Moving in Japan...help!

[birote74]

I am moving from the countryside of Tochigi-ken to the big city of Nagoya...please help! I dont know anything about moving companies here...it could cost 20man!!! :?

[Mike Cash]

How much stuff do you have to move? If it isn't a lot, you might consider one of the companies which use the kei-trucks. If you box your things yourself (and if your things will fit in one or two of those trucks) you can save quit a bit of money by using them. If you have a license, you might consider renting a small truck (maybe a 1 or 2 ton) and doing the move yourself.

[Shiro]

http://www.the0123.com/english/estimate.html

hope it would help

[TwistedMac]

you people and your living in japan.. i hate you.. i hate you all so very much.. *dark envy* kiiiiiill

[Duo]

you people and your living in japan.. i hate you.. i hate you all so very much.. *dark envy* kiiiiiill

I'll join in your hateful envy :kaioken: :danger: :gun:

Reading such threads makes me wanna :(

[Mike Cash]

you people and your living in japan.. i hate you.. i hate you all so very much.. *dark envy* kiiiiiill

What the heck is there to be envious about? It's just a place, dude. Chill out.

[TwistedMac]

What the heck is there to be envious about? It's just a place, dude. Chill out.

it might seem so to the untrained eye...

but anyways... many from these boards have gone insane from the waiting (me included) and the longer it takes the more we want to go there for no apparent reason.. so now it's no longer "just a place"... it's a place full of mystery and stuff....

don't worry, we wont be dissapointed once we get there, it'll be sort of like those people that believe in horoscopes.. they manage to find stuff that makes the horoscope "true"... we'll also manage to find our fantasies in japan.. they might just seem very plain to anyone else ^^

[Mike Cash]

it might seem so to the untrained eye...

My eye is not untrained, grasshopper. I have visited Japan three times.

but anyways... many from these boards have gone insane from the waiting (me included) and the longer it takes the more we want to go there for no apparent reason.. so now it's no longer "just a place"... it's a place full of mystery and stuff....

It's a place full of the same stuff places anywhere are full of.

don't worry, we wont be dissapointed once we get there, it'll be sort of like those people that believe in horoscopes.. they manage to find stuff that makes the horoscope "true"... we'll also manage to find our fantasies in japan.. they might just seem very plain to anyone else ^^

No, you won't be disappointed once you get here. That will come several months or years later.

All generalizations are bad, including this one, but it is my opinion that one's opinion of Japan will never be more favorable than when they have never been here or have been here only a very short time. The longer you remain, the more you come to know the place, the less favorable one's opinion will become.

I liken it to one's favorable opinion of Japan being water in a glass that is brimming full. You have the glass when you get here, and if you are very careful, you can move around and maintain 100% of the water that was in it originally. But every time some fresh revelation about Japan jostles or jars you, a bit sloshes out, never to be replaced.

I could tell you that over the decades there has been no shortage of foreigners who come here starry-eyed over the place, only to become quite embittered and leave Japan absolutely despising the place and many (if not most) of the people in it a short year or two later. I could tell you, but anybody who hasn't seen the scene played out over and over would never believe it. It is the rare foreigner who leaves after a year or two (and very very few ever bother to stay much beyond that, normally being totally burned out on the place by then) still just as much enamored of the place as when they came....or enamored at all, for that matter.

[TwistedMac]

No, you won't be disappointed once you get here. That will come several months or years later.


well ofcourse, that's why after a year youfind a new place to go to that makes you starry eyed.. don't be such a cynik ^^ let us have the fun and happy attitude that you surely had when you first came to japan ^^

don't they say life is a journey? how about REALLY making life one giant journey.. that'd suit me fine..

[Mike Cash]

Time for me to be envious now, I suppose. Life sort of happens and precludes the moving about.

And most certainly you and everyone else is more than welcome to the fun and happy attitude. It's a wonderful thing, and you are right, I wasn't devoid of it myself. And I have no illusions that anything a cynic like myself might have to say would in the least discourage anyone from arriving here starry-eyed and eager to wallow in the Japan they've dreamed about visiting.

Doesn't change the accuracy of what I said, though.

[King of Tokyo]

Wow.. if your sick of it and you don't like it then why are you still there may I ask ? I know some people can be so obsessed with japan that they seem to overlook the negative aspects of it.. but you don't have to try to break the spirits of people who want to go there.. lol.. I can't wait to get there.. and I know I'm going to have a good time.. let's just let everyone be happy and excited about Japan.. I know I am.. but yeh, why are you there if you're tired of it ? just wondering.. logically if you prefer your home country to japan than you should be there.. right ? lol

[Mike Cash]

Perhaps you would do me the kindness of pointing out:

1. where I said I'm sick of it
2. where I said I don't like it
3. where I said I prefer my home country
4. where I tried to break anyone's spirits?

