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Aziel2000

Traveling Internationally with a Dollfie Dream

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Aziel2000

Hey ! I m planning a trip to japan probably around December (Magical Mirai). But I don’t know for sure if that’s going to be possible, considering the current circumstances.

I was wondering if anyone had bought dolls physically in Japan and traveled with them ?

How did you carry them ? 
I would be getting a doll for a friend too so I don’t want to open it , is it possible to carry them in hand luggage?

Imagine thousands of dollars getting damaged 😓...

Well I m hopeful I ll be able to travel to japan 😃

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growcian
5 hours ago, Aziel2000 said:

I was wondering if anyone had bought dolls physically in Japan and traveled with them ?

Yes and I will say this: DO NOT LUG AROUND A DOLL WHEN TRAVELING. Once you make the purchase, you're not going to be moving around much. Sure, you can leave your doll in your hotel room but your travels will be limited to just the city your hotel room is located. If you want to travel to other parts of Japan, lugging around a doll is going to be a huge pain. The doll will add weight. The doll will take up a lot of space in your luggage unless you disassemble it.

Unless one of your goals is to visit Tenshi no Sato and participate in the activities of an SD owner, don't lug around a doll. If this is something you can do without, then do without it.

6 hours ago, Aziel2000 said:

How did you carry them ?

If you choose to ignore what I said above, then here's what I did: I disassembled the dolls I purchased so I could fit them into tight spaces in my luggage.

6 hours ago, Aziel2000 said:

I would be getting a doll for a friend too so I don’t want to open it , is it possible to carry them in hand luggage?

If the doll comes in a large factory box like with Volks character dolls, you can forget about boarding a plane with that as your carry-on.

What I did when I was a bit inexperienced with traveling was to get a doll carrying bag, put a doll in there, and then used the clothes I bought for her as padding. If you think there's not enough padding in the bag, you can always go to a Daiso, Can-Do, or other 100-yen stores (they're all over the place in Japan) to buy bubble wrap. I was able to take that doll bag as my carry-on for a flight but that was in 2016. Who knows whether you can do this now. You'll need to check with your airline to see whether your doll bag is under the dimensional limit for carry-on luggage.

Depending on where you buy the doll from, the store may have a shipping service. As an example, most (maybe all) Mandarake stores will offer this service. Buy a doll, and then have it shipped overseas to your friend so you won't need to lug it around at all while you travel Japan. The drawback to this is you'll need to pay the sales tax. For purchases over 5000 yen (and a large size doll will likely be 10x or more than that threshold), you can present your passport to do tax free shopping. If you plan to use the shipping service, you can't get tax free shopping. You need to pick one or the other. Keep this in mind if you plan to have a doll shipped back home. Make sure to ask whether the store you're buying from offers a shipping service.

If the store you're buying the doll from doesn't offer a shipping service *and* you don't know how to use the Japanese postal service *and* you're going to lug around a doll, be prepared to disassemble the doll you purchase. If the doll comes in a factory box, be prepared to disassemble the box (so you can store it in your checked luggage) or to throw the box away. If the doll you buy is made of brittle materials, buy bubble wrap from the 100-yen stores. You'll need to get creative in order to get your doll through as a part of your carry-on bag.

You might now begin to understand why I keep insisting you shouldn't lug around a doll while traveling.

While it's understandable you'll want to buy a doll or three while in Japan, make sure to only buy dolls you can't buy online. If a doll can be purchased online, then save yourself the hassles of bringing back a doll by buying online. If you buy dolls, then keep in mind the limits of how much weight you can lug around, as well as reduced luggage space.

Finally, if you haven't done so already, make sure to read the shopping guide for buying dolls in Japan before you go and during your trip.

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cfx

To add on to the above, this Ranko unboxing video from forum member @archangeli shows how you might disassemble and pack dolls into a suitcase and also a way to preserve the box. I've indexed the video to start at the point it shows this:

 

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Monty

I respectfully disagree with growcian, I think travelling with a DD is a lot of fun. (It is easier when its a MDD of course). If it's just the doll at least, they're extremely light and if packed well I've never really had any issue. I actually forgot Tilo was in my backpack a lot of the time I was in Italy last year. If you're able to, I would definitely take at least one to Japan even if only to be able to use the photo spaces in the Volks stores (specifically the Akihabara one). They make for great souvenir snaps/mementos.

This question has actually come up multiple times here, here are some of those times (there were probably more but I only went back so many pages). So I'll just link rather than repeat stuff I already said there.

 

Of course its different if theres a box too like you're implying.

