The Difficulties of A Roof Tent Order

We thought it would be nice to have always something we can call a home therefore we decided to buy a roof tent. I was checking the roof tent prices in Germany and found a nice one for 900 EUR (Nakatanenga), tent only but for the shipping to Japan I had to pay around 450 EUR plus paying tax importing it to Japan. By coincidence I found the same tent at chinese Web page. (rahoo4x4 equipment factory) Finally I figured out that this is exactly the company producing the tent for Germany. The company is located close to Hong Kong and the shipping would be possibly cheaper. So I wrote thousend of mails and to clarify what is included and what not because they never specified in detail. Anyway finally I ordered and whit the help of my Chinese friend Yi in Germany and his friend in China we paid the tent in China. So far everything was easy, but how to pick up the tent and where. They did not say anything except Tokyo harbour and a comapny address in Osaka, well after two weeks of calling and sending faxes we finally could pick up the tent. Since we had no car I asked my friend Yamamoto san who has a big station wagon to pick up the tent together with me and to help me with the japanese customs where we spend almost 2 hours filling out documents and calculating on a mystirious way the final Tax I had to pay. In total the tent, an air jack to lift up the car and a toe strap costs me 465 EUR + 29.000 Yen (Loading fee what ever made is so expensive) + 6000 Yen Tax. It is still better way then ordering from Germany since I would have almost the same costs.

Finally everybody is happy and everybody in Kotomis family tested already being amazed how large it is inside. Now we still need to test if the tent is waterproof (:). Looking forward testing it in Japan if we finally are able to register the car and bring it here to Tokyo.

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RoofTent