The next time you’re in Japan, you should consider luggage delivery to your destination ahead of you. It’s far more convenient and lets you focus on fun.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Springing for Sakura
• Review: oneworld Qantas Business Lounge LAX
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Business Class LAX-TPE
• Review: Starlux Galactic Lounge TPE Terminal 1
• Review: Starlux A330neo Business Class TPE-NRT
• The Airport Limousine Bus is Indeed Friendly
• Quite a Grand Stay: The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
• Thoughts on Tokyo Disneyland
• Thoughts on Tokyo DisneySea
• Japan Pro Tip: Luggage Delivery Services (this post)
• Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo
• teamLab Planets: I Don’t Understand The Hype
• Cuteness Overload: A Review of the Pokémon Cafe Tokyo
• You Fished Your Wish: Zauo Fishing Restaurant
• Tokyo with Kids: Perhaps The Largest Playground on Earth
• Japan Pro Tip: IKEA Has Cheap Eats
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Premium Economy NRT-TPE
• Review: EVA The Infinity & The Star Lounges
• Review: EVA Air 777-300ER Royal Laurel TPE-LAX

Don’t Bring Your Luggage Around Town

These days, there is hardly anyone bringing their luggage onto trains—at least in comparison to what we have seen in the past. The trend lately is to instead hire a third party to ship your bags. There are some perfectly valid reasons to consider shipping your bags:

• You don’t have the capacity to bring your bags yourself
• You’re transiting different cities
• You’re switching hotels and there is a gap between check-out and check-in times
• You’re doing something during the day and don’t want to hassle with your bags, especially if you have early plans
• Some of your bags may not be needed in your current location, and so you can ship the ones you don’t need off to your next destination early
• By not bringing your bags on the train or other public transportation, you don’t rob valuable space from others near you (believe it or not, that’s a common courtesy in Japan)

In our case, it just made sense to transport our bags. We had early morning arrangements (Tokyo DisneySea) the day we were checking out from the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. We also were planning to stay at the theme park until late in the evening, with two kids that likely wouldn’t survive the train ride to our next hotel (they passed out along the way).

On the plus side, the proliferation of these services has led to a reasonable cost to emerge. We paid ¥2,200 (or under 15 USD) per bag for luggage that would be considered standard-sized with airlines.

Booking luggage delivery services

We used Airporter for their luggage delivery service. We chose them primarily because they would be able to transport between Tokyo hotels same-day. Many major hotels in Japan offer their own services, but the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel only has shipping services between different Disneyland Hotels and for locals back to their residents. As we were headed to another hotel, we needed to use a third-party service, which is where Airporter came into the picture. For avoidance of doubt, we have no financial relationship with Airporter.

Their website is fairly easy to use, but the one thing I should point out is you’ll want to take a clear picture of every bag to be transported. If you’re trying to sign up for the service while on the go, make sure you take your pictures before heading out.

We finalized our order at 9 PM the night before, with two hours to spare before the cutoff on next-day service. It’s extremely convenient that customers are able to place orders well into the day before the service is needed.

Our experience with luggage delivery

Per the instructions after booking, I left our bags at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel bell desk. I also showed the attendant the message from Airporter, explaining that someone from the company will be arriving today to take my bags. I signed a document and took a picture of the form, which I then emailed off to Airporter to provide proof that my bags were ready for their team.

And that’s it! Airporter sent several emails throughout the day to ensure I was kept in the loop on when the bags were picked up and when they were dropped off at our next hotel. On arrival at our next hotel, they were already waiting for us in our room by the time we got there. The earliest same-day delivery time was 7 PM.

Recommendation: Yes!

The next time we head to Japan, we will definitely use luggage delivery services to ship our bags between hotels. The service itself couldn’t be easier to use and I appreciate that we can finalize the number of bags needed the night before (making it great to account for those last-minute souvenirs). If your hotel offers this service, I would say to start there to see if it will work for you. If you’re like me and ended up somewhere that doesn’t offer the service to your preferred destination, consider using a third-party service like Airporter.

Have you used a luggage delivery service before?