In this booster
Takkyuubin — sending a suitcase ahead to your next hotel or the airport instead of hauling it onto trains. Most tourists don’t even know this service exists; learning to ask for it is a genuine quality-of-life win, not just a phrase drill. Hand the bag to your hotel’s front desk (or any konbini counter), fill in one slip, pay about two thousand yen — and it travels overnight, so the trick is rhythm: send it the day before you ride, keep a toothbrush kit for that night, and it’s waiting at the next hotel when you walk in. You cross Japan carrying nothing but a day bag.
No new grammar — every sentence here is a frame you already own, wearing new nouns. The star is Lesson 6’s made + Lesson 1’s onegaishimasu: the same frame that directs a taxi (Eki made onegaishimasu) ships a suitcase — name the destination, hand over the bag. Even “when does it arrive?” needs no verb: the yes/no flip (Ashita desu ka.) does it. Boosters assume the finished core (Lessons 1–9); take them in any order. This pack is deliberately compact — the service is one beautiful transaction, sent, claimed, and (rarely) chased.
As always: tap each sentence and listen first, repeat it aloud, then check yourself against the text and meaning that appear. Tap again to listen as often as you like.
Sending the suitcase
takkyuubin — the luggage-forwarding service. Nearly every hotel front desk and every konbini offers it; this question just confirms you’re at a counter that does. (The word is technically one company’s brand — see the behavior notes — but like “band-aid,” it’s what everyone says.)
Kono suutsukeesu o kuukou made, onegaishimasu.
suutsukeesu — suitcase. And there it is: the taxi frame, shipping cargo instead of you. Kuukou has been yours since Lesson 4 — sending the big bag to the airport two days before you fly home is the classic move.
Kono hoteru made, onegaishimasu.
The hotel-to-hotel version: pull up the next booking on your phone, point at the address, say this. The clerk copies the address; you carry a toothbrush.
Ashita desu ka.
No “arrive” verb exists in your kit — and none is needed. The yes/no flip from Lesson 6 collapses the whole delivery question to one word plus desu ka. (The answer is almost always hai: next-day delivery covers most of the country.)
Suutsukeesu wa ikura desu ka.
Pricing is by size — Lesson 3’s ikura gets you the number for yours. Expect around two thousand yen: less than two coffees for a day of walking unencumbered.
Furonto wa doko desu ka.
furonto — the hotel front desk, where this entire pack happens. A loanword you can already read if you took the Katakana booster.
The slip
denpyou — the shipping slip, one small form between you and freedom. It asks for three things, and you already own the words for all of them: namae (Lesson 2), and these two —
Juusho wa kore desu.
juusho — address. Don’t copy Japanese addresses by hand — point at the printed one and let the clerk transcribe. This sentence hands the job over politely.
Denwa bangou mo desu ka.
denwa bangou — phone number, the form’s third blank. Yours, or the destination hotel’s — either satisfies the form. This word unlocks every form in Japan, not just this one.
Kowaremono desu.
kowaremono — a fragile thing. Said as the bag changes hands, it gets the red FRAGILE sticker and gentler handling — the sake bottles and the pottery from the Tax-Free booster will thank you.
Claiming it
Sending was half the trick; here’s the other half, at each destination.
At the hotel, the bag is tied to your reservation — most desks hand it over the moment you give your name, before you can ask. If they don’t, this is the ask: Lesson 2’s name frame plus the nimotsu you met in the Trains booster. No slip needed; your name is the claim.
Nimotsu, onegaishimasu.
At the airport, find the carrier’s counter in the departure terminal — the black cat again — and hold out your copy of the slip: the bottom sheet of the denpyou the clerk handed back when you sent the bag. That copy is the claim ticket; keep it with your passport all trip. Two words plus the paper, and the suitcase surfaces.
Nimotsu ga arimasen.
The rare bad day — and it usually isn’t the courier: nine times out of ten the bag is in the back room, filed under a creative romanization of your name. Lesson 8’s problem pattern raises the flag; show your name written (passport or booking screen) and let the desk look again.
Bangou wa kore desu.
bangou — number, the second half of denwa bangou promoted to its own word. Every slip carries a tracking number; point at it and the desk can call the carrier and locate the bag in minutes. Mix-ups are genuinely rare — this is a courier network businesses trust with fresh fish — but this sentence is the whole recovery plan when one happens.
Set piece
The whole service in two words, said at any front desk or konbini counter with the bag beside you. Everything that follows — the slip, the size, the price — is the counter’s script, and the rest of this pack has you covered for it.
Dialog
At the front desk the night before a travel day: one suitcase, airport-bound. Listen to the whole dialog cold first.
