Luggage Delivery Service Saves An Elderly Couple From Ruining Their Trip In Japan

Dec 10 2019
Nov 26 2020
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Sponsored by JTB Corp., Panasonic Corp. and Yamato Transport Co., Ltd

“Even though I planned everything out perfectly before the trip, traveling a foreign country with heavy luggage bags were more challenging than I thought.” Can you relate to this?

Let’s say you have retired from work and want to go on a relaxing trip with your partner. If it is your first time visiting Japan, you would want to visit various cities. If you are staying for a long time then you will need multiple big bags. However, the more luggage you have, the more time and energy you will have to spend. Even stopping by the hotel first and leaving your luggage there is not a simple task.

coin locker

coin-operated lockers where you can leave your luggage

Also, even if you leave your suitcases at a train station, there are only few large coin-operated lockers, and they might be all already filled. When you are left with no choice but to walk around the city with your large luggage, you will soon find yourself struggling to move around inside train stations crowded with people. Additionally, souvenirs for your family continues to add up after visiting each cities, making your suitcases heavier and heavier...

You start to realize that you want to somehow deal with your luggage to fully enjoy your trip.

A Proposal For A New Style Of Travel, Empty-Handed Trips

It is such a waste of time when you cannot fully enjoy the trip you have been longing for because of your heavy luggage.

At times like that, how about going through a simple process to send your luggage from your hotel to the airport? If the souvenirs that have piled up are packed in boxes and sent to the airport beforehand, you will not have to worry about your luggage.

At this time, Japan's largest travel agency, JTB, is currently providing luggage delivery service called "LUGGAGE-FREE TRAVEL" managed by Panasonic with cutting-edge technology. This is the second example of people who have got to experience the service.

This time, we had an elderly couple from the United states who tried it out. We asked them to share about the things that they felt convenient and inconvenient about the service from the customer’s point of view.

The couple initially brought along 50L and 60L suitcases and their bags with them. Then for the rest half of the trip, they combined their belongings that they did not need anymore for the trip into one suitcase and sent it to the airport. That way they could just find their bag at their departing airport and check the bags with during flight check in.

Stories
What Is LUGGAGE-FREE TRAVEL? Traveling Light

The Married Couple Tried Out Luggage-Free Travel

So as to compare instances when they had and did not have luggage with them, they used LUGGAGE-FREE TRAVEL when they went from Kyoto to Tokyo. This was their first and only time using this service and they carried their luggage around for the rest of their trip.

Situation 1: Traveling with luggage (from Hiroshima to Kyoto)

After the couple finished traveling Hiroshima, they took a bullet train heading to Kyoto.

shinkansen

It’s hard to place luggage in the above small space

Although there is some space in front of the seat on the bullet train, the space is narrow, so they needed to place both of their suitcases on the overhead luggage rack.

kyoto station with luggage

It’s easy to get lost in big stations

Kyoto Station is huge, so it was difficult trying to locate the exit as they carried around their bags while looking at the information boards.

Best spots in Hiroshima

Spot
Takehara Historical Preservation District Hiroshima
Spot
Mt. Misen Hiroshima

Situation 2: They used the service and did not have their luggage with them (from Kyoto to Narita Airport)

The luggage was delivered to the airport from their Kyoto hotel.

suitcase hotel

Leaving luggage at the hotel reception

They bought a lot of souvenirs in Hiroshima and Kyoto, so they moved the souvenirs and items that they would not be using right away into their big luggage. All they had to do was to present the QR code they received when they registered for the service, and the rest of the process worked out smoothly after talking to the clerk.

shinkansen platform

shinkansen

They boarded a train heading for Tokyo. They were only staying one night in Tokyo, so they sent their large suitcases from their Kyoto hotel directly to Narita Airport. Since they were only staying for one night, just having their backpacks was enough so they were able to move around quite lightly.
Comparing with their first half of the trip, they could feel just how nice it was to not have their luggage with them.

Best spots in Kyoto

Spot
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove Kyoto
Spot
Kiyomizudera Temple (Kyoto) Kyoto

Receiving it at Narita Airport

They safely received their luggage at Narita airport before they departed!

User review

Pros:

・When leaving the luggage at the hotel, I was able to smoothly talk to the clerk in English.
・Since we were visiting several cities, it was a very convenient service for us. It was very nice not having to stress out about where to put our luggage. We have tried using the coin-operated lockers at a train station, but we struggled to find which lockers we left them in. With this delivery service, we did not have to worry about finding our luggage.

・We did not have to waste any energies on dealing with our luggage. We were much more lively after using this service.

Cons:

・Units in Japan are expressed in kg and cm, so it was hard to calculate them quickly.
・It took awhile to find the Luggage-Free Travel counter when retrieving the luggage at Narita Airport.

Reviews

Everyone plans on perfect trips but conflict-free trips are not very common in reality because everyone gets super sensitive when they are worn out. Taking a long flight to foreign country is just the beginning considering that everything is different and new there. Moving through crowds of people with big luggage in unfamiliar cities already sounds stressful. Many who have such experience will agree that carrying luggage is not easy job. They will agree that getting rid of big heavy luggage may be the first step to successful trip. It prevents people to become super sensitive due to their exhaustion. That is why people choose to use luggage delivery service. It’s cheap, convenient, and makes trip successful.

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