Because of the awkward box size of DDs, I would mail at least just the box home (if i couldnt fold it up) or even discard it. Because of the current situation I don't know when I can next go to Japan (I was also considering December for MagiMirai too, but I still dont even know if thats going to happen anymore), but if I ended up with a Dream Choice or DCoord doll I was just gonna discard the box entirely if I couldnt fold it up and cram it in my suitcase somehow (doll itself in my backpack in carry-on). If you dont want to open the box it would be best to just ship it home. Different airlines have different allowances for carry-on luggage but I dont think a DD box fits the allowances for most in terms of length.

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Aziel2000
6 hours ago, growcian said:

Yes and I will say this: DO NOT LUG AROUND A DOLL WHEN TRAVELING. Once you make the purchase, you're not going to be moving around much. Sure, you can leave your doll in your hotel room but your travels will be limited to just the city your hotel room is located. If you want to travel to other parts of Japan, lugging around a doll is going to be a huge pain. The doll will add weight. The doll will take up a lot of space in your luggage unless you disassemble it.

Unless one of your goals is to visit Tenshi no Sato and participate in the activities of an SD owner, don't lug around a doll. If this is something you can do without, then do without it.

If you choose to ignore what I said above, then here's what I did: I disassembled the dolls I purchased so I could fit them into tight spaces in my luggage.

If the doll comes in a large factory box like with Volks character dolls, you can forget about boarding a plane with that as your carry-on.

What I did when I was a bit inexperienced with traveling was to get a doll carrying bag, put a doll in there, and then used the clothes I bought for her as padding. If you think there's not enough padding in the bag, you can always go to a Daiso, Can-Do, or other 100-yen stores (they're all over the place in Japan) to buy bubble wrap. I was able to take that doll bag as my carry-on for a flight but that was in 2016. Who knows whether you can do this now. You'll need to check with your airline to see whether your doll bag is under the dimensional limit for carry-on luggage.

Depending on where you buy the doll from, the store may have a shipping service. As an example, most (maybe all) Mandarake stores will offer this service. Buy a doll, and then have it shipped overseas to your friend so you won't need to lug it around at all while you travel Japan. The drawback to this is you'll need to pay the sales tax. For purchases over 5000 yen (and a large size doll will likely be 10x or more than that threshold), you can present your passport to do tax free shopping. If you plan to use the shipping service, you can't get tax free shopping. You need to pick one or the other. Keep this in mind if you plan to have a doll shipped back home. Make sure to ask whether the store you're buying from offers a shipping service.

If the store you're buying the doll from doesn't offer a shipping service *and* you don't know how to use the Japanese postal service *and* you're going to lug around a doll, be prepared to disassemble the doll you purchase. If the doll comes in a factory box, be prepared to disassemble the box (so you can store it in your checked luggage) or to throw the box away. If the doll you buy is made of brittle materials, buy bubble wrap from the 100-yen stores. You'll need to get creative in order to get your doll through as a part of your carry-on bag.

You might now begin to understand why I keep insisting you shouldn't lug around a doll while traveling.

While it's understandable you'll want to buy a doll or three while in Japan, make sure to only buy dolls you can't buy online. If a doll can be purchased online, then save yourself the hassles of bringing back a doll by buying online. If you buy dolls, then keep in mind the limits of how much weight you can lug around, as well as reduced luggage space.

Finally, if you haven't done so already, make sure to read the shopping guide for buying dolls in Japan before you go and during your trip.

That helps A lot ! Thank you sooo much ! 

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Aziel2000

@cfx, a bit of a hassle disassembling it but I guess it’s worth it compared to leaving it in the luggage. Thanks for the help 

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Aziel2000

@Monty 

I m thinking of mailing my dolls , that would save me the paranoia , in case they get damaged. I m planning to get more than one doll , so definitely shipping would be the right thing to do. Well I would carry Luka for magical Mirai , if and when that happens ;-;

Thanks for all the help 

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foo

I think @growcian is thinking of heavy resin dolls. Carrying around a DD is pretty easy to do and I did it a lot. It's even easier with an MDD or DDP

I bought my MDD on my last trip using the Akihabara Dream Choice thing. I had to throw away the box she came in, but otherwise an MDD is one of the easiest things you can pack. I also had Sakuya with me, but due to various reasons I didn't end up taking good photos of her. I even brought her to the top of Fushimi Inari-taisha with me, in the Volks carrier >_>

Do not pack anything valuable in check-in luggage, you have to bring it in carry-on. The Volks carrier can easily fit two dolls, and the carrier does fit nicely in the surprisingly-giant overhead bins in the larger international planes like the 787. I usually pack them wrapped in a thick white cotton towel for padding.

For taking them with me during a day, I do have a very large messenger bag I take with me when I travel and a full-sized DD can fit in there. But a full-size DD is heavy enough that there's not much point taking it with you during the day if you don't think you're going to take photos with them or whatever. MDDs and DDPs are lighter and very easy to take, and probably the biggest difference is that the Volks MDD/DDP metal stand is extremely light compared to the full-sized ones.

