Yat (Matt/Matthew) Yeung
2024 Arrival, JHS ALT in Iyo City (Futami)
Gundam/Pokémon/League of Legends/Stardew Valley Nerd (cough, cough... specialist*)
G’day everyone! This Matt from Iyo City, Futami. I am entering the second year of the JET programme as a Junior High School and Elementary School ALT. Over the last year, I have participated in many local events, as well as supporting the local community and schools. During my downtime, I usually build (and even paint a bit) GUNPLA, attempt to cook different Japanese dishes and other cuisines, and finally get on the grind for League of Legends. Other hobbies include swimming, browsing plastic models and games (and not impulse buying… 75% of the time) and eating.
*I am a HUGE Gundam fan, however I live by one rule in the GUNPLA building world, NO SCALPERS.
Greetings comrades of Ehime, I am back. If you don’t know me, my name is Matt and I’m a second year JET currently based in Futami, Iyo City. I am a huge Gundam fan (a mecha anime that sells merchandise via the form of plastic model kits), therefore from time to time I find myself in a situation of… not having enough space for new models. A general solution for very long term residents would be to do some home improvement, such as rearranging or buying a new shelf. However, since I don’t see myself as a long term resident, I often have to ship small batches of Gundam home (to display, not to scalp!).
Today, I will be moving away from my usual topics of Gundam, Pokemon and pop culture in general, and talk about something much more handy, shipping on an International level!
Which Ship should I ship my box of ships?
There are a few shipping services that may ring some bells for you, and/or even receive something from. They include JP Post, the national postal service, Kuroneko Yamato, the iconic black cat icon (shown below), and Sagawa, is well… just Sagawa. Although there are three companies you can choose from, I strongly recommend using JP Post as your primary source of shipping.
Why is this ship better at shipping my box of ships?
Out of the big three package mailing services, I will always place JP Post on the top. One HUGE advantage of using JP Post is how accessible it is to everyone, there is guaranteed a post office in every place you live, meaning your chances of shipping something out is 100%. Kuroneko and Sagawa only have big distribution centers somewhere around your living area (for example, it is almost impossible for me to get to my distribution centre for Kuroneko without a car, and it’s at least an hour away from where I live). However, most of these sorts of preferences only reflect on where you live and all that, so opinions may not always be the same! Furthermore, JP post offers several different types of shipping, from express mail service to ship via land (boat). The prices vary across the different types of services, so in this blog I will be going through the different types of services and guide you through how to ship your box of ships!
Preparation you need to ship your box of ships!
Before jumping into the details of shipping, there are a few important things you need to be aware of. Firstly, you have to consider whether you are shipping locally, or internationally. If you are shipping locally, the process is much more straightforward and simple in comparison to shipping internationally. The only information needed for you to ship something away would be the content of your package (which… you should know… maybe?) and the postal code for where you are shipping to (example 000 – 0000). The postal code should usually be a combination of 3 numbers in the front, followed by a combination of 4 numbers at the back.
An example of the 7 digit postal code would look something like this…
799 – 0001 ← This is probably an actual code… not sure
On the flip side, dealing with international packages is slightly more painful and strict. For starters, international shipping registration is all now done online, so if you want anything shipped overseas, you would have to have it completely ready BEFORE going to the post office (unless you don’t mind looking awkward staring at your phone doing it online in the post office). The link below would be the front page of where you can start your international shipping registration!
https://www.int-mypage.post.japanpost.jp/mypage/M010000.do?request_locale=en
Once you have (probably) created an account, you will enter a page like… this!
With this screen popping up, you should be ready to begin registering your shipment! Well from here there really is only ONE button to click, which is “Create New Labels”. Afterwards, click on the “Enter the sender’s name” button. It would lead you to a page where you need to enter some personal details, such as name, address, contact number etc. It should look something like this…
As you can see in the “sample” information, it is pretty straight forward in terms of entering your own information. A quick heads-up would be if you want tracking on, you would need to enter your E-mail address too!
TIP! If you know your address (like 799-0001 or something like that), the page could actually automatically fill in your details for you! That way you could save a lot of time and effort if you find typing your own address in Japanese difficult! From the example above, if the postal code was 123-4567, then you click the set address button, the address of your house and city would automatically pop-up!
Once your own information has been entered, now you would need to enter your recipient’s address and details. In this case, please be careful when entering details about the recipient’s address, as the website may be slightly confusing to new users (and sometimes me).
Here is the page of the recipient’s address set up. For simplicity sake, I will make up a fake recipient and address below and use it as an example.
