Originally Posted by
pointspinnacle
Thanks for the advice Emma. How does that work exactly? Who handles that? The hotels? The train company?
There are at least a couple of companies that do this, not related to hotels or trains, more a stand alone (think a domestic FedEx type idea) as I used two different ones during my trip. I spoke to the concierge in the hotel, he filled out the paper form for me (they will need the hotel you are sending the bag to's information, address, the name your reservation is under etc.) I was told you don't need to let the arrival hotel know as they literally deal with hundreds of these a week.
Then when you are ready, you drop the bag and the form down to the bell boy desk, and they arrange with the bag courier company to collect your bag. You are given a receipt (carbon of the paper form) you should keep just in case. One I paid cash to the bell desk, the other I charged to my room bill.
It took a day to transport the bags between Tokyo and Kyoto - so I dropped the bag Saturday morning in Tokyo, it arrived in Kyoto Sunday afternoon. One of the companies had a tracking site online, but I am afraid I don't remember the name.