator, you will probably have to do your own customs pick-up. I sent my stuff to Los Angeles and just rented a truck, drove to customs, signed some papers, and loaded the stuff from the dock into the truck. It really wasn't as ominous as it sounded. At least in the US, if it's obviously personal household goods they hardly take any interest.


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## synthia

I had an agent handle picking up stuff I shipped from a couple of countries. Stuff went into customs storage, and the agents got everything through and onto a moving van. I think the agents were associated with the movers I hired to bring the stuff to my place. One shipment was small enough to be FedExed after clearing, a large rug was shipped by movers, and my household goods were also handled by a mover.


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## larabell

Jessi said:


> All licensed movers will have at least some care on your goods.


In theory but not always in practice. For my move *to* Japan this time around, my company hired movers including packing (from the San Jose area). They sent over a couple of monkeys who mis-handled stuff and several things arrived broken or dirty (they apparently shipped one of my futons without covering it at all and it arrived in an almost unusable state). And the mover/agent charged an arm and a leg. (And they were licensed!)

On the other hand, when I moved *from* Japan after my 1st trip over, I packed everything myself and shipped it bulk -- without an "agent". Everything arrived in good condition and I paid around 20% of what my company paid to move me over in the first place. The only downside was that I had to do my own customs clearing but for what they charge you to do that, and for what little effort it actually takes, I can't see any reason not to at least check out the bulk (ie: non-agent) shippers.

Of course, with a full-service agent, you generally just have to pick up the phone and complain if there's any breakage and they'll cough up cash. But in my opinion, it's better to be careful up front than generous after-the-fact. The movers in question, at least on the US-side, were Graebel so you'd be wise to avoid them at all cost.

You can also divide the shipment. Pack the books and send them yourself by ship and plan to pick them up and handle customs clearance yourself. Then the rest of your stuff can be shipped by an agent, door-to-door, and you'll pay a lot less if the bulk of your stuff is really the books. I'm assuming, of course, that customs in Australia is not much different from customs in the US -- show up, fill out some forms, load your stuff, and go. If Australia has more hoops to jump through, an agent might be more worth the money (unfortunately, the only way you'd know is to try it or find someone who already has).

Oh... one other thing... the bulk shippers apparently don't much care about weight. When something travels by ship, it's the size that matters. Large but light things will cost more to ship than smaller but significantly heavier things (like books). So you may well save money with the bulk shipper who will look at all those small boxes and see small $$ for the container space.

Ah... one *more* thing -- a trick I was taught by a friend who moved to the US from India and whose books were left out in the rain by the longshoremen. If you pack your books yourself, put a large-ish trash bag in the box first. Then seal it with tape before you close and seal the box. Then if the boxes get wet, your books don't.

It's a joke to think that just because a mover is "licensed", your stuff is safe. In fact, it could be the other way 'round, since Graebel seems to rely more on insurance than good hiring/training practices. And for an international move, the goods have to pass through so many hands (many of which the moving company has no control over -- like the longshoremen in my Indian friend's case) that you might be better off dealing with one company for the actual transport and doing everything else yourself. Of course, YMMV.


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