Last year when I was applying for my visa to come to Japan there was a bit of a panic at one point in that I’d sent a bunch of original documents through by airmail (OK, I should have had them couriered) and they hadn’t arrived two weeks later. After couriering a smaller packet of hopefully sufficient replacements – I didn’t have originals of some of the same ones since i only had a single copy) later that day I got word from Japan that the original airmail stuff had arrived, taking 16 days in total.

I recently found that amazon.co.jp have an English language site, so I’m using that to order books I want while I’m here. They processed the first order today and sent it out. The shipping details show:

Items shipped on 2007/2/15:
Delivery estimate: 2007/2/16 – 2007/3/12

Now that’s impressive, giving almost four weeks for possible delivery!