Send your luggage from the airport to your ryokan in Japan — counters, prices and timing

Most of what you need to get online can be picked up before you leave the terminal. Narita's official list of phone, Wi-Fi and SIM services shows counters in all three terminals, many of them on the arrival floors (a few in Terminal 2 even before customs), most open about 07:00–21:00, plus SIM-card vending machines in Terminal 1. JAL ABC sells prepaid SIM cards and eSIMs at its counters at Narita and Haneda Terminal 3 and asks you to check that your phone is compatible before you buy. It also notes that activating an eSIM needs a Wi-Fi or other internet connection, so do it before you leave one behind.

A pocket Wi-Fi router is a rental, so expect paperwork. JAL ABC's staff check your passport (or other ID) and a credit card when they hand one over. Routers can be collected and returned at Narita, Haneda Terminal 3 and Kansai, and at Kansai a reservation is mandatory, so book online if you land there.

For trains and buses, get an IC card at the airport station. JR East sells Welcome Suica, a visitor card that can be used for 28 days from purchase, at its Travel Service Centers in Narita Airport Terminal 1 Station, Narita Airport Terminal 2·3 Station and Haneda Airport Terminal 3 Station, and from Welcome Suica vending machines at the same three stations. In principle it sells only one per person. The card works on trains, subways and buses around Tokyo and in several other regions, and at shops and vending machines showing the IC logo. It also pays for and locks station coin lockers. One limit: you can't ride from one IC area into another on a single journey, so leave the gates and re-enter. On an iPhone you can issue a card in the Welcome Suica Mobile app instead. JR East says location services must be switched on, and some countries restrict issuing, in which case you can try again once you're in Japan.

At Kansai, JR West sells a visitor-design ICOCA at the JR ticket office (Midori-no-madoguchi) in Kansai-airport Station. It costs ¥2,000, including a ¥500 deposit, and is limited to one per person, for holders of a non-Japanese passport visiting as a Temporary Visitor.

Narita's official page lists three courier companies on the arrival floors (1F, before security). Yamato Transport (TA-Q-BIN) has counters in Terminal 1 North and South, Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, open 06:30–22:30, and later if the last flight lands after 22:30. JAL ABC is in Terminal 1 North and South and Terminal 2, and Sagawa Express in Terminal 1 North and Terminal 2, both from 06:30 until an hour after the last international arrival. The airport says all its baggage counters are certified by the government to offer same-day and next-day delivery to specified regions, with service in English.

At Haneda, international flights use Terminal 3, where JAL ABC (04:00 to 01:00) and Yamato (05:00–23:00) both have delivery counters in the 2F arrival lobby. The domestic Terminals 1 and 2 have Yamato (07:00–21:00) and Sagawa (07:00–20:00) counters in their 1F arrival lobbies.

At Kansai, the counters that send bags out are at the north and south ends of the Terminal 1 arrivals floor (1F). The airport's page lists a temporary JAL ABC counter on 1F (06:30–22:30) and Kansai Airport Baggage Service (07:00–21:00), which it said would close at 18:00 on 31 October 2026.

At the counter you fill in a delivery slip. JAL ABC asks for the destination's postal code (staff can look it up if you don't know it), the full address including the building name, the destination's phone number in Japan, and the name of the person collecting the bag. A hotel or inn will also ask for your check-in date. Keep the ryokan's address and phone number from your booking confirmation on your phone, and don't lose your copy of the slip.

Standard delivery is next day. Yamato says TA-Q-BIN normally arrives the day after you hand it over, or two days later, almost anywhere in Japan (some areas are excluded). JAL ABC says the earliest date it can deliver from the airport is the next day. You can ask for a date and a time window, though not every request can be met, depending on when you drop the bag off and where it's going.

JAL ABC publishes its fares from the airport by region and by size, measured as height, width and depth added together. A typical suitcase in size 160 (up to 160 cm and 30 kg) costs ¥2,820 from Narita or Haneda to anywhere in the Kanto region (which includes Hakone and Kusatsu) and also to Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka or Ishikawa. It's ¥2,960 to the Kansai region or to northern Tohoku, and ¥3,430 to northern Kyushu or Hokkaido. Size 140 (up to 140 cm and 25 kg) costs ¥2,430 to Kanto. From Kansai Airport, size 160 costs ¥2,970 within Kansai and to the Tokai, Hokuriku, Chugoku and Shikoku regions, and ¥3,080 to Kanto or northern Kyushu. You pay at the counter, and JAL ABC takes credit cards. At Narita, Yamato's FAQ notes a ¥660 counter usage fee since 1 June 2025, and Sagawa's Narita prices include a ¥660 airport usage fee.

Same-day delivery is a city service. From Narita, Yamato delivers to hotels in Tokyo the same day if you drop the bag off by 10:30 (09:50 in Terminal 3). Its FAQ lists Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Yamanashi as the other prefectures it can reach the same day, but you can't choose a time window, and it warns it may turn down same-day requests for a one-night stay because weather or traffic can cause delays. Sagawa's Narita counters take same-day orders until 14:00 for hotels in ten Tokyo wards and Urayasu, at ¥3,390 for a suitcase up to 140 cm (airport and same-day fees included), delivered after 16:00. From Kansai, JAL ABC's same-day service covers hotels (not private lodgings) in selected wards of Osaka and Kyoto: drop off by 12:30, collect after 20:00, and pay the regular fare plus ¥1,000 (¥3,970 for size 160). Hot-spring towns outside those areas get standard delivery.

