John <gh14tq5@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,

> My wife and I are moving from Japan to the U.S. in August.  We probably 
> have about 3-4 cubic meters of stuff to ship.  Any suggestions on good 
> shipping companies that won't bust the budget?  Also, does any one know 
> the customs procedures for shipping personal/household items to the 
> U.S.?  I've been searching around the internet, but customs information 
> is not easy to find and confusing at best.

Nothing will be cheap; we ended up using the Japanese mail (ca. 1991).

As for customs, expect things to be opened at random. We ended up not
missing anything, but with about $200 worth of extra currency (from
the PI, S Korea, and Taiwan) and some canned whale meat stuffed back
into the obviously opened boxes, so the packages may well be searched
at random.

Mike