It’s the morning you leave your hotel in Tokyo. As you check out, you hand your suitcase to the front desk and fill out one waybill. Its destination: the hotel in Kyoto where you’ll stay starting tonight.
All you carry is one small bag with tonight’s change of clothes, your passport and your phone charger. Up and down the station stairs, on and off the Shinkansen bullet train, and around town once you reach Kyoto, you travel light the whole way.
The next day, when you get back to your hotel from walking around town, that suitcase is waiting for you at the front desk.
In Japan, sending your luggage from one place you’re staying to the next is perfectly normal. With ordinary luggage delivery, it arrives the next day in many areas.
Morning in Tokyo — one waybill at the front desk
Most large hotels can arrange luggage delivery for you at the front desk. In Japanese, a short phrase like this will get the message across.
荷物を、次のホテルに送りたいです。
（Nimotsu o, tsugi no hoteru ni okuritai desu.）
Meaning: “I would like to send my luggage to my next hotel.”
If your hotel can’t arrange it, you can send it from a convenience store that handles luggage delivery, a delivery company’s sales office, or a post office. With Japan Post’s Yu-Pack, you can send it to your next hotel from post offices and convenience stores all over Japan.
You can write the waybill in English
For example, with Yamato Transport’s TA-Q-BIN, you can fill out the waybill (the shipping slip) in English. In the delivery address field, write your next hotel’s address and postal code (they’re in your booking confirmation email), the hotel’s name, and your own name. When sending to a hotel, use “c/o” and write your name as the person who will receive it at the hotel. For the phone number, give one you can be reached at during your trip (your smartphone, for example).
For the contents, don’t write something vague like “Sundries.” Write something specific, like “Clothes.” You can also write the date you’d like it delivered. Keep your copy of the waybill until you’ve received your luggage.
When you ask at your hotel, ask the front desk about the form, too. If you send it yourself, you can get the form at a sales office or a convenience store.
Pay the shipping fee when you send it
Pay the shipping fee when you send it. Some hotels won’t accept luggage sent “cash on delivery,” where the fee is paid on arrival.
Arriving the next day, from the ¥2,000s — tonight’s things go in a small bag
From Tokyo to Kyoto, sending one suitcase costs somewhere in the ¥2,000s to ¥3,000s. For example, a size 160 item (length, width and height adding up to 160 cm at most) is ¥2,630 with Yamato Transport’s TA-Q-BIN and ¥3,130 with Yu-Pack (as of October 2026; rates differ by company and may change). A larger suitcase costs more. If it’s very large, some convenience stores may not accept it.
In many areas, it arrives the next day. To more distant areas, it can take a little longer.
That means the night you send it is the one night your suitcase won’t be with you. Pack tonight’s change of clothes and toiletries, plus the following, in your small bag instead of sending them.
- Your passport (it can’t be sent by luggage delivery, and you’ll need it at check-in too)
- Cash, cards and valuables
- Batteries themselves, such as power banks
- Fragile items
Give your next hotel a heads-up
Some hotels ask you to tell them in advance about luggage that arrives before you do. Toyoko Inn holds it only if they’ve agreed to it in advance, and Dormy Inn asks you to contact the hotel before you send it.
Reply to your booking confirmation email, or call, and tell them, “I’m sending my luggage ahead.” That’s also how you’ll find out whether they’ll accept it.
For same-day delivery — a service that carries it by Shinkansen
Don’t want to be apart from your suitcase for even one night? Then there’s “LUGGAGE EXPRESS” (JTB and JR Central), which carries luggage by Shinkansen between hotels in Tokyo and hotels in Kyoto and Osaka. Leave it at your hotel early in the morning, and you can pick it up at your next hotel that same evening.
The fee starts from about ¥13,000 per bag (as of October 2026). It’s only for guests with a reservation at a participating hotel. Check the times, fees and participating hotels on the booking page.
Compared with next-day luggage delivery, it costs quite a lot more. If you can get through one night with a small bag, go with luggage delivery; if you need your suitcase that night too, go with the same-day service. What you’re really choosing is how you’ll spend tonight.
Once you’re in Kyoto — take the bus hands-free
Kyoto City asks visitors to refrain from bringing large luggage onto city buses. Large luggage crowds the buses, and people who live in the city can end up unable to get on.