This is where forwarding pays off on a ryokan trip. Many hot-spring towns are reached by a local bus or a walk up a slope, and older inns can mean stairs and no lift. Our reports show how it plays out. KAI Hakone has no pick-up from the station, the walk down from the Kuzuhara bus stop is a cobbled slope that is hard work with a suitcase, and taxis at Hakone-Yumoto can be very hard to get. At Sekitei in Atami, a guest pulling a suitcase up from Kinomiya Station in October 2025 got lost on the steep streets, so take a taxi. KAI Nagato's annex has no lift to its second floor, and a December 2023 guest had to carry their suitcase up the stairs. The free shuttle to Yachi Onsen in the Hakkōda mountains takes only one suitcase per person.

A simple plan is to spend your first nights in the city with a cabin-size bag and send the big suitcase from the airport straight to the ryokan. Yamato asks for parcels to reach an inn by the day before your stay, and warns that some inns don't accept guests' luggage or limit where and when you can collect it, so email the inn first. With standard delivery taking one or two days, book the bag for a ryokan stay at least three days after you land, so it arrives the day before even if delivery takes two days. If your first night is at a ryokan far from the airport, carry the case or ask the counter for its estimate before you send it.

Pack for the courier. Yamato requires a cover for Boston bags (soft holdalls), while suitcases don't need one, though they may get scuffed. JAL ABC won't accept luggage that isn't properly sealed, and its counters sell cardboard boxes from ¥310 to ¥590. Keep the first nights' clothes, chargers and medicines in the bag you carry.

JAL ABC lists what it won't carry: fragile items, fresh produce, dangerous goods, luggage containing liquids (including alcohol and condiments), precision equipment, luggage that isn't properly sealed, musical instruments and works of art. It also refuses anything restricted on aircraft, because its deliveries can travel by air. So carry sake, soy sauce or a laptop in your own bag rather than in the forwarded case.

Power banks belong in your hand luggage anyway. Haneda Airport's notice, based on ICAO standards, says they can't go in checked baggage, that each person may carry at most two, each rated 160 Wh or less, and that the terminals should be taped over or the battery kept in its own plastic bag. Charging a power bank from the seat socket is prohibited, and the airport asks you not to charge phones from one on board either. It adds that most power banks of about 5,000–20,000 mAh are under 100 Wh, and that rules can differ by airline. Since a forwarded suitcase may go by air too, keep batteries out of it.

Check the weight before you go. JAL ABC's size 160 stops at 30 kg, Yamato's Airport TA-Q-BIN won't take bags over 30 kg, and its standard TA-Q-BIN takes parcels under 200 cm (three sides combined) and up to 30 kg. An overweight case costs more or may be refused.

Sending the bag back works the same way in reverse, but it needs two to four days' notice. Yamato's Airport TA-Q-BIN delivers only to the airport you're flying out of, not the one you land at, and must be sent two days before departure (three from some areas). An airport fee of ¥660 is added, and bags over 30 kg aren't accepted. Ask your ryokan's front desk whether it handles courier pick-ups. If your last nights are at a remote inn, that lead time may mean sending the case from the inn before you move on to the city.

JAL ABC's airport delivery needs a reservation online or by phone. A driver collects the bag at the agreed date and time and gives you a copy of the delivery slip, which you exchange for the bag at the airport; if you lose it, staff identify you by passport. It delivers only to Narita, Haneda's international terminal, Chubu Centrair and Kansai, not to airports abroad. Sample fares for size 160 are ¥3,580 from anywhere in Kanto to Narita, ¥3,300 from the Kansai region to Kansai Airport, and ¥3,410 from Kanto to Kansai Airport. Online bookings are paid by credit card. Kansai Airport's page says JAL ABC delivery bookings there must be made by phone three or four days before departure.

You collect the bags on the departure side. At Kansai, the counters are on the 4th floor of Terminal 1: Yamato at the north side (06:30–22:30) and JAL ABC at the south side (06:30–23:00). Terminal 2 has no counter, so its passengers collect in Terminal 1 too. JAL ABC's departure counter at Kansai also wraps bags against water and scratches since 15 October 2026, for ¥1,500 (up to 160 cm) or ¥2,500 (up to 240 cm). At Narita, Yamato and JAL ABC are on Terminal 1's 4th floor and Terminal 2's 3rd floor, open 07:00–21:00; for an early flight, ask your courier about collection between 06:00 and 07:00. At Haneda Terminal 3, JAL ABC's 3F departure counter is open 24 hours and Yamato's collection counter (2F) 06:00–23:00.

Some inns make the last day easier. At Hyakurakuso in Yuwaku Onsen, outside Kanazawa, you can send your luggage to Kanazawa Station when you check out and go sightseeing hands-free.