Sumimasen. Takkyuubin wa arimasu ka. Hai, arimasu yo. Kono suutsukeesu o kuukou made, onegaishimasu. Kowaremono desu. Hai. Kochira ni gokinyuu kudasai. Denwa bangou mo desu ka. Hai, onegaishimasu. Itsu goro otodoke shimashou ka. Ashita, onegaishimasu. Hai. Sen go-hyaku en desu. Arigatou gozaimasu.Count the traveler’s sentences: an arimasu question, the loaded taxi frame, a form check, a time word plus onegaishimasu, and a thank-you. Ten kilograms of luggage handled by five frames from the first half of the course — and you caught itsu goro in the clerk’s question because itsu has been yours since Lesson 6.
What they’ll say to you
The two counter lines, at native speed. You never say these — catch the keyword, answer from your kit.
Kochira ni gokinyuu kudasai. Itsu goro otodoke shimashou ka.Kinyuu (fill in) and otodoke (deliver) are outside your kit on purpose — kochira plus a pen gesture, and itsu plus a pause, tell you everything each line needs you to know.
Repair drill
Ask the price and the full matrix arrives — sizes, delivery windows, airport lead times. You are not expected to parse it.
Sumimasen. Kuukou made, ikura desu ka. Saizu ni yorimasu ga, emu saizu desu to nisen-en de, ashita no gogo ni wa otodoke dekimasu ga, kuukou uketori wa futsuka mae made no omoushikomi ga hitsuyou desu. Sumimasen. Kaite kudasai. Nisen-en desu. Ashita desu.Prices and dates belong on paper — Lesson 1’s third rung, again. The airport lead-time detail the fast version buried? It’s in the behavior notes below, where it can’t be misheard.
How to behave: the forwarding rules
- The whole transaction is: bag, slip, ~¥2,000. Hotel front desks are the easiest counter (they keep slips and call the pickup); any konbini works too.
- It’s a next-day service — same-day doesn’t exist for intercity. Tokyo to Osaka arrives tomorrow, not tonight; the bag rides an overnight network no matter how early you hand it over. So pick which night travels light: send the bag the day before you ride and it’s waiting at check-in (you keep an overnight kit for the last night at the old hotel), or send it the morning you leave and your first night at the new hotel is the bagless one. Most travelers settle on day-before as the rhythm.
- Airport-bound bags need lead time — and your slip copy is the claim ticket. Airport pickup counters generally want the bag sent two days before your flight — don’t cut it to one. Claim it at the carrier’s counter in the departure terminal with your copy of the slip. Hotel-to-hotel, write your check-in date on the slip; hotels receive and hold luggage for arriving guests as a matter of course, and your name at check-in is all the claiming it takes.
- Point at addresses; never transcribe them. The next hotel’s address on your booking screen, held out with Juusho wa kore desu — the clerk copies it in seconds, error-free. The phone-number blank takes your mobile or the destination hotel’s number.
- Follow the black cat. Takkyuubin is technically Yamato Transport’s brand — their black-cat (kuroneko) logo marks every counter that takes your bag — but the word is generic in practice, and every carrier’s counter will understand it.
- If the bag isn’t there: name first, then the number. Mix-ups are rare enough to be a story, and the usual cause is a misfiled romanized name — show your name written and the desk almost always finds it. If not, your slip copy’s tracking number (Bangou wa kore desu) lets them call the carrier and pin it down in minutes; a genuinely astray bag gets redelivered same or next day.
Vocabulary reference
| # | Romaji | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | takkyuubin | luggage forwarding | Takkyuubin, onegaishimasu. |
| 2 | suutsukeesu | suitcase | ships on the taxi frame |
| 3 | denpyou | (shipping) slip | keep your copy — the airport claim ticket |
| 4 | juusho | address | point, don’t transcribe |
| 5 | denwa bangou | phone number | unlocks every form in Japan |
| 6 | kowaremono | fragile (thing) | Kowaremono desu. — gets the sticker |
| 7 | furonto | hotel front desk | where this pack happens |
| 8 | bangou | number | the tracking number — Bangou wa kore desu. |
| 9 | nimotsu | luggage | Kono nimotsu, ii desu ka. |
Recognize only — never say these. The counter scripts:
| Script line | It means | You do |
|---|---|---|
| Kochira ni gokinyuu kudasai. | fill this in | name, address, phone number |
| Itsu goro otodoke shimashou ka. | deliver it when? | Ashita, onegaishimasu. |
Anki deck
Drill this booster’s audio anywhere: download the Luggage Forwarding Anki deck. Sentence cards are the course; vocab cards are backup — suspend them unless a word won’t stick.