FEATURE
Get a Move On!
You've got a new place to live, now it's time to get moving. Where do you begin? Kristen McQuillin unpacks
some usefull advice to keep you moving right along.
Time flies when you're moving so get an early start. It will be tempting to put off all the tasks before you, but try not to procrastinate. The American Moving and Storage Association recommends eight weeks from beginning to end. It seems like a very long time, but when you are also juggling career, family and social life, eight weeks speed by!
 In the early weeks, get yourself organized. Start a file for moving information and keep everything in it. On moving day, when you need to find the movers' estimate, or the phone number of your landlord, you'll know right were to find it.
"Be organized," stresses Shaun Conroy of Valuemove. "Start well in advance of your move date and take care of details - cancel your subscriptions, talk to your current landlord and know when you want to move. If you're moving abroad, be sure you keep the moving and shipping companies informed of your contact information so they can let you know when your goods clear customs."
As soon as you know your new address, contact your far-flung correspondents to alert them to the change. If your overseas bank is as difficult as mine, it can take several months to get its computer system to accept a foreign address change!
If the thought of sending out change of address cards makes you cringe, take heart. You get a year of mail forwarding courtesy of the post office. Complete the bilingual Change of Address form (tenkyo todoke) and mail it in or return at the counter.
One address change you should not put off is going to your ward office to have your "gaijin card" updated. The process is almost painless - fill in a form then wait a few minutes while your new address is neatly hand printed on the back of your card. You have 14 days to let them know you moved - or else! My ward made me write an apology letter when I turned up 20 days after my move.
Timing is everything. Almost everyone moves in the last week or first week of the month so trucks and staff are stretched thin. Book your mover at least a week in advance, more if you can. Although it is possible to move on a day's notice, you'll pay a premium for a last minute move.
Should it stay or should it go now?
Take an inventory of your possessions. Walk around your apartment or house with a notebook and pencil. In each room, note the furniture, accessories, quantity of books, CDs, electronic equipment, appliances, art, plants. Don't forget the contents of closets, dressers, desks and other hidden storage areas. Outside, count bicycles, toys, patio furniture, gardening tools.
Your list will help you decide whether to tackle the move by yourself or hire professionals. You'll also have a good idea of what you can give away or sell and what items will or won't fit into your new abode.
A sayonara sale is helpful in paring down your worldly goods. You don't really want to pack, move and unpack the clothes the kids have outgrown or the bric-a-brac Auntie Em sent you from Kansas, do you? An ad in TC goes far and you can't beat the price. The more detail you give, the more likely you are to get things off your hands. If you have access to a web page and a digital camera, post pictures. Or let people request a list of items via fax.
If you're paring down dramatically, consider an open house. Invite your friends, colleagues and neighbors to come take what they want. Tara Immell, veteran of many expat relocations, describes her strategy.
"When we moved from Chicago to London we had to get rid of a lot of stuff. We designated one corner of our living room as the give-away area and put everything we didn't want to keep there. Then, we invited all of our friends over for our going away party and explained that they could help themselves to anything in that corner.
"People took plants, cassette tapes, CDs, framed pictures, various knickknacks, clothing and small furniture like newspaper stands and CD holders. We took photos of everyone holding the stuff they'd picked out. Those are fun to look through today.
"The biggest surprise came when a friend asked what we were going to do with our food. I was planning to throw out what was left, but she offered to take it instead. She even took our half empty container of Crisco shortening."
Getting it there
With inventory in hand and possessions sorted out, you can make an informed decision about how you'll move.
For those travelling light and moving locally, it's reasonable to move with very little planning or expense. Andy, an Australian in Tokyo on a working holiday, had only a suitcase, a guitar and a few odds and ends. "When I moved from one guesthouse to another," he explains, "it took only a trip or two on the train."
Transporting via trains has a few disadvantages - imagine struggling with your futon and suitcase up the station steps or flattening an obaasan with your beanbag chair. If you have a few larger items, send them to your new home by takuhaibin. Most delivery services limit packages to 20kg and, like carry-on luggage, a maximum of 120cm when you add up height, width and depth. Akabo (a delivery company that will move items too large for takuhaibin) takes on the bigger items for an extra, rather steep, charge. Go to your local conbini to arrange a pickup and have your items dropped off at your new apaato the next day.
For those with an abundance of furniture, the next level up is renting a truck. This means you'll also have to drive it, which can be a bit harrowing on the narrow streets of Tokyo. If you're brave, contact Nippon Rent-a-Car for truck rental rates. Their webpage (www.freeroad.co.jp) even has a size estimator so you'll know whether you need a minivan or a 2t (two ton) truck.
"I rented a big covered truck for the day. The friend who drove was a former bus driver, so he was OK with the truck and driving," relates Patricia Yarrow, who has lived in Japan off and on for several years. "We had two friends to help move stuff into the truck and four other friends to help unload it into our second floor apartment."
If you have an aversion to driving in Tokyo, hire a moving company. Moving companies run the gamut from truck and driver hire where you supply the labor to full-service movers that take care of packing, unpacking and everything in between.
Your budget will determine whether to take the low road or the high road. A truck and driver/loader for a 1LDK move across Tokyo will cost
JY25,000 and up. A full service move with packing can run as much as
JY150,000. If you've ever wondered how royalty live, splurge on a full-service move. It's easier than marrying a prince!
Full-service moves are ideal for busy executives or the luxuriously wealthy. It's a treat to have a squadron of smiling, uniformed workers scurrying around the house, dismantling furniture, packing everything neatly, and carrying it to the truck while you mind the children or vacuum up the dust balls or just try to stay out of the way.