- Name: Flibber Phlanp
- Country: Australian
- Address: 32-B North Point Avenue, Cliifphant, Queensland, NSW
- *Optional, Postal Code: 0001
With the 100% real address above entered into the recipient’s information, it would look something like this…
Sometimes it could be a panic moment when entering information like addresses, but good news is it’s actually pretty simple. Once the next button has been clicked, you would be returned back into the page where you have details of the sender (aka. YOU) and the recipient. Select the recipient you want to send to via the circle on the left of your recipient’s name, if done correctly it would turn blue!
After clicking next again, congratulations! You have gotten through one of the more stressful parts of the process. However, now you will be faced with a bombardment of options for shipping… which is what I will be talking about in the next section!
The shipping services of the shipping company to ship your box of ships!
So, some of you guys may be thinking, “why are there so many options?!” Honestly, you are kind of correct, but at the same time, kind of no as well. Mainly depending on what you ship will vary among the different services provided by JP post. In this instance, I will use a box of model ships, weighing at around 750 grams (or 1.65 pounds in freedom units) as an example of the item you are shipping.
Before actually registering the items and everything into the actual shipment registration form, I recommend using JP post’s price checker to confirm everything, thus you can get a rough idea of how much you are expecting to pay.
EMS
EMS, also known as Express Mail Service is the fastest form of mail service you can have, mostly arriving within a week of sending it, also depending where you are sending it from. As you can see from above, there are 2 EMS services, EMS (Documents) and EMS (Goods or dutiable goods). Both are pretty straight forward in terms of what they mean, Documents for more paper (only) type shipments like applications etc. and Goods are more for general shipping. If you want to do some initial exploration of prices, click here!
International Postal Parcel
This is like the standard form of mail service (by plane), similarly also up to 30kg (or 6.6 pounds in freedom units). However, this sounds kind of stupid but this is one of the only services that somehow has extra charges, on top of it. Therefore, it costs usually just a tad under EMS, but also depends where you are shipping it to. I wouldn’t usually recommend this service unless the place you are shipping to is significantly cheaper. It takes around 15 days (going to Chicago) on average for delivery time.
However, you also do this via sea, the only drawback is that it takes a whopping 2 -3 MONTHS, therefore anything not so urgent can be very well shipped by land. Good news is, the cost is usually much cheaper when shipping by land, with tracking service.
International ePacket Light
I personally like this service quite a bit more than EMS. On average, it actually claims it takes longer than the International Postal Parcel, but like what Miles Morales once said, “Time is a relative”. On the website it says it would take around 5 – 21 days on average. The main difference between this one and the International Postal Parcel is that it only has a maximum weight of 2kg. Therefore, when you are shipping something light, like models and small items, this is my highly recommended form of mailing service.
Similarly to International Postal Parcel, the tracking service is also available, and if you want any further information about this please click here!
Small Packet
I like to call this… the cheap version of International ePacket Light. The only main difference is no tracking service. Like the International ePacket Light, the maximum weight is 2kg and is treated slightly differently than the ePacket. The Small Packet mail service is treated more like a letter or a postcard, so not so much of a “parcel” type delivery.
Unlike the ePacket though, the Small Packet can ship by land, also taking 2 – 3 months to reach the designated destination.
Printed Matter
Very self explanatory, the Printed Matter service is for well… printed matters. Postcards, Mail, Dairies, Direct Mail, etc. you name it, are all available for service delivery. This has a maximum weight limit of 5kg (that’s a lot of paper). I think with modern world technology, this might be used much less than the other services available by the post office… (I sound like a BOOMER)
Letter Others
Kind of self explanatory as well. Similar to the Printed Matter section, it shouldn’t be that much different.
A Demonstration of shipping a box of ships through JP Post’s shipping service!
The main difference between the different types of shipping services is the time it takes to get there, and the weight limit of each shipment. With EMS naturally being the fastest, it is naturally the most expensive one of the bunch. I will now show you an example for registering one of your shipments through the website. No matter which service you pick, the process is the exact same. In this example, I would be using EMS, thus it would be slightly more expensive, but as a result be the fastest service available.
The Express Mail Service has a maximum weight limit of 30kg (or 6.6 pounds) weight limit, and will vary between 5 to 14 days, not taking into account delays, which prefecture you are in, and which specific state/territory of the recipient you are delivering to.. Punching all these numbers into the price checker, you will get something like this.
Yep! Shipping from Ehime to California State would take between 12 – 13 days, at approximately 4740 yen (AUD approx. $46, Pound Stirling approx. 24, USD approx. $32). For shipping overseas in this amount of time, I think this is a very reasonable price (but considering 750g isn’t a lot so… yeah be cautious).
So going back to the actual registration form, clicking on the EMS (Goods) button will give you a little pop-up below, looking something like what you see down below.
