28 ms·
We hired a Japanese moving company [video]
- rwmj 8y agoAh Japan ... and excess packaging. I was just there and I managed to get an item which was triple wrapped: It was a small tray which came wrapped in cellophane already, which the shopkeeper (very beautifully) wrapped in a paper bag and then put the whole thing in a plastic bag before handing it to me. I didn't beat triple wrapped anywhere else, but 7-11 did sell me an "eco bag" which they wrapped in a plastic bag for me, before I had time and the presence of mind to tell them I didn't need the "fukuro" (plastic bag).
- mykowebhn 8y agoI noticed the same thing. Japanese items are among the most beautifully packaged in the world I find, though the waste always troubles me.
- foobarbazetc 8y agoJapan does a really good job at recycling plastic. Not sure about other materials: https://earth911.com/general/plastics-recycling-rate-hits-77-percent-in-japan/ https://earth911.com/general/plastics-recycling-rate-hits-77...
- rwmj 8y agoIt does a good job of collecting plastic, actual recycling of it not so much: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-45400514/what-really-happens-to-recycling-plastic https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-45400514/what-reall...
- gadders 8y agoThe wardrobe cartoons at 9m32s are pretty common in the UK, or at least were when I had a student job as a removal man nearly 30 years ago.
- jacobush 8y agoI was anxious to know what kind of subgenre of anime (cartoons) I was going to see!
- rtkwe 8y agoHere in the US too [0]. There's a lot of specialized boxes available for packing and moving many people don't bother with either because of price or they don't know about it. [0] https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Boxes/Clothing-Moving-Boxes/Grand-Wardrobe-Box/?id=6560 https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Boxes/Clothing-Moving-B...
- saalweachter 8y agoWhich brings me to the PSA: Your books go in book boxes (1 foot cubes). Do not put your books in small boxes. Do not put your books in medium boxes. For the love of god, do not put your books in large boxes. Yes, if you have a lot of books you'll end up with 50 or 100 book boxes. No, that's a good thing.
- rtkwe 8y agoHeh, yeah just moved ~2 years ago and some of the heaviest boxes were from our book cases even using the small boxes. edit: small here meaning 1.5 ft^3.
- gadders 8y agoWhen I started I managed to fill a large box up with books. Experienced Mover (eyeing large box): What have you put in there? Newbie Me: Books Experienced Mover: You can fucking carry that one then.
- paulcarroty 8y agoI stopped to buy paper books ~10 years ago, and it was great decision.
- _nalply 8y agoI also know them. A mover told me that he once had a client who filled them with books!
- blattimwind 8y ago> This isn't a sponsored video... but we are getting our move for free
- ranie93 8y agoI imagine the expectation here is that the youtubers are not under any obligation to provide a positive review, or perhaps any review at all. The company is so sure of the quality of their service that they know they will get positive PR from the video.
- legohead 8y agoperhaps, but at least in the US [1] (and YouTube guidelines [2]), you cannot receive something like this for free and not specifically call it out. [1] : https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftc... [2] : https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235?hl=en
- woodrowbarlow 8y agoright. so they called it out.
- ranie93 8y agoThanks for sharing, thats very useful information. I hope youtubers are familiar with this info! I think this is the relevant part for this scenario: >I have a YouTube channel that focuses on hunting, camping, and the outdoors. Sometimes I’ll do a product review. Knife manufacturers know how much I love knives, so they send me knives as free gifts, hoping that I will review them. I’m under no obligation to talk about any knife and getting the knives as gifts really doesn’t affect my judgment. Do I need to disclose when I’m talking about a knife I got for free? >Even if you don’t think it affects your evaluation of the product, what matters is whether knowing that you got the knife for free might affect how your audience views what you say about the knife. It doesn’t matter that you aren’t required to review every knife you receive. Your viewers may assess your review differently if they knew you got the knife for free, so we advise disclosing that fact. In this case the youtubers in the OP did disclose that they got the service for free in the video. Perhaps they should have mentioned the fact in writing in the video description/pinned comment as well.
- xutopia 8y agoI wonder how much such a service costs. It's really impressive how much attention they put into everything.
- _pmf_ 8y agoThe decision to hire a (non-Japanese) moving company for moving our 4 person household has been the best service investment I ever did. Included tearing down and rebuilding every piece of large furniture and the kitchen including appliances and plumbing. I would have been busy for at least two weeks. 2000 EUR. Unbelievable to watch.
- vonmoltke 8y ago> the kitchen including ... plumbing Plumbing? Doesn't that usually stay with the house?
- barkingcat 8y agoAppliances and plumbing - usually that means dishwasher, remove and reinstall, etc
- stronglikedan 8y agoEven appliances usually stay with the house, IME.
- mrkstu 8y agoBuilt ins are expected to stay- freestanding things like refrigerators and washer/dryers are usually negotiable. We just replaced our built in oven/burners with a slide out one and not sure what the expectation will be with that one...
- asteli 8y agoThat's not a universal expectation. In Germany for example, it's typical to furnish your own appliances and to take them when you move.
