Some great news for those of us who like to buy products from Japan, like Woody Joe kits and things: This Summer, after nearly a year of Covid lock-down, Japan Post has begun allowing shipping to the United States again. In celebration, I bought a bunch of stuff from Zootoyz.jp that I don’t really need just yet! After a couple weeks, I received my first package from Japan in about a year.
No, there was no ship modeling stuff here in this order. Well, not exactly anyway. I did get a new Hishika Industries Super Fine Cut Saw to replace the one I’ve worn out. That’s something I do use with ship modeling. The rest is mostly to work on some very small scale (1/150) diorama ideas.
But, you’ll also notice two kits in the photo. These I got mostly to make and share with my 96 year old mother, who is now in a nursing facility. She doesn’t have much room for personal stuff, but she likes to look at these things, particularly if there are people in the model display. And, I’m hoping it jogs her memories a little. She probably doesn’t remember anymore that I’ve visited the Kaminari-mon (the small model) or Matsumoto Castle (the larger model).
So, yes, shipping from Japan is available again, however it is more expensive than it used to be, and it was already pretty pricey. But, in reality, shipping from Japan to the U.S. was still available, even during the lockdown, via a Japanese shipping company called Yamato Transport. In fact, I used the service last year to ship a small model to Japan last year. Shipping to Japan using Yamato is a little bit of work, as you have to find a convenient drop-off location. However, getting stuff from Japan is pretty easy, as their stuff apparently gets passed along to UPS to do the actual delivery.
And, actually, this is how the above items were shipped to me, as it was a little bit cheaper than EMS service via Japan Post, which is how I’d always gotten deliveries in the past. Still pricey, but nice to be able to do business again direct from Japan. Ω
Ship Modeler 