Luggage Forwarding and Coin Lockers in Japan

Yamato Transport's kuroneko takkyubin service (and similar options from Sagawa and Japan Post) will ship a suitcase hotel-to-hotel, typically for around ¥2,000–3,000 per bag on a route like Tokyo to Kyoto, arriving the next day — same-day delivery exists on some routes but shouldn't be assumed without checking. Arrange it at your hotel's front desk, or at a convenience store counter if your accommodation doesn't offer it. It's especially useful for sidestepping the Shinkansen's oversized-luggage reservation requirement on a travel day.

Typical daily rates run small ¥300–400 (a daypack), medium ¥500–600 (carry-on size), large ¥700–800 (a standard suitcase), and extra-large ¥900–1,000 (oversized bags). Most modern lockers accept a tap from an IC card; older ones still want coins. A green light means available, red means occupied. Major stations like Tokyo, Shinjuku, and Kyoto have hundreds of lockers spread across multiple levels, but they do fill up by mid-morning on busy weekends — a neighboring station, a staffed cloak counter, or an app like Ecbo Cloche (which lets local shops store your bag) are the usual fallbacks.

Switching hotels between cities: takkyubin, so you're not hauling bags onto a packed train. A single day trip out of a base hotel: a coin locker at the departure station, picked up again on the way back.