How do I send a package to Japan?

[Traveller]

おはよ！

A musician friend of mine from Tokyo is having a birthday in November, and I'd like to send her a present – except I've never mailed anything out of the country before.

What are some of my postal options for sending small packages or padded envelopes to Japan?
Which is cheaper? Which is more reliable?
Has anyone here mailed to Japan before?

ありがとうございます

[Jason]

I've never sent anything to Japan, but I've gotten quite a bit from there. I really like EMS. It's like international priority mail, and it's available at the post office. For relatively smaller items like several books or CDs, it runs around US$25 and usually arrives in 3-5 days. You can get faster delivery, but expect to pay out the nose for it. You can get cheaper delivery but it'll likely be really slow. So, I think EMS is the probably the best balance of speed and cost.

If you want to send her something big, like a tuba or something, you may want to look into international shipping with a company like UPS or FedEx. I've never used them for international stuff though.

[Traveller]

Thanks for the quick reply, Jason. Sorry, no tubas, haha.

I looked up EMS. Is this what you were talking about? :
http://www.usps.com/shipping/expressmail.htm

So I just specify EMS when I say I'm shipping internationally?

[Jason]

Yeah, I guess so. I've never done it myself (though I'll be doing it a little later today). Here's where you can calculate postage:

http://ircalc.usps.gov/default.asp?Mode ... &CID=10214

[Bueller_007]

If it's in November, and you're not sending perishables, you might try sea mail.

It took only took 3-4 weeks to ship boxes from Japan to Nova Scotia, and it's dirt, dirt cheap.

I don't have an URL for you; I just asked for it at the post office.