Using a taxi as a luggage forwarding service?

Greetings everyone.

We'll be flying to Nagoya mid-march, and our plane will land around 10 o'clock. Our initial plan would be to head from here to the Kiso valley region, and overnight in Tsumago.

We'd like to do the Magome-Tsumago hike on the same day that we arrive, but as we'll be coming directly from the airport we'll of course have all our packings.

Using Takkyubin service from the airport would have our luggage arrive at our place of stay the next day at earliest (as far as I've understood), and the Tsumago-Magome baggage forwarding service doesn't run on weekdays in March, nor would we be able to make the 11:30 cutoff time for the baggage drop on our day of arrival either way.


A solution suggested elsewhere would be to send the luggage by taxi from JR Nakatsugawa station to our place of stay in Tsumago, then continue ourselves to mMgome and do the dayhike to Tsumago from there.

This sounds like an awesomely convenient solution, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. Has anyone ever done something like this in Japan? How willing would the cab drivers be to do an arrangement like this, and how would you go about to arrange it, just hail a taxi from the station? I can speak a "managable" tourist-level japanese (N5).

Also, if anyone has a rough idea of the possible costs involved for an arrangement like this (taxi from Nakatsugawa to Tsumago), any information would be appriciated.

I would suggest simply packing an overnight bag (so that you will have stuff you need for the first night, right with you), and send it via Takkyubin to reach your accommodation for the next night.

Um, I wonder if the taxi driver would be comfortable delivering pieces of baggage just by himself - where/when are you going to pay (up front?), can you notify your hotel in advance that just the luggage will be arriving ahead of you via taxi, etc?

Another thing you "might" consider - would you be able to travel and do a hike on your arrival day, with jet lag? (Maybe you are completely OK...)

if you send your luggage by taxi with no passenger, it might be illegal.

I don't know if you could do this in some country but I don't believe so in Japan. Not only I think it is quite rude to use Taxi driver as delivery guy, I seriously doubt any taxi driver would accept such responsibility. I can imagine, in case of damages or loss of luggage/contents, this will definitely cause issues with their liabilities and insurance.

If I were the driver, some foreigners suddenly ask me to delivery bags by myself, I would naturally suspect they might be trying to make me transport something illegal. If you were the driver, would you accept and deliver strangers' luggage?

You could try use airport delivery service
http://www.jalabc.com/english/index2.html#chubu
Is Kiso valley your only destination? If not, pack a day or two worth of stuff and ship the rest to your next destination.

Taxi drivers are certainly used for deliveries in many countries, including Japan. For example, often airlines use them to forward delayed baggage in a timely fashion. however, as a foreigner and a private individual, you would probably run in trouble trying to do this.

Correct me if I am misreading what the OP says.

The OP want to take a taxi from JR Nakatsugawa station to the accommodation in Tsumago, and then drop the baggages, and then again take the same taxi to Magome. I think this is very usual in Japan. It is better to request the driver in written form, preferably in Japanese.

Like this:

妻籠の「　　　」旅館までいって荷物を下ろし、それから馬籠の「　　　」まで行ってもらえるでしょうか？

Oh. frog1954, I thought the OP wanted to (1) send the luggage by taxi from Nakatsugawa to his hotel in Tsumago, and (2) separately from that, travel from Nakatsugawa to Magome and do the trail walk to Tsumago. That's how I read it...

That's how I read it...

Hmm... Maybe you are right. And this is prohibited as ken says.

If the OP wanted to do as I wrote, the cost of the taxi is about 8000 yen (60 min ride). If the OP take the taxi from JR Nagiso station, the cost will be about 5500 yen (30 min). It takes more time (and JR fare) to reach Nagiso though.

frog1954, I thought the OP wanted to (1) send the luggage by taxi from Nakatsugawa to his hotel in Tsumago, and (2) separately from that, travel from Nakatsugawa to Magome and do the trail walk to Tsumago. That's how I read it... [/
Yes, this was the intention.

Packing a day pack of utensils at the airport and using Takkyubin to get the rest of the luggage to Tsumago for the next day is the fall-back option, but I'd like to avoid that scenario if if possible.


The replies are a bit discouraging, so I suppose I will unfortunately have go with Takkyubin just to play it safe, lest someone else has further experience on the subject :/