I'd say don't expect that you can or would want to carry your dolls with you every day. If the weather's not in your favour you might end up never being able to do anything. If you're going to buy dolls there, you likely won't be able to bring the boxes back with you.

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growcian
4 minutes ago, foo said:

I think @growcian is thinking of heavy resin dolls. Carrying around a DD is pretty easy to do and I did it a lot. It's even easier with an MDD or DDP.

While I included resin dolls in my thought process, I was thinking of 60cm dolls in general.

During LA Dolpa 2017, I found lugging around a DD to be somewhat of a hassle. Lugging around a DD during a local (to me) convention isn't too big of a deal despite what I felt. I then imagined how much of a strain lugging around a doll all day for a week or more would be. You might think a DD is lightweight but it feels heavier than it is after lugging it around all day. I didn't have this problem in 2016 because the dolls I bought stayed in my hotel room and I didn't travel outside of Tokyo until the day of my flight.

The last few times I went to Japan, I always felt I'm glad I don't have to lug around a doll with me all day after I travel around the city and my feet start to hurt.

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Monty

It does help to have a good backpack with good support. I used to carry dolls in a carry bag at my side and that did get annoying after a few hours. A backpack is much easier... although tbh my camera weighs more than a single vinyl doll so it was more likely that I’d opt to leave the camera at the hotel and have a phone camera day than leave the doll lol. (Although i didnt take the doll -everywhere-. Miku got to do a lot the time I went to Hokkaido and Kansai and she was kinda a pain mostly because of her long wig. Tilo was much easier to take most places I went in Italy/Greece, I just didn’t take him out every day because of it being too hot or concerns about the amount of people or potential he’d get dirty.)

Really my reason for taking any doll is because I like getting memento photos of my trip, but I hate photos of myself. Before I took doll photos my trip photos just looked like any old photo taken off google images and it bugged me that they didn’t ‘prove’ I was there. At the same time I don’t like drawing attention to myself so I typically only do it in low traffic areas or with a smaller doll o can quickly take out and put away again. Unless it’s a once in a lifetime photo opp, and in that case I just try my hardest not to get in anyone’s way.

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whisski

Thank you for making a thread full of so much excellent info regarding international doll travel! The limitations created by the bulkiness of the doll box is definitely something that wouldn't have occurred to me (and would certainly be a problem given a Japan trip I'm planning that will 100% involve doll shopping).

I've already got a Volks doll carrying bag, but are there other bags people recommend for doll transportation?

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Noxxbunny

Just came back from Japan in February with 3 dolls between 4 luggages(2 people lol). 1 MDD, 1 DDP, and 1 DD. All we did was put them into the fetal position and laid them in the carry-on luggages on their sides. We wrapped them in soft white towels we got from Daiso. We put the Dream Choice box flattened into the largest suitcase we had, but it had to go diagonally and it did get a few creases in it if a perfect box is a concern.

Honestly wasn't really a problem at all packing wise, and I shopped A LOT. When I took my MDD boy to Akihabara, I kept him in that same position in my messenger bag while wrapped in bubble wrap(was before I got the towels lol) and no problems.

Daiso was the real MVP for having cheap towels and packing material if you need it. Just make sure to have cash on you because we went to the one in Sunshine City mall and it was cash only. We ended up having to scramble to find an ATM while they held our stuff for us. Didn't expect it because all the US Daiso stores I've been to take cards lol.

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Current Crew: Kaito(DDH07), Kagamine Rin, Kaito V3, 9S, Ruby(Arle), Devola(2B), Anya Forger

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biff

I haven't traveled internationally, but I've traveled domestically in the USA with several resin dolls before. I packed them in a rolling suitcase I used as a carry on I kept under the seat. Just a forewarning, smaller planes cannot always put the carry on under your seat and if this happens, they have to put it in the overhead. Due to this, I would try to stick to the personal carry on size bag of 9 inches x 10 inches x 17 inches. With decreased travel, I would expect less larger planes to be running right now. I don't really recommend the Volks longer bags for this (though I really enjoy using these for meets). I've bumped several people with those just as conventions and they are longer then the 17", so they may want to put them in the overhead--which you absolutely don't want to do. Hard shell bags might be a bit more resistant and less squishy, though I didn't use one on my first trip with a doll in the bag.

I usually wrap dolls in a baby blanket for transport (they're soft and sometimes very fluffy). Depending on my concerns about the doll, I'll bundle the face using a protector and remove the wig, but I usually leave the outfit on. I put them in sitting position if possible in the bag. With a DD, the fetal position is probably more likely fine, though not something I'd do with a resin doll as much. 

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