Expat Express

No, I did not buy that dress for the ball here. I didn't even bother to look. In my crazy bargain hunting ways I waited until the 1st of the year when dresses were marked down and looked at all the major department stores online - I mean ALL. I found a safe fitting dress...girls, you understand. Then we have this fabulous thing called Expat Express. You can shop from any store online in the states and have the store ship your stuff to them in Utah. They combine all of the purchases in as few boxes as possible and for a small fee ship it to me in Tokyo. There is still duty to pay, but far less than what one would have to pay if you had the store ship directly to you. Don't ask me why. So in my last box I had Lands End, Dillards, Amazon.com and Nick's Birthday presents. Opening the box was a bit like Christmas. Sometimes when the box is small, the delivery guy doesn't ask for any duty. Again, we don't know why. I made a mistake early on and had Land's End ship the kid's uniforms directly to me. When the guy showed up at the door he wanted 8000 Yen. I said no and started freaking out. He left and came back later that night when I was able to get some cash. When it's convenient I can also just have stuff shipped to the next Tokyo visitor and let them bring it to me for free. So please, do not send me anything - ever.