The rather goofy-looking Hero Shot for one of the moving companies.

When I moved to Inagi from Saginomiya in Nakano Ward, I did it without a moving company. Of course, back then, I had a bit less stuff. Also, my brother and another person helped out with the move. Still, it was not really the most fun experience, especially since my place in Inagi has the most stupid elevator arrangement. For some weird reason, the elevators here only stop at the half-floor, so wherever you stop, you half to climb up or down half a flight of stairs. Why they did this I have no idea; not having the elevator stop level with the apartment doors seems like they wanted to make it hard for disabled people or people moving in and out.

In any case, Sachi was arranging for a moving company herself, and so I got introduced to that whole world. I had never used a moving company before, figuring that I could save a lot of money. But to have people come in and take care of the hairy stuff is really appealing–especially since I have two air conditioners which have to be taken down (one of them has to be installed in Ikebukuro as well). So Sachi and I contacted three different movers and had them come in to do estimates.

That’s how it works: you look through the untold number of moving companies in Tokyo and figure which ones might be the best candidates. Then you have them come in to your place and size things up. Thank god for Sachi: she’s able to talk to the people without the language barrier making things twice as long. I don’t know if I would be able to communicate all the stuff that would have to be communicated if it were just me. Plus she has experience with this.

So the guy comes over and you walk through the place, pointing out what you need to have moved and what not. He takes a tally and then you sit down, and he writes out an estimate, or mitsumori-sho. You discuss all the particulars–the hows, whens, whats, and wheres. How much distance from the elevators to the door so they’ll know how much floor and wall covering to set down, that kind of thing. In the end, he completes the estimate and gives it to you. Then you compare what you get from different places and figure out which one to use.

Of course, the building we’re moving into isn’t making it much easier. They set a limit on the size of the truck–no bigger than 2 tons, which is the smallest truck most moving companies have, a tiny little thing. I would have to get two trucks from the moving company to do it all that way, which would add several hundred dollars to the moving tab. Also, they don’t allow moves on Sundays, or on any day after 7:40 pm. The Sunday thing doesn’t affect me too much, because I have Mondays and Fridays off this semester (and Friday moves are actually cheaper). The 7:40 thing is a bother, though, as moving companies charge a lot less for evening moves. But I may still be able to get the discount if we start from mid-afternoon.

Still, it’s working out pretty well in the end. The movers will move all the hard stuff, take care of the air conditioners, and get all the heavy and delicate stuff taken care of. What’s left over, I’ll cart over myself in a van, with a friend if I am able to get somebody to help. For what the moving company is doing, so far they say it’ll cost a tad over 60,000 yen.

So far, so good. Another three weeks and I’m outta here.