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I have a lot of luggage...is JR still okay?

Interestingly, the OP seems to have abandoned us almost a week ago.
 
I doubt it; this is fairly typical.
 

Some reccommendations that might work good for you:
When packing, if you doubt about taking something, don't take it, if you doubt you might wear it, chances are pretty close to zero that you will be wearing it.
Another one. When you are done packing, take some clothes off that luggage, trust me and trust the other posters, you will not need everything.

Oh, and these suggestions are not for the OP as it seems she abandoned the thread already. This thread should be of help to all the posters that tried to help her out.

Mauricio
 
Thank you all to your advise. I will be leaving for my trip in a week and will take all of your advise into consideration. I will post a trip report if this site has a spot for that type of thing to hopefully help out other first timers to Japan. If you have any questions about my trip, email me. Thanks again, a mom to an anime lover.
 
I hope you have a great trip, and will look forward to hearing about it. Good luck with the luggage: I personally will be very interested to learn how you get on. Thanks for sharing your needs.
 
I can say that I am terrified next year with luggage. My fiance and I are going for 2 weeks, and we are going to be buying lots of stuff over there... I am thinking 2 suitcases apiece. But the more I read the more I am trying to figure out how the heck I am going to be able to lug all this stuff around. Its my only dread about the trip.

I really want to read how you delt with it over there.
 

Two suitcases apiece?! Why? Are you bringing your house with you? If you're going on spending sprees, one large suitcase apiece should do it. As others mentioned, just bring a week's worth of clothing and just do laundry mid-trip. That'll save space for all of your purchases.

I have an American Tourister soft side rolling suitcase (I call it The Monolith because it looks like the black monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey in my hallway) that is probably their largest. I could probably fit inside. It is way sufficient for a 2-week stay for one person, with plenty of room to bring souvenirs home.
 
How good is this luggage forwarding service that I have been hearing about? I was thinking about that as well.

I do have 2 large suitcases that I we could probally fit all of our stuff in, instead of taking 2 suitcases apeace. I know we will have our carry on bags, and then her laptop bag.

I just hate to be "in the way" in Japan.
 
You're going to love it - hills and stairs everywhere, and its just so much fun trying to get onto packed trains with a suitcase
 
We even bought a hand held luggage scale to make sure that our bags are under the weight requirement. Its our first trip to Japan, so I cant imagine the amount of things we are going to buy over there. A Japanese friend of mine suggested mailing a bunch of it back to the states.

It will be good exercise lugging all of our stuff everywhere.
 
1. The luggage forwarding services are actually package delivery services, but they will pick up and deliver a wide variety of items. They're pretty much uniformly excellent.

2. By all means, mail stuff.
 
Mail your souvenirs home. We did this trip and it was so much easier....easier by not having to carry a bunch of stuff and easier getting through customs. I loved just having to carry my laptop and purse on the plane. It all fit underneath my seat and it was so much better than having to fuss with a carry-on suitcase too. Also the airlines are getting strict about what you take on the plane. You can carry on 2 things, for example a computer bag and a purse. I tried to carry my purse, computer and small carry-on bag and while in line to check in there was guy checking out what you were bringing on the plane. I had to stuff my purse into my carry on. (2 trips ago) The same is true for traveling by train. It's just so much more relaxing to not have to worry and keep track of all your stuff.
 
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Well thanks Mr. Cash and Goldie Girl. I guess to further this discussion, what exactly is the mail process in Japan. How much will it normally cost?

~box cost
~tape cost
~shipping cost.
 
Sorry that I can't really give good prices on mailing. We buy more stuff than most people, I think. We mailed 5 boxes this last time...BIG boxes. We ship them so they arrive in the US in 3-4 days. I was at the office when the postman came for two boxes and it was costly, around 30,000 yen. I will say though that these are big boxes around about 36 x 36 inches or perhaps even larger. I don't actually know what the rates were, or if their was a less expensive way to mail packages...I don't even know for sure if it was a postman or a delivery service! The guy shows up at the office every afternoon.
 
Thank you very much for all the information. So I think we will take one suitcase each, then mail everything back that doesnt fit.
 
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