- blattimwind 8y agoPretty sure he means connecting the appliances to the water and sewage lines. I've never heard of anyone taking their toilet or shower with them ;)
- alexwasserman 8y agoHaving moved in the US several times, this looks like more like the difference between good movers and bad, regardless of country. I've used the pack and move services in the US, and they came a week or two before to review and get an idea of the work then book a date. This meant they arrived with the correct number of men, trucks, and packing equipment. Specialist boxes for TVs, crockery, wardrobes, etc. They packed everything (including everything in the fridge, bathrooms, etc). Even the years-old pickle jars at the back of the fridge, old bars of soap by the guest sinks, etc were carefully wrapped and packed. The guys doing the job were incredible about moving heavy, complex furniture quickly, and efficiently. This included a couple of large (>100g) saltwater fishtanks. They broke it all down and put it back together with minimal oversight. I've found movers typically offer a range of services - the full (pack, move, unpack), or just pack and move, or just move.
- vonnieda 8y agoCan you name some companies you've had good experiences with? I'd like to do this for my next move but all I read is horror stories of people's stuff getting held hostage or just lost in the desert.
- alexwasserman 8y agoIn NYC Schleppers were really good - used them twice, would use them again, if I was in their area. I used United for my last move, who were also good.
- wirrbel 8y agoMy employer sponsored our last move, including packing and unpacking. The staff was really great, careful and we had hardly things that broke. A few plants lost leaves (but basically these were excluded from the contract by my employer, so the company kindly offered to move the plants without any guarantees, I guess packing them better would have been time consuming and thats what my employer didn't want to pay for). A colleague hired the very same company for their move (they had bought a house, so it was not part of an agreement for starting a new work contract). They sent a team of workers, no one spoke more than a few words of German (my coworker is a kind and open-minded person, he was surely not exaggerating). A lot of things didn't make the trip as a whole. All losses were covered by the companies insurance, but it was a pain making all the claims.
- dougk16 8y agoI was a professional mover for a number of years in a wealthy area in the US (Fairfield County, CT), so moving people from McMansion to McMansion, back and forth between Manhattan, etc. People movin' on up, and sometimes way way down. All their "priceless" stuff. Best job I ever had, lots of skill involved. I ponder starting my own company sometimes. Great tips, lots of free stuff, new faces everyday, great workout. I could write a sitcom from all the crazy stories. You get a deep glimpse into people's lives. Imagine rooting around people's attics, digging into forgotten closets. Very stressful and emotional for lots of people as well, leaving houses they've been in for 40 years, divorces, foreclosures, you name it. I started as a grunt and eventually helped pack trucks here and there after a few years. A more strategic, infinitely variable form of 3d Tetris. Furniture moving is one of those unexpectedly "deep" jobs that can be done passably by some college kids and a truck when you're moving out of your first crappy rental, but has a true logistical slant to it when grand pianos and sculptures are involved. Anyway I have no cultural Japanese basis to look at this from, but they used a ton of disposable packaging. Looks like a lot of unnecessary flash and sizzle in general, e.g. using tablets when a notepad and shorthand is plenty enough to do such estimates. "Protecting" the walls it looks like? Not necessary and would only prevent the most superficial dings, which we would have patched up in the rare event we dinged a wall anyway. That looked like a 2-3 person one day job as well (packing, loading, delivering, and home early) and they looked to have 5-6 people working there. I thought our approaches were pretty wasteful but in comparison it was mostly the bare minimum tape and boxes and wrapping paper. We used furniture blankets/pads much more liberally. All kinds of "origami"-type wrapping techniques (ironically?). Not to hate! Just noting some cultural differences perhaps.
- ranie93 8y agoI've read that the disposable packaging is actually reused/recycled so it may not be so wasteful. Tablets can be a pain to use, I agree. If the software is stable and with good/simple UI, I'd say the benefits (syncing/automatic plan generation/auditing/inventory) outweigh the inconveniences. As for the wall protectors, I'd say those are also filling the role of giving homeowners peace of mind. Sure I'd appreciate the ding in the wall getting patched (are you going to match the paint exactly as well?), but I'd prefer avoiding any scratch or ding all-together. Can't say too much about the number of people they have, perhaps their methodology is to do more work in parallel to increase their throughput.
- kazuki 8y agoWow. I moved within Japan couple of times but never had a chance to use such excellent service. I'd always go with cheap option that required me to pack everything beforehand so workers just come pick up and carry them to the new place. Packing/Unpacking service seems very convenient.
- solarkraft 8y agoMy response to that title is simply: Ok? Why would I care? What's special? If I'm in Canada I'll hire a Canadian moving company. Since you hired a Japanese one, I'll assume you're in Japan. Sure. Okay. You're probably moving.
- sctb 8y agoEven though it frequently seems that way, this isn't a title discussion site. Would you mind holding off until you're ready to post something thoughtful and informative? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mykowebhn 8y agoJust wanted to mention that the creators of this channel, Rachel & Jun, have one of the most beautifully filmed cooking channels on Youtube, Jun's Kitchen. https://www.youtube.com/user/JunsKitchen https://www.youtube.com/user/JunsKitchen
- ddeokbokki 8y agoI knew the cats looked familiar..
