I had about 16 platters shipped on March 4th and they left Japan on March 7th. It hasn't arrived as of today May 17th. Is this normal for Surface mail to the United States? If and when they do arrive, what shape are they in? I've had discs shipped from Japan via EMS/DHL (and SAL when it was available) plenty of times but this is my first time doing Surface because of the ETA and I was always afraid the box would be peed on by a few sailors or thrown overboard during the trip.

Pre - Covid 6 to 8 weeks was nominal.
During peak covid supply chain issues were beginning to manifest.
Now due to unrealistic restrictions at the portals of entry you are looking at potential substantial delays.
My advice is be patient, may take another month or two however should get to you. (Worst case).

Cheers

I would have been surprised if it did. 2 months would have been pretty good these days!

Never had an issue with Japan Post surface shipping, but you should expect 3 to 6 months as a realistic shipping time with the current world state.

They sometimes get stuck in sorting centers for weeks before being dispatched for delivery.

Julien

I've had a few things sail the high seas from Japan to New Delaware over the years. Never encountered an issue at all. It just takes around 8 to 12 weeks instead of a few days.

I would recommend getting reinforced shipping though, it's worth the extra. My most recent item to come by boat was my CLD-R7G (The Barry White of Laserdisc players. If Carlsberg made Laserdisc Players... and so on). It arrived in perfect condition.

When the arrival port discovered an R7G was on board one of it's ships, I was informed that a red carpet was rolled out along with a security entourage to keep away the sea of paparazzi as it made it's way to the courier van.

Rightly so too.

Last time I ordered anything from Japan (over a year ago), it took 4 months to get to the US via SAL.

Haven't ordered anything recently though.

I guess EMS still isn't shipping anything to the US?

It resumed some time ago, at increased rates.

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/overview_en.html

Canada is still completely off-limit from Japan Post though, I'm not sure why.

Julien

Blame Canada.

I will second this. 3-6 months is to be expected. Basically, you get what you pay for. It's a lot cheaper but takes much longer.

Follow-up: It arrived today in the US in New Jersey. It is set to be delivered on Friday to me in Texas. So from port to port, March 7th to May 23rd, 11 weeks.