Hello everyone,
I was wondering if any current or past JETS have any advice on what to bring? Like will our places provide cooking supplies, bedding supplies, clothes hangers, furniture, etc?
Also, if we do want to ship stuff to Japan, does anyone know the best way to do that?
Thank you! 🙂
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>any advice on what to bring? Like will our places provide cooking supplies, bedding supplies, clothes hangers, furniture, etc?
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Most (all?) of those things won’t be provided, but you definitely shouldn’t bring them. Japan has homeware and furniture stores y’know.
I had to ship extra clothes to me. I’d recommend reaching out to your CO and see if you can ship it to their office before you arrive. But be prepared, as it may be expensive and worth it to just bring an extra bag of luggage if possible.
Everything you listed you can buy brand new or used in Japan. Japan sells everything you need to furnish a home. Japan has second hand/recycle shops if you wanted to buy things used to furnish your home. Used items sold in Japan are in pretty good condition.
For a furnished apartment it will depend, for example if you have a predecessor and you are inheriting their apartment. Your predecessor could sell or leave things behind for you.
If you want ship anything else (more clothes and shoes for example) from your home country to your new home in Japan, prepare a box(es) with the items you want to ship before departure and leave the box(es) with a family member/friend that can ship it for you later after you arrive in Japan. Once in you’re at the new home, you’ll have your new address to share with the person shipping your stuff.
One thing I recommend to bring is one body towel to hold you over until can you buy more later at settling in.
Edit: I had sea mail in mind, so be mindful what you send by sea mail of course. I have only used sea mail to send things I don’t mind getting damaged or lost.
You may or may not move into your preds apartment. So there is the potential that basic stuff like coat hangers or furniture may be there.
On the flip side you may move into a completely empty apartment, or your pred may be forced to remove everything before you arrive.
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To get you started, just go to Daiso and buy little things like coat hangers or cutlery, For bigger things check out second hand shops or Amazon.
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I arrived in winter, so I had my parents ship some of my summer stuff to me after I was settled in my apartment. I brought a lot of clothing because clothes my size aren’t common in Japan.
>Like will our places provide cooking supplies, bedding supplies, clothes hangers, furniture, etc?
No to all of those. You can get them very cheaply here, or your place may already have those (especially furniture).
Save your space for your personal items like clothes and personal effects. You can get almost everything you need in Japan already unless you need specialty items like specific shampoos/soaps for unique hair/skin conditions (that aren’t available online like Amazon).
If you’re not sure, ask your predecessor or CO, they can better tell you what will be provided.
What will/won’t be provided will depend on your placement situation. if you have a predecessor and will be inheriting their apartment you might have some of it left behind. If not, you’ll be starting from scratch. In my case one of the things that my supervisor did on my first day was take me shopping for things like shampoo, toilet paper, basic kitchen supplies, etc. You can get basic bedding sets for relatively cheap (futon, cover, pillow, plus sheets for all of them), getting an actual bed and bedding is a little more tricky due to transportation but its doable. There are used shops for furniture and also stores like IKEA and Nitori offer some affordable options.
Things like clothes hangers etc. can be found at your local 100 yen shop (Daiso, Seria, etc.) and the quality is quite decent. Lots of other household supplies too, like kitchen sponges, cleaning supplies, etc. And of course there’s online ordering from Amazon Japan (or Rakuten if your Japanese is ok), plus individual shops.
As for what to bring, you might want to consider some extra antiperspirant-deodorant as I find the Japanese stuff not as strong (Japanese people tend to sweat less, no joke, its a genetic thing), and toothpaste since not all Japanese toothpaste is fluoridated. Obviously your necessary clothes, personal items, etc.
For shipping USPS is the cheapest/easiest in my experience for shipping, but its still not cheap if you want it reasonably fast (pre-covid things took about 10-14 days in my experience from the west coast). For items you don’t need right away and are willing to wait for there are shipping via boat options, but we are talking a few months delivery time in that case. Best if you need to ship a bunch of things, like a whole box of winter clothes. However if you aren’t too big/tall its not hard to find options here that might be cheaper than shipping. UNIQLO has some good winter gear, and you can always try second hand shops to save some bucks. Good luck.
>Like will our places provide cooking supplies, bedding supplies, clothes hangers, furniture, etc?
Dunno that’s a question to ask when you get your placement. But you can and should just buy this all in Japan? What you wanna bring cooking supplies for? They sell frying pans in Japan it’s not Antarctica, there are shops.
The best way to ship stuff to Japan is not to ship stuff, it’s expensive. But if you must, then the easiest way is usually by international mail assuming that COVID disruptions and war haven’t shut that down.
My advice is anything that doesn’t fit in your luggage is stuff that you don’t need.
Really depends. If you have contact with your predecessor you are replacing, ask them about the apartment/house situation & if stuff will be left behind. If not, you can easily get tons of good but cheap items from a 100yen shop or off Amazon Japan.
In my case, my apartment is an old one passed down from my predecessors (it’s owned by the BOE) so lots of things from previous ALTs were left behind (furniture, cooking pots & supplies, cutlery, dishes, TV, washing machine, fridge). Hell, there were even old teaching supplies. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of unnecessary items like old bedding (hell no), old vacuum that didn’t work, etc.
What companies do people use to ship things to japan and how long does it take /expensive is it?
>Like will our places provide cooking supplies, bedding supplies, clothes hangers, furniture, etc?
You have to contact your school/predecessor for that. In my prefecture, some schools will change apartments for ALTs so the new teachers never inherit anything. Meanwhile I found an OG Xbox in the closet when I moved in.
You are probably not going to ship any of the things you mentioned to Japan because (a) it will be cheaper to buy locally and (b) unless you move like my friends in the military it’s going to cost an astronomical amount to get the furniture to Japan.
>Also, if we do want to ship stuff to Japan, does anyone know the best way to do that?
Without knowing which country you are from, and global supply chain issues, seapost for non-perishable stuff.
For your first question it will depend on your placement.
For the second one I used kuroneko or Yamato to ship things I wanted but I could not fit in to my suitcases the prices are not bad.