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- notyourwork 8y agoThank you for mentioning this, I just watched a few videos and they are quite fantastic. Was not expecting to find quality entertainment like this from a moving article.
- nyxxie 8y agoUnrelated, but I really enjoy this trend of people disclosing potential conflicts of interest relating to sponsoring at the beginning of a show or video like they did here. It’s so refreshingly honest and respectful of my natural distaste for being shown propaganda.
- mslev 8y agoAFAIK many times it's a requirement of the platform/sponsor/etc that it must be disclosed. I appreciate it as well.
- ksec 8y agoDidn't have time to watch all of it. But did they mention how much does it cost in Japan? I really like the idea they could help you buy Appliance through them along with delivery and installation. Assuming you are not picky with Appliances ( Japanese Home Appliance are one of the best in the world. ) and they have a wide selection, if saves you tons of hassle. Not only that they help you throw away your old stuff, knowing the Japanese, those will likely get recycles or properly disposed instead of being dumped somewhere.
- syntaxing 8y agoSo...does anyone have any tips to find a good mover like this in the US? I hear horror stories on how some movers will hold your stuff "hostage" until you tip them. I don't mind paying, but I just want a trustworthy mover.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoUhaul and a local company to pack/unpack if needed. Nobody will be more careful with your stuff than you will. edit: Why is this down-voted?
- daphneokeefe 8y agoI have done this several times, moving cross-country via U-Haul. It's easy enough to drive the trucks, even with your car on a trailer behind it. I hire loaders/unloaders based on reviews. You can really save a lot of money doing it yourself, and it's prudent to hire professionals to do the heavy lifting. Sure, you can run into problems and have a bad experience this way. But the movers my company paid for didn't do such a great job either. On the other hand, the guys the Army sent were amazing. I have a toy U-Haul truck on my bookcase, because wanderlust.
- User23 8y agoI had one try to raise the price by about 10% after they had my items. It was an interstate move and the company I had contracted with and that was named for loading, transport, and unloading on the bill of lading sold the job to another mover. I guess this is pretty common, but it's also pretty illegal. Without a valid bill of lading they are in possession of stolen property. I told them so and asked if they wanted to involve the police and the DoT. They unloaded my things then. It's one of the rare occasions I've stiffed someone on the tip. If attempted theft and extortion isn't a reason to reduce a tip, nothing is.
- _ah 8y agoReminds me of this great article posted ~18 months ago about high end professional movers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15310849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15310849 (https://longreads.com/2017/09/21/a-high-end-mover-dishes-on-truckstop-hierarchy-rich-people-and-moby-dick/ https://longreads.com/2017/09/21/a-high-end-mover-dishes-on-...)
- pier25 8y agoAs someone that recently moved a couple thousand miles... This is... perfection.
- aznpwnzor 8y agopeople here complaining about the wasted packaging. EOD accounting probably will still show it is net waste, but remember that Japanese people will reuse and repair everything. They will actually consider the first 2 R's much more than Americans do.
- robocat 8y ago> Japanese people will reuse and repair everything Maybe for small items. Counterpoint: 1. in the video they got new whitewear (would their old whitewear get sold second hand? Feels unlikely.) 2. "Raze, rebuild, repeat: why Japan knocks down its houses after 30 years" https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusable-housing-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl...
- cannonedhamster 8y agoJapan has an excellent number of second hand stores for many household and personal items.
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago> first 2 R's much more than Americans do Never heard this one before.
- odiroot 8y agoAre these socket in the ceiling some universal/standard for all lamps in Japanese? If so this is simply ingenious.
- SapporoChris 8y agoI can't say if they're universal, but they are definately standard. In my apartment the main rooms have them, basically anywhere a central ceiling light would be placed. Areas like kitchen,bathroom and entrance have recessed lighting with Edison screw bases for the lightbulbs. It was fairly dark in the first few days in my unfurnished apartment until my light fixtures arrived. I've noticed the same type lighting in four 'furnished' apartments I previously stayed in.
- Markoff 8y agoi was more surprised why would anyone move ceiling light? it looks very odd, i consider it part of apartment and would never think about moving it unless it is some expensive smart light, though the one in video seem quite generic
- cdiamand 8y agoI worked in a family moving business growing up (and continue to pick up the odd job when I'm home). I've worked with various other moving companies as well. I have to say that the quality of this move was unreal by American standards. I was extremely impressed that they are able to employ staff solely dedicated to arranging the home. I'm still trying to work out how they are able to use a crew that large and keep things economical. There were also several pieces of packing material I hadn't seen before. Some of which looked reusable, which is a good thing to see. There is a fair amount of waste in the profession.
- cannonedhamster 8y agoThey use economy of scale. They have a large crew so that they can get more moves done in a single day. Keep in mind most people in Japan live within the same metro region, so there's a larger economy of scale.
- stunt 8y agoAfter watching the video, I came to ask how is it related to HN? But, look at the comments! I guess there are some interests!