I can see where a point can be made in favor of #4, but try as I might I can't find anything I said that would lead one to jump to the conclusions of #1 through #3.

Thanks

[King of Tokyo]

1. You suggested that once being there for a while a foreigner becomes tired of it
2. See #1
3. This part I wasn't sure on, I was hoping you would tell me if you did or did not

I wasn't trying to start an argument.. the whole 1,2,3 thing is always used in an argument.. so I'm just gonna say drop that idea right now.. please correct me otherwise, I am interested in why you think a foreigner does not like Japan after a while.

[Mike Cash]

I wasn't trying to start an argument either. That's why I politely asked how you arrived at those conclusions instead of flaming you for putting words into my mouth and casting aspersions on your critical reading skills. That would have been pointless, immature, and wouldn't advance the discussion at all.

Go back and read it again, and nowhere in what I said will you find anything to indicate that I personally don't like it or am sick of it. Nor did I say that it is a fact that all foreigners who come to Japan come to dislike it or grow sick of it.

The reason I said what I said? It isn't just simple conjecture. It's based on empirical observations of numerous foreigners in Japan since, if your personal data is correct, a few years before you were born. Like the umpire, I just call 'em like I sees 'em. Would I rather put a more positive spin on it? Yes. But that wouldn't be honest reporting. And finally, as I mentioned in the offensive post, all generalizations are bad....including that one. More than sufficient a caveat, I think.

[misa.j]

birote74,
You should look up moving companies in a phone book, private moving companies are usually cheap.

Or, there are some more sites.

Seino Transportation -Oversea & Domestic moving for singles and families
TEL: 0120-754-754 (Toll free) E-mail: moving@seino.co.jp
http://www.seino.co.jp/seino/index-e.htm?corner=sg

Yamato Transport Co., LTD -Oversea & Domestic
TEL: 0120-008-008 (Toll free) E-mail: y0781001@kuronekoyamato.co.jp
http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/english/index.html

Nippon Express -Overseas &Domestic
TEL: 0120-150-422 (Toll free) E-mail:moving-tokyo@nittsu.co.jp
http://www.nittsu.co.jp/moving/cont2.html

[Mike Cash]

If he doesn't have much stuff, he would likely come out far cheaper to visit his local supermarket or department store for empty cardboard boxes, box up his things himself, and leave the moving to a kei-truck company like Akabou.

[Ewok85]

Higher the expectations are the further you fall :D

I'm with mike, i've seen it happen a fair bit. I've been before and am going back soon, just dont make out japan to be this wonderland, its the same as anywhere else.

[misa.j]

If he doesn't have much stuff, he would likely come out far cheaper to visit his local supermarket or department store for empty cardboard boxes, box up his things himself, and leave the moving to a kei-truck company like Akabou.

That was exactly what I did when I moved from Tokyo to Gumma 10 years ago, so their prices might have changed , but "AKABOU" only charged me about 4 man yen.

[Mike Cash]

Higher the expectations are the further you fall :D

I'm with mike, i've seen it happen a fair bit. I've been before and am going back soon, just dont make out japan to be this wonderland, its the same as anywhere else.

I'd agree with that advice wholeheartedly. But I would like to clarify that the point of my original comment was not to point out the inevibility of losing one's favorable opinion, or even swinging past center to go to the "despise" end of the spectrum. Rather it was to alert people that this does happen, that it is actually rather common, and that one can avoid it through knowing the pitfall exists and putting forth an active effort to stave it off.

I've just done a little searching on Google Japan and turned up several Akabou operators in Tochigi Prefecture, any one of whom would be glad to help with his move. He would need to contact them directly for a free estimate on the cost, but I would estimate that the cost for a single Akabou truck from Tochigi to Nagoya would be somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 yen.

Another option, if he has a driver's license, is to rent a truck and do it all himself (or maybe with friends/family, of course). Here is a chart from Orix:

http://car.orix.co.jp/rent/price/price_sonota_tr.html

He should keep in mind that the first seven classes are open top trucks.

There is also a separate charge for returning the truck to an Orix branch in Nagoya rather than returning it to Tochigi:
http://car.orix.co.jp/scripts/mgrqcgi?APPNAME=wr&PRGNAME=price_norisute&ARGUMENTS=-A00,-A01100000,-A00

Here is contact info for the 5 Orix offices in Tochigi Prefecture:

http://car.orix.co.jp/rent/shop/tochigi.html

Of course, there may be other rental companies, but this should be enough for him to estimate the cost involved with doing the move on his own.