Places to store luggage in Tokyo for a week?
 

Hi all,

My wife and I are going to be in Japan for 2 weeks. I wanted to do the JR rail pass and go do all the sightseeing. My hope is to stay in Tokyo for 2-3 days, do the 7 day rail pass, then come finish the rest of the trip in Tokyo. Here is my problem. I know that the trains have limited storage space except for behind the last seats, and I don't want to take that risk that they are taken. Is there any suggestions on where to store luggage for 7 days? We are just going to pack light for the train, but we want to bring our big suitcases for Tokyo for purchases. The train stations have storage, but it has a 3 day maximum. I have also emailed a few hotels to see if they would hold them since I would be a customer before and after the week luggage hold, but I have yet to hear anything back from any of them.

Any suggestions or ideas would be great!

Holding someone's luggage for a week is a pretty standard thing for hotels to do.

Even in Japan?

I forget the Japanese term, but there's a great luggage forwarding service: http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/tourist/hotel/

I did this when we took the trains and didn't want to deal with schlepping our bags to Tokyo station on the subway and then transferring to the Shinkansen.

We sent our bags ahead and they were there when we arrived at our next hotel.

Yes, any hotel can arrange to have your bags shipped to another hotel. This is standard operating procedure. It costs about US$20 per bag. It may take 24 hours for the bag to arrive, depending on your destination, but if you take a carry-on with a day's change of clothing, you should be fine.

If you're going to be at only two hotels, this is an especially attractive option.

I would have recommended takkyubin, but I'm guessing that OP has multiple destinations, in which case it might be more trouble than it's worth....

You hit the nail on the head. What I want to do is leave my big bags and take small carry ons with us when we head south. Visiting multiple cities, so using the forwarding service wouldn't be an option.

I'm not convinced that a hotel will hold your bags for a week, though have no personal experience. Another idea would be to send by takkyubin forwarding service to one of your stops along the way, maybe to refresh your supplies or unload things you've purchased. Then, send again back to the final hotel stop. You can schedule delivery up to 1 week after sending. In that way, the takkyubin company is the storage facility and maybe you can lighten your load halfway through the trip.

Any decent hotel (esp the international chains) would be able to do this for you.

The Rail-Go Service at Tokyo Station will hold your bag for 420 yen per day (840 yen per day from the 6th day) up to 15 days. It's not clear if there is any size restriction.

http://www.tokyostationcity.com/en/i...on/locker.html
(Scroll down the page)

P.S. I found a Japanese language Q&A website which says the maximum size (L+W+H) is 200cm and 30kg so any bag which can be checked as a regular-sized bag on a plane should be ok.

I had to find out that it wasn't. The concierge at the Marriott Myiako messed the Takuhaibin up and forgot (among other things) to note the name of the next hotel on the address paper. As a result the bags hadn't arrived the next day. Luckily the staff at our next hotel was somewhat more competent and managed to get our luggage to our room despite it being already 5 pm.

You could still do it with a couple of stops and not send it to every single stop. It's somewhat embarrassing seeing other foreign tourists lug around heavy luggage when there's Takuhaibin. It makes traveling so much more comfortable.

I believe you can also specify the date of delivery up to a week ahead, so you can send the bag by takuhaibin before you leave Tokyo to be delivered to the hotel the day before you arrive back in Tokyo. ;)

Yes, that's the ticket. Takkyubin

For reference: http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/personal/ta_q_bin/

Hotels in the Tokyu Stay chain have held my carry-on for a week between stays. I've done this a few times and they have been responsive to e-mails requesting such service.

You can also give a small bag to the Tokyo hotel to hold for your second stay and takkybin your purchases to the airport if you'll be managing more than one suitcase each. Actually, some shops can send your purchases directly to the airport but I would think removing the packaging, inspecting, consolidating, & re-packing in your hotel room would be prudent. Takkyubin for the airport usually requires sending two days in advance as they add a one day buffer.
http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/t...rt/index2.html

I'm thinking out loud here, based on the suggestions. The JR pass is for a week. Using Takuhaibin, my luggage can be delivered up to a week later. I could, in theory, use Takuhaibin to deliver my luggage a week later to the same location I dropped it off at, with them basically holding onto my luggage and just keeping it there. Am I crazy or would that work?

That way I can just bring a small bag with me on the trains and leave the big bags in Tokyo, and its just like them holding it, but its "being delivered" to the same location.