Hey everyone,
My wife and I currently live in Shimane. We’re making the move to the U.S. at the end of the year so she can get to know my family, but we’ll be back and settled here long term eventually.
I’m very attached to my library, and I’d like to ship at least one box of books to the U.S. Does anyone have any experience with this? I’m trying to find the most cost effective option that will handle my books with care. Any help will be appreciated
3 comments
Japan Post Surface mail.
Takes about 3 months and it’s cheap.
Japan Post Surface Mail. Up to 30kg per box. Very cheap, expect 3 to 6 months for delivery.
Use double-walled shipping boxes (two layers of corrugation) if you want any hope of the boxes arriving in one piece with that much weight in them. You can sometimes find these at *home centers*, or you can find box/packaging shops that sell them. Do not ship with cheap/thin/recycled boxes or your books will be at a high risk of damage or loss.
As someone who also loves books and would love a physical library full of them but gave it up because of space & cost issues… An ereader is a wonderful thing.
If you *really* want to keep it up with physical books, check out Infinity Books in Tokyo: https://www.infinitybooksjapan.com/
If it’s only books you’re sending, m-bags (特別郵袋印刷物) are by far the cheapest option, nothing else even comes close. For 30kgs air mail to America it’s only 25,000 yen.
https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/service/s_printed_matter.html