Now this is one of the more annoying parts of the entire process, because JP Post is very VERY stingy, you would need to be specific. For example, if we are shipping a box of ships, you would not type model ships, you have to type plastic models. Furthermore, unit price is much more lenient, since you don’t have to give the actual price of the idea. An educated guess or estimation would be completely fine. Finally, quantity is pretty self-explanatory so it would be fine. It should look something like this once it has all been entered.
So here as you can see, I have a box of plastic model ships that is worth 199, 999 yen, and the quantity of this is 1. You may be thinking… 199, 999 yen is a LOT OF MONEY for a plastic model ship right? You are absolutely right, but for example sake, this was shown to you because 200 000 yen is the maximum TOTAL VALUE you could have, suggesting it is not ideal to ship overly expensive items overseas (please please keep important / expensive items closer to yourself…).
Yep so keep adding a separate category if there are any other items unrelated to each other, for example if I shipped a book about ships too with this shipment, I would enter…
As shown here. Unfortunately I have exceeded the value of 200 000 yen, thus making this current shipment shown above invalid. Once you are finished with listing everything you want to ship, don’t forget to tick the button in the box for “I have no dangerous goods inside these boxes”, as shown below.
Lastly, it would bring you to a page where you can overview everything you have filled out so far, including your own address, items you want to ship, recipient’s address etc. Just to be safe I do recommend looking at this closely. If everything looks good to you, proceed with the webpage by clicking “register shipment” at the bottom of the page, it should take you somewhere like this…
Nothing much… and you might be thinking… Now what? You still have to go to the post office after this… but yes you are almost done. If you click on the “Print after agreeing with the notes”, you would get an itemized recipe with a barcode, which comes in the form of a PDF. file.
The barcode is mainly what the workers in the post office would want, or if you are super kind you could even print out the recipe in your own time. There is a time limit of 14 days before the printed sheet / barcode becomes invalid, so please do it within reasonable time.
When would I know your box of ships has arrived to where I want my box of ships to be shipped?
Normally, most services should come with a tracking service, thus you won’t have to worry about where your package ends up. 90% of the time the package will safely reach the opposite end to the recipient. To get tracking service onto your package, of course it comes with a small price.
As you can see right above this text, there is a small “+” logo, with the “delivery status email detailed setting” where you can turn on the settings for receiving emails of the delivery status via email. Alternative and mostly likely what you will do is keep in contact with the recipient. In this case just wait until your very very happy happy recipient spams you with joyful and exciting text messages.
And that should be it for the International Mail Service! If you have any questions feel free to ask each other, someone who can help, or as a last resort, your supervisors!
How to protect ships from getting attacked by physics?
There are a few very bad things that could happen in life, for example getting locked outside of your own house, getting (somehow) stuck in a public toilet, losing your car keys or even accidentally flushing your goldfish down the toilet (how did it get there?!). Another terrible thing that could happen is finding out your box of ships you shipped, is now a BOX OF SCRAPS (Iron man reference… anyone?).
A little shaky, shaky journey with some bumpy bumpy would lead to unwanted damage to your package, so it is encouraged that you secure the box/package carefully, so both ends of the delivery process feel happy! For this section I will be going through some advice and tips that could help secure your personal box of ships, so your recipient won’t be receiving a box of scraps.
1. Bubble Wrap + Tape
Different items shipped would call for a different form of packing, and when packing something fragile like plastic models or glass jars (of something…), the one and only bubble wrap and tape would be your best friend. These things can take several collision hits and just shrug it off as if nothing happened. If you are interested in getting some bubble wrap, DAISO has it in a few different packaging.
There is a 120cm x 120cm (or 3.9 ft x 3.9 ft in freedom units) ONE PIECE bubble wrap, therefore you would have to cut out your own portions relative to the thing you want to wrap. There is also a 30cm x 30cm (or approx. 12 inch x 12 inch) package that has 12 individual sheets of bubble wrap. And finally the 50cm x 5m bubble wrap TUBE (19 inch x 16 ft) that you could buy. These are all sold at DAISO for 100 yen, 100 yen and 200 yen respectively.
2. Foam Peanuts/Shredded Paper
Not my personal favorite form of “protection”, since it does come with some risk. Although the use of peanuts and shredded paper does help cushion some rather more fragile items, I find this process slightly more messy and less convenient compared to bubble wrap. However, if you ever do want to use this method to safely ship items, the peanuts are sold in DAISO once again, at a cost of 100 yen. Shredded paper is well… use your hands (be careful, they are still evil and can give paper cuts!)
