Luggage forwarding

Size is width plus depth plus height. The hard ceiling is 200 cm and 30 kg, with no single side over 170 cm. Two people with two large cases moving Tokyo to Kyoto is ¥6,320, which is worth holding next to the price of simply taking them on the train.

Next-day is standard and genuinely reliable on the corridor most visitors use: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Kanazawa, Sendai.

Roughly two days to or from Hokkaidō, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa and the islands. That list is most of the places people go specifically to get away from the crowds, which is worth noticing before you build a plan around forwarding.

Same-day exists but the zone is tiny and ward-specific – parts of central Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe only. To an airport, send the bag at least two days before you fly, three from some areas. That is the most repeated operational rule in the whole business.

There is a real argument that forwarding is overrated, and it is not really about the money.

You have to pack a second bag every time. Passport, medication, chargers, toiletries and a change of clothes travel with you, because the main case arrives tomorrow. On an itinerary with two nights per city, the bag you paid to move is in transit for a meaningful share of the trip.

The timing kills short stops. Hand in around noon, receive it tomorrow. On a one-night stop the case arrives roughly as you leave. This is not a substitute for a coin locker.

Not every hotel takes deliveries. Smaller properties lack the storage, and unmanned or self-check-in accommodation – increasingly common in Kyoto and Osaka – cannot receive one at all. Confirm when you book, not when you arrive.

Wrong-branch misdelivery is real. Japanese hotel chains run several same-named properties in one city. Getting the branch wrong on the waybill sends your clothes across town.

Forwarding earns its price in three situations. Long stays per city: three or more nights, so the bag is with you for nearly all of it. A day with stairs in it – moving from Tokyo to Kyoto and sightseeing at the far end before check-in. And the airport run, where sending the case ahead two days turns a dragging morning into a walk.

On the ten-day route on this site, the one leg where it obviously pays is Hakone: you want an overnight bag for the ryokan and nothing else, and the case can go straight to Kyoto.