"Bob Biggs8" wrote...
> Michael wrote:
> > They saved the other guy I introduced to them about 120,000 on the
> > move. Don't bother with e-mail, as he says they aren't exactly
> > Johnny-on-the-spot about answering it. Call 03-3799-6731 (Japanese
> > only) and see what they can do for you. It won't hurt to mention that
> > Michael sent you.
> >
> Thanks Micheal..I'll have the wife call them up tomorrow. Do you know
> if they have an area I could load up the container if I was to rent a
> truck and haul all our gack ourselves? I think I have enough to fill a
> 20ft . I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible!!!

<rouses from lurkdom>

All is as Michael attests.  If you can fill more than half a 20' container
it starts to make sense to ship the full container, since you don't have to
spend time getting rid of all your extra stuff at a saynora sale or packing
it super well (on pallets and whatever else, since it won't be sharing the
container with other people's belongings).  The experience of moving stuff
this way from the US to Japan was a low-level nightmare lasting for 4
months, but it was largely because there were three separate shippers
involved.  For the final leg, however, Japan Express turned out to be very
helpful when there was trouble at the receiving port and I would recommend
them easily.

The issue is when you hire one company to move everything from point A to
point B, they have an incentive to get it properly to its final destination.
But when you hire a different company for each leg of the journey, they
don't really have an interest in what happens after their part is finished.
If you have a lot of personal belongings that could be easily replaced, then
it's not such a big worry, but for moving family heirlooms and such you
might want to go with a door-to-door contract.

Your experience loading up in Japan would probably be very different than in
the U.S., but my guess is unless you have a place to park a 20' container
next to your home for a day, you're better off letting the movers load up
everything for you.  The paperwork, which includes a numbered list and
description of each item for customs, is considerable as is the extra level
of packing your belongings should have to survive the journey (it appears
there's not much suspension on a container truck).

You will find a ton of info on containers at www.sefco-export.com although I
don't think they ship in the direction you need.  Sefco offers two basic
grades of service:  economy (which is just the container itself) and
door-to-door (which includes packing and unpacking).  We used the former
which worked out, but I did have my doubts the whole time.  After all was
said and done though, we did save about 3 grand under what Nittsu (and
others) would have charged us, so it's hard to complain.

best of luck and perseverance,
hibijibi