Ordering directly from Japan in current climate

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I ordered directly from Japan and shipped DHL, it arrived within a week.

I also have an order from New York state that shipped USPS, still hasn't left their distribution center after a week.

Ordering seems to be hit and miss these days, I'll just be glad if my knife shows up eventually... 😕
 
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Ordered from Watanabe on Mon night 7/20, shipped 7/21 via DHL with estimated delivery of Thurs 7/30, ended up arriving Fri 7/24.

Japan to my doorstep in California in ~4 business days isn’t too bad.

FWIW it went through Cincinnati, then SF.
 
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How much are you guys paying for DHL? TF quoted me 14,000Y at the beginning of June, and 8,000Y now. That's a little bit insane IMO. Not sure if it's because he's in Tokyo or what...
 
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Ordering anything even just domestically has been a total crap shoot for me lately. Almost everything has missed scans, been delayed, and arrived quite a bit later then expected.
 
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nakiriknaifuwaifu said:
That's reasonable. Looks like TF charged @Hz_zzzzzz a similar amount too. Upsetting...
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Yeah, it was about what I normally spend sending stuff to friends overseas. Jumping from JPY14,000 to JPY8,000 in that amount of time does seem really odd though.
 
msk said:
Yeah, it was about what I normally spend sending stuff to friends overseas. Jumping from JPY14,000 to JPY8,000 in that amount of time does seem really odd though.
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yeah they said they were able to negotiate it down for a 50% discount or something.
 
juice said:
We've got almost no air traffic into/out of Australia currently due to the lockdown (or whatever you want to call it) so most things are now travelling to/from the country via sea, which means you have to wait for enough things to fill the containers to be worth the trip. As a result, you can either be really lucky by having the package lob just as they're ready to ship, or be really unlucky if you just miss a shipment. Either way, the old timeframes have been punted out the window pretty vigorously.
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Are you sure? I could be wrong but I thought it was only passenger flights that have been stopped or seriously curtailed. Recently received a parcel from China in just a few days.

A note on USPS from an outsider's perspective: As others have mentioned, there was a hiccup scanning a cylindrical item and international tracking seriously suffered. However, I've used USPS to send and receive across CONUS and have always been more than satisfied with handling, tracking and delivery. They are so much better than Australia Post. But I know... the grass is always greener...
 
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Marek07 said:
Are you sure? I could be wrong but I thought it was only passenger flights that have been stopped or seriously curtailed. Recently received a parcel from China in just a few of days.

A note on USPS from an outsider's perspective: As others have mentioned, there was a hiccup scanning a cylindrical item and international tracking seriously suffered. However, I've used USPS to send and receive across CONUS and have always been more than satisfied with handling, tracking and delivery. They are so much better than Australia Post. But I know... the grass is always greener...
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Yes it is. AUSPost knew more about a package being delivered and the redelivery to my house. USPS just said delivered after the failed delivery...
 
Marek07 said:
Are you sure? I could be wrong but I thought it was only passenger flights that have been stopped or seriously curtailed. Recently received a parcel from China in just a few of days.
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OK, my info was from early on, now the situation is much more like your info. I just checked with a mate who is an aviation journo, and this is what he just sent me:

there is plenty of air freight being carried in and out of australia on freighter aircraft. and airlines have boosted cargo-only services to make up for the loss of cargo capacity due to the suspension of so many passenger flights. in normal times, in round figures about half of all air cargo is carried by dedicated freighter aircraft services, with the remainder in the belly space of passenger flights
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Marek07 said:
However, I've used USPS to send and receive across CONUS and have always been more than satisfied with handling, tracking and delivery. They are so much better than Australia Post. But I know... the grass is always greener...
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Mmm, I've sent and received a fair bit of US stuff, and I'll back AusPost over USPS, absolutely.
 
Had no idea so much cargo was carried on passenger flights (in normal times).

Re: AusPost vs USPS
I guess my perception is coloured by my own experiences. They favour USPS but I can see how it could easily be the other way round. Whichever is used, DHL will beat them... at a price.
 
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Ordered from Watanabe on July 28th, arrived on my door step (actually my neighbors... Thanks DHL for giving me a heart attack there!) on August 3rd. Went via Cincinnati for me, too. As mentioned, carrier DHL. he charged me 4300 yen for it.

Note, earlier in lockdown I had (knives, incidentally..) sent from Germany by my parents, also with DHL, and that took a solid 12 weeks ..
 
Shipping DHL Express from Japan to USA is about $27-$35 For a small package. And depending on where you live takes 3-6 days usually

I have also sent bigger boxes of stuff (think a little bit bigger that a shoe box) to family and costs around $45-50
 
I think a lot of stuff went horribly wrong in Japan postal system in March. I had an order placed Mar28 with Post Japan (to be handed over to USPS in US). It was supposed to arrive April 14th. Was declared lost May 28th... And then showed up at my door a couple weeks ago.

I think Japanese post doesn't lose stuff, they just have a crazy backlog
 
Another DHL report. I recently ordered a watanabe nakiri, was just scanned in by DHL today, Friday 8/14, in Narita. Estimated delivery in Seattle is next Wednesday, 8/19. So that's another 5 day delivery direct from Japan to west coast US. As far as I can tell, DHL is still shipping just fine.
 
birdsfan said:
I just had a similar positive experience with DHL. It shipped from Japan on 8/7 and was on my porch today. AMAZING! It also went through Cin/Covington.
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NO ChoP! said:
I. unfortunately ordered 2 knives from Japan end of March. They are still held up. Not a single scan or anything yet.
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East Coast seems to be tied at the moment. Can anyone tip the scales, with regards to shipping in the past two months?
 
I shipped out a knife to US in May. Got the arrival scan in the US in June, and since then nothing...
 
lemeneid said:
I shipped out a knife to US in May. Got the arrival scan in the US in June, and since then nothing...
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Right there with you. Had some 5 month packages randomly pop up recently
 
In recent months I’ve had packages from Japan to Canada arrive within a week by DHL or FedEx Express. I haven’t really noticed an impact to these couriers (can’t say the same for EMS / USPS / Canada Post though lol), although DHL does quote an extra day or so on the ETA when preparing shipments.
 
makes sense once you have seen how society operates in Japan from an airline to the bus leaving the terminal, on the second;
 
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