If you sent your luggage to your hotel from Tokyo, you can hop on a bus right at Kyoto Station and head into town.
There’s also the option of sending it after you arrive at Kyoto Station. Kyoto Station has several counters that will deliver your luggage to your hotel the same day. Leave it within a counter’s service hours, and you can pick it up at your hotel the same day. From Yamato Transport’s counter to hotels in Kyoto City, a size 160 item is ¥3,470.
If you’re not sure whether your hotel accepts luggage deliveries, ask your hotel first.
A night at a vacation rental — pick it up at a nearby sales office
Luggage delivery may not reach places without front desk staff, such as Airbnb and other minpaku vacation rentals. Yamato Transport can’t pick up from or deliver to vacation rentals without front desk staff.
On a night like that, send it to a Yamato Transport sales office near your rental, and go there to pick it up. The sales office will hold it for you. When you go to pick it up, bring your copy of the waybill. Convenience stores don’t hold luggage for you, so you can’t use one as the pickup point.
When sending from a vacation rental, you can use a nearby sales office, or a convenience store such as 7-Eleven or FamilyMart.
Before your stay, ask the host whether deliveries will reach the property and where the nearest sales office is, and you’ll know for sure. For how to stay at a vacation rental, see the “Vacation Rentals (Minpaku)” article.
Two days before your flight home — send it to the airport
From your last hotel, you can send your luggage to the airport, too. On the day you leave, head to the airport hands-free. You pick up your suitcase at a counter at the airport.
For example, with Yamato Transport’s TA-Q-BIN to the airport:
- Drop it off no later than 2 days before your departure (3 days before in some areas)
- It arrives at the airport by the day before your departure
- On departure day, you pick it up at a counter at the airport
The fee is the regular shipping fee plus an airport fee (¥660).
You can also send luggage to the airport with Japan Post’s Airport Yu-Pack. This one also arrives at the airport by the day before your departure, so send it early. Check where and when to pick it up when you send it.
At Haneda Airport Terminal 3, the pickup counter is on a different floor depending on the company: JAL ABC is in the 3rd-floor departure lobby, and Yamato Transport is in the 2nd-floor arrival lobby (as of October 22, 2026). If you’re leaving Narita Airport on an early-morning flight and want to pick it up before the counter opens, contact the company you sent it with in advance.
Sending it to your hotel on the day you land
You can also send your luggage from the airport to your hotel on the very day you arrive in Japan. But same-day delivery is available only at limited counters and to limited areas, and the cutoff is early.
- Narita Airport — Same-day delivery cutoffs differ by counter. With Yamato Transport, drop it off early in the morning. Deliverable areas are limited
- Kansai Airport — Japan Airlines offers same-day delivery to hotels in places like Osaka City and Kyoto City. Drop it off by 6 p.m., and it arrives by 10 p.m. ¥4,500 per bag (as of January 2026)
- Yu-Pack — Sent from the airport post office, it arrives the next day in many cases
If you’re sending it from Haneda Airport to your hotel in Tokyo, see the “Where to Stay in Tokyo on Your First Trip” article.
Not sending it — just leaving it for the day
On days when you just want to travel light for a few hours between leaving one hotel and checking in to the next, leaving your luggage somewhere can be quicker than sending it.
- Coin lockers — Found at major stations. At busy stations, they fill up fast. At Kyoto Station, you can check for open lockers on Kyoto City’s website
- Delivery company storage — Yamato Transport holds luggage at counters in stations and elsewhere, no reservation needed. You pick it up at the same counter the same day
- Shops that hold your luggage — There are also booking services that let you leave luggage at a nearby shop (Radical Storage, ecbo cloak, etc.)
For leaving luggage at your hotel after checkout, see the “When Something Goes Wrong at Your Stay: Q&A” article.
For now, just this
- From hotel to hotel, luggage delivery arrives the next day in many areas. One suitcase from Tokyo to Kyoto costs in the ¥2,000s to ¥3,000s
- Tonight’s things, plus your passport, valuables and power banks, go in a small bag
- Tell your next hotel you’re sending your luggage ahead. Pay the shipping fee when you send it
- For vacation rentals without front desk staff, send it to a nearby sales office
- To the airport, send it no later than 2 days before departure
Once your suitcase is on its way, travel light to the next town.
