Shipping

Shipping is generally via Sagawa or Yamato, and domestic shipping normally takes 48 to 72 hours from receipt of payment. Most items on TheFlyingPig.Com site are shipped in boxes with a capacity of up to 24-kg. For chilled and frozen items, box capacity is 17-kg. Most ordinary items can also be added to a chilled or even a frozen box in order to maximize shipping cost performance; ordinary items are automatically placed in a chilled box when this will result in lower overall shipping costs.

Shipping costs:

First box -- 987 yen
Second box -- 798 yen
Third and subsequent boxes -- 630 yen
Frozen surcharge -- 420 yen per box
Cool surcharge -- 315 yen per box

Note: To qualify for the multi-box rate, all boxes must be ordered together, and must be shipped to the same address.

Personal imports are subject to less stringent import restrictions than commercial imports, allowing our customers to order many of their favorite groceries, personal care items and sundries that would otherwise be impossible to get in Japan. (But remember, food items are subject to a 10-kg limit per item type per order, and other items must be in "reasonable quantities". Also, the addressee must be an individual, and not a company or organization.)

Generally, PI items are dispatched from Hawaii every Tuesday and Friday, with delivery about 5-8 days later. (Note that there are occasional dispatch holidays --- please confirm with us if delivery by a certain date is desired.) These items are handled by a locally organized entity, TFP International LLC.

PI shipping charges are tiered as follows:

5 or more items in the order: FREE!
3-4 items in the order: 1490 yen
1-2 items in the order: 1990 yen

Box fill factors

Each item listed on the site is accompanied by numerical "box fill factors". These indicate the percentage of a box that each item takes up, by weight and by volume. When you view your shopping cart, you will be able to see how many boxes are required for the items you have selected, and how much of the last box has been filled. Note that the smaller capacity of a chilled or frozen box means that it will fill up faster when ordinary items are added in with chilled or frozen ones.

How it works

Your shopping cart is updated automatically each time you put an item in or take something out, and the shipping charge for your order is calculated along with consumption tax. You don't have to "do" anything to figure up the total, and you can see at any given time exactly how much it will cost to deliver the items you have selected to your door. No surprises! After final submission of your order, you'll receive an e-mail message from us confirming the items contained, shipping, consumption tax, and the total. Your order will be shipped the next day after your payment via bank or postal transfer has been confirmed.

Getting the most for your shipping yen

You can maximize the cost effectiveness of shipping by changing the shipping mode on certain items. For example, you can place ordinary items like baking mixes and coffee together with frozen items in a frozen box. Alternatively, you can place frozen items in a chilled box so that they start defrosting during shipping. Many chilled items (and even some frozen ones) can also be shipped in a regular box. So feel free to configure shipping modes to get the best cost performance.