3. Simply Marie Kondo Diff
For those who do not understand the reference, Marie Kondo is a famous Japanese celebrity famous for her “packing” and “organizing”. By simply rearranging your items and orientation of your items, you can sometimes find yourself packing more, or even protecting each item efficiently. The use of bubble wrap and soft items could help protect the more fragile stuff that are placed towards the center of the box. Alternatively, you could think about which items should go first, which go on the side, the corners and how to top it off at the end.
You may not get it right the first time all the time! Practice makes perfect!
4. Box choices
Speaking of boxes, the choice of box does sometimes affect how safe the package will be. Despite tape literally being overpowered as a tool to protect the box, PHYSICS sometimes finds its way to overpower tape itself. Therefore, you need to be careful when choosing the box to pack your goods.
When choosing boxes, I recommend looking for bases with overlapping flaps, which naturally strengthens the box itself without tape! These boxes could sometimes be found in FUJI, as they have a section where people can just take free spare boxes (if you don’t mind shipping using a Itoen Box lol). Moreover, they can also be found in DCM, with a much larger variety and sizes, with a higher cost sitting at around 300 yen. DAISO, coming in as the hero again, also has a variety of boxes, however they are much smaller and flatter than those in DCM. Definitely recommended for smaller items. Finally, the last place you could get boxes is JP Post themselves! They sell up to three different sizes of boxes, each varying in cost (if I remember… around 200 yen).
Of course, you could use a recycled box you got from a delivery you received, and I do strongly encourage that. The key takeaway would be be cautious on what box you are using!
5. Think ahead!
The most important of them all, is PLAN AHEAD! Nothing beats (a Jet2 Holiday!) a well thought out and organized shipment. Think about what else you could ship in the same batch? What else could fit in the box? This can save you some money by reducing the number of shipments, and efficiently ship several items in one go! At the same time, prepare ahead in time for shipments! Have the tools and boxes ready, leading to a more calm, less panicking package delivery! The JP Post process sounds crazy already, let’s not make packing on the same level of crazy!
Good Luck!
What if I receive a box of planes and miss it in Japan??
Moving on, let’s explore receiving items from a delivery service, like Sagawa, Kuroneko Yamato and even JP Post! There will be times where the delivery person will randomly arrive at the “right” time and you for some reason just aren’t present to receive it (or stuck in the toilet singing, or fighting your own wars haha). You go to your mailbox, just to receive something like… this:
The “不在 (ふざい)” means “absent”、 therefore… congratulations! You received an absent retrieval notice! Other mail services would have a different looking ticket, but the most important part is notice the two Kanji printed on it, which is 不在. Unlike 99% of Amazon orders, these companies will not leave items in front of your door, or have someone else retrieve it for you on your behalf. As much of a pain this all sounds, there is nothing much you could do about this unfortunately, as it is part of their system. Another point taken into account is that these “items” are usually too large to fit in a mail box, that is why you would receive the “absent” notice.
Usually, the notice would come with a sticker type seal towards the top half of the sheet. On the sticker, there should be a QR code, which is used to schedule a re-delivery of your package. Different services have different procedures and re-delivery systems, for a few reasons.
Firstly, Sagawa and JP Post usually don’t have a “specific time” re-delivery service, unless you personally call the number given on the notice (usually sitting next to the QR code). That number would be the delivery man’s number. If you find calling someone in full Japanese a little daunting, I recommend inputting a re-delivery on a weekend and just waiting it out until it arrives. Be careful though, as the recipient HAS to be YOU, not anyone else.
On the other hand, Kuroneko Yamato in my opinion has the most superior re-delivery service. Not just it’s the same as the other two, but you can at least select a time period on when you want to deliver. The time frames however are in intervals of 2 hours (like 16: 00 to 18: 00), but I think something is better than nothing…
The alternative options include doing some extra research, specifically onto where your distribution center is. You can personally go to the distribution center and show them your absent note of shame, then they would (LAUGH AT YOU JK) try to find your order on the database, and hand the package over to you, no sweat!
Conclusion
I know this may be a lot to take in, it’s like packing your own box and knowing where to ship it. You have to organize how to place your items in the box, navigate through JP Post and make sure everything is right, lots of things to think about.
On top of all that, missing your package delivery does feel very bad sometimes, well it can’t be helped if the delivery man is too time accurate. We just got to know how to handle the situation, no stress!
Ultimately, I hope you find this useful and hope it helps you relieve some minor stress about shipping things overseas! If you have any questions please don’t be scared to ask! Good luck shipping your boxes of ships by ships or planes!
Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out this month’s article. If there is a story, experience, or idea you’d like to share please reach out to us at themikanblog@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
Best, Justin