There is a down side to luxury. Movers will move everything - including your gomi - and they don't always make logical packing decisions. Unpacking becomes an amusing exercise in recall. Was the iron in the bedroom? If so, it might be packed with the bedside lamps. Or did you leave it in the hall closet? Then it is undoubtedly in a box with the coats. This becomes a critical issue on the morning after your move when you're standing in the middle of your new bedroom with a rumpled shirt and tie in hand.
Pack pack pack
Most people agree that it makes sense to pack for yourself. Not only will you know where everything is, but you can save a lot of yen. Five hours of packing service will add about
JY50,000 to your moving bill.
Careful packing will take time. In the end, you will be tempted to throw things willy-nilly into boxes and garbage bags. But if you have things you want to keep unbroken, it makes sense to pack well.
Gather your supplies together in a central location. Boxes, sealing tape, markers and padding are key. Padding can be a few months' supply of newspapers, or purchased foam peanuts, bubble wrap or foam wrap. The foam mesh from gift fruits is great for small breakables. You can kill two birds with one stone by using your towels, blankets and bedding as padding in boxes, too.
If you're moving overseas or planning to put things into storage, proper moving boxes will protect goods better than used boxes and will keep your books from smelling like wilted lettuce or daikon when you unpack them. However, at several hundred yen per box, the cost of boxes adds up quickly. Full-service movers will sell you boxes and deliver them ahead of time so that you can pack. If you need smaller quantities of boxes, stationery stores, Tokyu Hands and even the post office can supply you with what you need.
To cut down on cost, visit your local grocery and ask for their used boxes. Be sure to get sturdy boxes with lids - the ones used for packing fruit and vegetables are ideal. Avoid flimsy boxes which may break and unlidded boxes as they can't be safely stacked in the truck.
If you've saved the original boxes from computers, appliances and other items, now is the time to use them. The constructed foam packing inside original boxes will cradle your precious monitor, scanner, and coffee maker.
How to pack a box
There is an art to packing. Patricia Yarrow tells how she learned the hard way.
"I moved all my stuff from Japan to San Francisco by going to the post office, buying the biggest boxes available, packing them myself, taping, and sending through the mail. Most of the pottery broke. The wooden shrine was damaged badly. Nonbreakables were fine. Was it smart? Not sure."
Here's the ideal way to pack a box:
Line the bottom of your box with paper or padding. If the items you are packing are hollow (glasses, vases, etc.) fill them with paper or foam peanuts. Wrap glass and breakables with paper or bubble wrap or cushion with peanuts. Fill the box with items, tucking in padding on the sides and in between very fragile things. Then add padding on top of it all, and seal the box closed. The box should be ever so slightly overfilled with padding, but not so much that it bulges noticeably.
"Pack heavy things in small boxes," advises Eddy Tani, a local Tokyo mover. "It may seem easier to put everything you own into three huge boxes, but they will be too heavy to lift and likely to burst open." Better, he advises, to use many small boxes. Aim for a box no heavier than 20kg.
Labeling your boxes helps you when you get to the other end. On the top and on one side, write the room the box belongs in and a description of what's inside. If the box contains something vital, note it specifically. "Hall closet: coats and iron."
Hey wait, don't pack that!
Not everything should be packed.
Only in Tokyo would you ever hear this advice: "Women should pack their underpants in sealed cardboard boxes. Don't leave them in dresser drawers. And don't pack them into clear plastic storage boxes," warns Eddy. He was once surprised to find an entire drawer of drawers missing from a customer's bureau left momentarily at the curb.
More standard packing advice suggests you take care with plants by watering them well and transporting them in an open box. For a long distance move, you may want to take extra precautions with breakable pots and be careful to keep the plants out of extreme heat or cold (such as inside the moving truck).
Valuables should be kept with you. Your passport, medical insurance cards, birth certificates and the kids' school records, along with valuable jewels or large quantities of cash, should be hand carried to your new home. Although you can trust your movers in Japan, things do sometimes get lost and most movers insure by the pound, not the value of the items.
Explosives are a no-no. Shoot off your hanabi before you leave your old neighborhood - the neighbors will never forget you - and don't pack aerosol cans or flammable liquids which may explode inside very hot moving vans.
Perishable food items are another no-go. Eat your larder clean in the last weeks before your move. Have a going away party a few days before you leave - you'll clean out the fridge and have time before moving day to recover from your hangover, too.
Settling in
Settling and unpacking can be accomplished with a minimum of pain if you've labeled everything before you loaded it into the truck.
Start by putting the boxes into the proper rooms as they come off the truck. Make sure that the rooms, closets and cabinets are clean before you unpack - it's much easier to wipe off an empty kitchen shelf than one crammed with cans and bottles.
What to unpack first? Sheets and bedding. Make your bed so you can lie in it comfortably at the end of the day when you are too exhausted to open another box. Bedroom curtains are a good idea, too. After that it's up to you.
Taking it in stride
No matter how prepared you are, no matter whether you are moving three blocks or three thousand kilometers, your move will have some stressful moments. With luck, the minor mishaps of moving will turn into funny stories when it's all over.
"I look back at my last night in London," Tara reminisces. "Seth and I were digging through the six bags of garbage we'd thrown away that day in order to find the plug for the air mattress we were planning on sleeping on that night! We did eventually find the plug - the day our air shipment arrived in Tokyo!"
Seth chimes in, "Relax about the whole thing. Almost no matter what you do, you'll still be up until 4am some night right before the move making decisions about what to do with things like the extra aluminum foil. It's like a wedding - it will get done no matter what, and it takes on a life of its own."
Reproduced by permission of Kansai Time Out |
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