Is there anyone who lives out in town that is willing to receive a package for me?

I have had a picture blown up on canvas but it wasn't ready in time for our packout to be sent to Japan. I don't want to send it through the FPO though since I can't get insurance, tracking or ensure that it isn't handled roughly. The size is around 11x 16 and the company will pack and ship it out for me. I could pick it from you at the end of October when we arrive. Thanks!

"...I don't want to send it through the FPO though since I can't get insurance, tracking or ensure that it isn't handled roughly..."

Um... you can get insurance and tracking having it mailed to your FPO address. If it is sent via USPS priority mail it will only take a week.

Hmmm, tracking will only work to California because once it reaches there it is out of USPS's hands.

You are right about insurance though, and I should have worded my post differently. Per the USPS guidelines to file an insurance claim on packages going to FPO/APO:

APO/FPO/DPO Insured (First-Class Mail®, Space Available Mail or Parcel Airlift): 45 days to 1 year
APO/FPO/DPO Insured (Surface Mail) : 75 days to 1 year

I can insure it going to the FPO if it is damaged and file a claim immediately but if it is lost I don't want to wait as long as the filing days above to file the claim, especially with the additional 30 day turnaround time they have to pay for substantiated insurance claims.

We have an FPO now and we have lost a few packages in the past 3 years. I have also had packages rough handled and sent to completely different countries in the past using our FPO here in Canada and I just don't want to chance it even though the Japan FPOs sound like they are much more efficient than ours here. I would much rather pay the extra shipping to ensure it gets to Japan in one piece for my own piece of mind.

Why dont you just keep it with you and bring it out here when you come? You'll have to bring it for carry on. If you are that worried about it, that might be the best thing for you to do.

Normally I would say your crazy and everything makes it here just fine..... but I just had 3 separate packages mysteriously disappear from USPS with tracking numbers all from different locations. Asking around so have many others too. This may be the beginning of the end for the USPS as they have been in the red for so long now anyway.

I agree with the previous post that if it's that important to you maybe you should consider hand carrying it.

I was hoping to avoid bringing it with us in the plane. We are flying the PatEx and have to make it to Yokosuka with two dogs, three kids, and luggage minus my husband- I think I will already be a bit frazzled with my hands full (literally) and don't want to add anything else but it looks like I may just have to do that.

Yokota- Are the packages that have gotten lost ones going to an FPo or to a normal CONUS address?
We have had some issues with packages but they always have reached the FPO facility- after that they disappear or take an unneeded trip around the world. I know from what everyone says, the Japan FPOs usually work just fine and and I have been looking forward to having a functional FPO to save on shipping!!!

Whoever is in charge of getting our FPO mail from California to Canada should be fired. Three of our Christmas packages were lost, as were other families, and it is a pain trying to prove it since USPS doesn't track them after getting to CA. We stopped using our FPO and started just accepting the inflated shipping price to our home and additional taxes on our ordered items when our packages started getting sent to Belgium and the USS Wasp (Nobody knows why the heck that happened but we are nowhere near either of those! It has also occurred more than once to everyone here)

They were all coming from large cities CONUS to my APO in Japan, and as best as I can tell they disappeared in those large cities.  There was nothing entered after the USPS acknowledged their receipt, maybe some trucks or warehouses were robbed but it does seem like a systemic problem instead of one isolated incident. I sent an item to South Africa several years ago through USPS and it just came back as undeliverable this past summer that was about 18 months lost in the system.