Hi everybunny!
Today I'll be sharing my experience shopping with Tenso, as well as a very small haul of the things I bought!
If you're familiar with buying things from Japan, you might have heard of Tenso. They're essentially a package forwarding service; most Japanese shops don't ship out of the country, so you can't directly order something to your house if you live in a different country. You would need to use either a shopping service, to buy the items for you and then ship to you (what I usually do when shopping)... or you can use a forwarding service!
The way a forwarding service works is:
1. Upon signing up, you are provided with an address in Japan. This address is what you use when ordering, and you have your package shipping there when you purchase from the store!
2. When your package arrives to the warehouse, you receive a notification. You can either then choose a shipping method and have it sent to you immediately, or do a bit more shopping and combine everything together in one larger package!
3. After the items are sent to you, you just wait a bit longer, and then receive it!
I'm not going to go into a detailed 'how-to' guide for using Tenso, since their website is quite self-explanatory, and I'm sure there are many tutorials out there (that are likely more eloquently worded than mine would be anyway). I just wanted to share my experience shopping with Tenso, since it was something that really intimidated me before! It ended up not being very difficult at all, though, and it's definitely something I will do again in the future!
I decided to start out by ordering something small from Tenso, just to get the hang of it! I didn't want to mess up in how I ordered and then end up losing a lot of money because of silly mistakes >< So, I decided to order from an artist I have loved for years-- Kira Imai! Her art is just so dreamy and elegant..!
Before I get into what I purchased however, I'll just do a quick walk-through of what I did in order to get it!
1. When I first made my Tenso account, I received an address to which I could have things shipped. When ordering from the shop that sold Kira Imai's work, I simply input that address in the shipping information!
2. I received a notification from the shop when my order had shipped, and then a few days later, a notification from Tenso that my package had arrived. Yay! This part was the scariest, because I was worried that I might have input the address incorrectly, or something silly like that ;v; Luckily it was all okay though!
3. Since I didn't order anything else, I immediately paid for shipping from Tenso to my house. There were a variety of shipping options; I chose Air/Registered Small Package, which was the second cheapest shipping option. This had an estimated shipping time of 5-8 days. There was also a handling fee of about $3 USD, which wasn't too bad ^^" I think this is just a flat-rate fee; it wasn't related to the value of what I purchased.
4. After paying, my package was shipped the next day! I received tracking information, which is always something I appreciate ^^
5. About 5 or 6 days later, I received a notice from my post office that I could pick up my package (no one was at home to sign for it, so I had to go the next day to pick it up ^^" )
And here it is!
I was a bit surprised to see such a big and sturdy box, given that I ordered really small and light items! But it's good to know that everything was safe. I ordered four postcards, two stickers, and a keychain. Everything was in pristine condition, and sustained no damage during shipping.
In one bag was the paper goods, and in the other, my keychain!
I fell in love with this "Sweet Pea" acrylic charm, and I just had to get it! Admittedly I have too many bag charms now... but this was just so pretty ;v;
Everything that was in the other bag! Each item was really safely packaged; in one bag which contained had the label sticker, and then in another plastic sleeve. I really appreciate all the protection!
Stickers! These are both so cute ;v; I don't know where I'm going to put them yet, but I adore the art on both of them!
Two starry/astronomical postcards~
A creepy mori-vibe postcard, and a rose girl postcard!
The backs of these postcards were really pretty too!
And just a quick look at everything I got all together
On the whole, I'm really happy with my experience shopping with Tenso! It was easy to figure out and not nearly as scary as I thought it would be... I'll definitely be using their forwarding service in the future! I'm also so happy with all the Kira Imai items I got ♡ Her art is just so charming-- I can't wait to get proper picture frames for these, and hang them up in my room!
I hope this little post was maybe helpful to you! If forwarding services are still intimidating to you though, you can always just use a shopping service ♡ Buyee is the the one that is affiliated with Tenso, and they're quite good as well! (My personal favourite is DeJapan, though!)
Thank you for reading! I might be on a small break due to my upcoming traveling, but I will have lots of fun things to write about after that! So for now, bye-bye!
I decided to start out by ordering something small from Tenso, just to get the hang of it! I didn't want to mess up in how I ordered and then end up losing a lot of money because of silly mistakes >< So, I decided to order from an artist I have loved for years-- Kira Imai! Her art is just so dreamy and elegant..!
Before I get into what I purchased however, I'll just do a quick walk-through of what I did in order to get it!
1. When I first made my Tenso account, I received an address to which I could have things shipped. When ordering from the shop that sold Kira Imai's work, I simply input that address in the shipping information!
2. I received a notification from the shop when my order had shipped, and then a few days later, a notification from Tenso that my package had arrived. Yay! This part was the scariest, because I was worried that I might have input the address incorrectly, or something silly like that ;v; Luckily it was all okay though!
3. Since I didn't order anything else, I immediately paid for shipping from Tenso to my house. There were a variety of shipping options; I chose Air/Registered Small Package, which was the second cheapest shipping option. This had an estimated shipping time of 5-8 days. There was also a handling fee of about $3 USD, which wasn't too bad ^^" I think this is just a flat-rate fee; it wasn't related to the value of what I purchased.
4. After paying, my package was shipped the next day! I received tracking information, which is always something I appreciate ^^
5. About 5 or 6 days later, I received a notice from my post office that I could pick up my package (no one was at home to sign for it, so I had to go the next day to pick it up ^^" )
And here it is!
I was a bit surprised to see such a big and sturdy box, given that I ordered really small and light items! But it's good to know that everything was safe. I ordered four postcards, two stickers, and a keychain. Everything was in pristine condition, and sustained no damage during shipping.
In one bag was the paper goods, and in the other, my keychain!
I fell in love with this "Sweet Pea" acrylic charm, and I just had to get it! Admittedly I have too many bag charms now... but this was just so pretty ;v;
Everything that was in the other bag! Each item was really safely packaged; in one bag which contained had the label sticker, and then in another plastic sleeve. I really appreciate all the protection!
Stickers! These are both so cute ;v; I don't know where I'm going to put them yet, but I adore the art on both of them!
Two starry/astronomical postcards~
A creepy mori-vibe postcard, and a rose girl postcard!
The backs of these postcards were really pretty too!
And just a quick look at everything I got all together
On the whole, I'm really happy with my experience shopping with Tenso! It was easy to figure out and not nearly as scary as I thought it would be... I'll definitely be using their forwarding service in the future! I'm also so happy with all the Kira Imai items I got ♡ Her art is just so charming-- I can't wait to get proper picture frames for these, and hang them up in my room!
I hope this little post was maybe helpful to you! If forwarding services are still intimidating to you though, you can always just use a shopping service ♡ Buyee is the the one that is affiliated with Tenso, and they're quite good as well! (My personal favourite is DeJapan, though!)
Thank you for reading! I might be on a small break due to my upcoming traveling, but I will have lots of fun things to write about after that! So for now, bye-bye!
Which item was your favourite?
