A traveler arrives at a snowy resort hotel front desk in Japan, where the ski bag stands upright beside the desk.

Silk Crane Gets Your Skis to Your Next Stay in Japan

Published Last updated

Reviewed by Max

A long ski bag is hard to carry across Japan, so it helps to send it on ahead to the place you will stay next.

Silk Crane, a luggage storage service for travelers in Japan, keeps ski gear and suitcases and delivers them to a hotel, an Airbnb or a shipping center of the delivery company Yamato. This guide shows where the gear can arrive.

A traveler arrives at a snowy resort hotel front desk in Japan, where the ski bag stands upright beside the desk.
Arrive at your ski hotel without carrying the ski bag.

Your ski gear's trip, one step at a time

  1. Step 1 of 4

    Why send your ski gear on

    A ski bag is long and awkward on trains, buses and stairs. Sending it on ahead to the place you will stay next means you carry only a suitcase in between. You hand the bag over, and Silk Crane delivers it.

    First, choose where it should arrive.

  2. Step 2 of 4

    Choose where your gear arrives

    Gear can arrive at three kinds of place:

    • A front desk. A hotel, lodge or resort with a front desk can receive a delivery. Ask whether it accepts deliveries for guests.
    • An Airbnb. Picture an Airbnb in the countryside: Silk Crane delivers to the stay in a morning or afternoon window, and someone is there for the whole window.
    • A Yamato shipping center. Silk Crane has delivered gear to a Yamato shipping center near a stay with no front desk, such as a cottage, and the guest collects it there. It has done the same in larger cities, where the center was easy to reach.

    Then you hand the bag over.

  3. Step 3 of 4

    Hand the ski bag over where you are

    You hand the ski bag over at your hotel front desk or at a counter of the delivery company Yamato. Silk Crane then delivers it to the place you chose. The ski and suitcase trip guide walks through the sending steps.

    After that, you collect it.

  4. Step 4 of 4

    Collect it and carry on

    You receive the gear at your hotel front desk or your Airbnb, or collect it at the Yamato center, and carry on with a lighter load. The guide to ways to send and store ski gear compares every route.

Common questions

Can I send skis to an Airbnb or a cottage?

Yes to an Airbnb, in a morning or afternoon window.

Someone is at the Airbnb for the whole window. For a cottage with no front desk, Silk Crane has delivered to a nearby Yamato shipping center, where the guest collects the gear.

Do I need to be there when the gear arrives?

At an Airbnb, yes, for the whole window.

A hotel front desk receives a delivery for you, so ask the hotel whether it accepts deliveries for guests. At a Yamato center, you collect the gear.

Can I send a suitcase too?

Yes.

You hand a suitcase over at your hotel front desk or a 7-Eleven, and Silk Crane delivers it, so you carry less on the way.

Where do I hand the ski bag over?

At your hotel front desk or a Yamato counter.

Yamato is a delivery company. The ski and suitcase trip guide shows the steps.

Can the gear go to my ski hotel?

Yes, in resort areas such as Niseko, Furano, Tomamu, Hakuba and Myoko.

Silk Crane delivers to a ski hotel there and confirms the place with you.

More for ski trips

For ski gear alone, see the ski and snowboard storage page.

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