I just returned from the last of a handful of extended layovers in Japan, while I was in a nearby country for work. I have a few experiences that might be of interest to those in this thread.
Blackship Pickup
One layover I had around 6 hours and made one of my goals for that one to pickup the dozen or so packages I had sitting at Blackship.
Overall the process was ok. They say to give lots of notice of pickups but I gave them around 24 hours due to last minute travel plans. I didn’t get an email confirming a pickup time but they invoiced me for the pickup so I decided to head there anyway.
The location is easy to find. Take the train to Motomachi and walk maybe 5 minutes around the corner to the obvious location of Blackship with the large loading dock.
There’s no reception or lobby, you basically just walk into the doorway of the warehouse and make some noise until someone finds you.
The helpful employee found my package after a bit of searching and helped to add some extra packing tape.
I was running low on time so I got a taxi back to Haneda Airport. While I was in the taxi I got an email from Blackship (5 minutes before the end of my requested pickup window) that they wouldn’t be able to process the pickup and they needed more time. I replied with a photo I took of me holding the package in their warehouse.
I was stretching the pickup conditions, but I do feel like for pickup they could be a little more accommodating on the timelines. 2-3 days to prepare for a pickup is a bit long. I should be able to come pickup the packages with a few hours notice. You also have to enter all the customs information even when you pick things up which is pointless. My last gripe is they charge quite a lot for the pickup service, almost as much as the cheapest sea mail shipping option.
I’d love to find a service like Blackship that was more flexible and cost effective for pickups. Like a 30-45 day Amazon locker. Or if Blackship could improve their pickup service that would be a good solution too.
Factory Gear (and other tool stores)
I visited the Factory Gear stores both in Osaka and Tokyo. The Osaka Namba store was great, plenty of stock, walking distance from Dotonburi and late opening hours. I only bought a few items at the Osaka store, figuring I would pickup the Koken impact socket sets I was after in Tokyo at the end of the trip, that was a mistake.
The Tokyo store in comparison was really disappointing. It’s much harder to get to, but also had much less stock. I must have done 4 or 5 laps of the small store looking for the Anex and Vessel screwdrivers that the Osaka store had, but they didn’t have any.
I wouldn’t recommend making the long hike out to the Tokyo store if you can visit the other locations. Maybe I caught them at a bad time, but their stocks and range seems really low, especially of the Koken. The Osaka store even had maybe 4x the clothing swag which was odd since the Tokyo store is supposed to be the flagship store.
Both stores were more expensive than I expected, with some items having a decent markup over Amazon. One Koken socket set I was looking at was around 18,000 yen in the store after tax free, but only around 14,000 yen on Amazon Japan with tax. The physical stores are a fun experience and well worth it, but if your goal is to actually buy specific tools I’d use Amazon Japan and the many Amazon locker locations. You won’t get tax free but you will save some money and not risk things being out of stock in store. I’d leave the Factory Gear tools for oddball things Amazon doesn’t have, and small souvenir purchases.
I’d also recommend trying to get to one of the larger more regional Joyful Honda store. These don’t have Koken or Nepros but for Anex, Vessel, KTC and even Wrea/Knipex/PB, these huge home improvement stores have a large amount of stock.
). They also offer all the japanese brands(Koken, ktc, tone)
. 
, the flagship store has a bar 
