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Lost property
Left something behind in a Japanese hotel? I'll get it to you.
Japanese hotels are good at keeping your things safe, sometimes for months. What they almost never do is post them overseas — the customs paperwork is in Japanese and nobody at the front desk wants to take that on. That part I can do.
- Contact the hotel yourself first and confirm they still have it. This part only works coming from you.
- Ask them to post it to your representative in Tokyo. I'll give you my name, address and contact details to pass on.
- Send me the hotel, your dates, and what you left, using the form. The ¥3,000 to start is paid at this point.
- I take it from there, in Japanese. They post it to me, and if it arrives cash-on-delivery I pay that end.
- Once it reaches me I photograph it, so you can confirm it's the right thing.
- I weigh it and send you one figure: the shipping plus the remaining ¥3,000. You pay, and it goes out with tracking.
Two parts to the fee
¥3,000 to start. Once your things reach me, the other ¥3,000 is added to Payment 2. That's ¥6,000 in all, covering the hotel and up to ¥1,500 of domestic postage. International shipping and packing are separate.
If it doesn't work out
If the hotel can't find it, or won't post it to anyone but you, you've paid the ¥3,000 and nothing more. No second charge, and nothing to refund. I'll tell you exactly what they said.
- I can't handle passports, ID, cash, cards, bank books or medicine. For those, go to your embassy or deal with the hotel directly.
- Anything on the can't-send list stays on it, even when it's yours already. Those are airline rules, not mine.
- The hotel can be anywhere in Japan — Kyoto, Osaka, Hokkaido. It all happens by post, so it isn't limited to Tokyo.
- Left it somewhere other than a hotel — a station, a restaurant, a taxi, the airport? Ask me. What's possible depends on who's holding it.