At SashikoStory.com, we do our best to make our Sashiko supplies and related items available to people around the world. We are very grateful that people from many different countries have found our work and wish to support our Sashiko practice.
Our shipping base depends on the destination. For orders within the United States and Canada, we ship from Pennsylvania, USA. For orders outside of Japan, the United States, and Canada, we usually ship from Japan using Japan Post, so that we can better support the shipping process and provide follow-up assistance when needed.
On this website, when we refer to an International Order, we generally mean an order shipped to a country outside of Japan, the United States, and Canada.
We sincerely wish to ship to every country whenever possible. However, depending on the destination, shipping may not always be simple or reliable. Postal services, customs procedures, import restrictions, and international situations can change over time. As of 2026, we have learned that some regions, especially areas affected by war, conflict, or serious disruption, may be difficult to ship to even when shipping would normally be possible.
At this time, shipping may be especially difficult to the following areas or countries:
- Russia, Ukraine, and surrounding regions affected by the ongoing conflict
- Some areas in the Middle East, including Israel
- Ireland, due to several packages being returned to us in the past
- Argentina, due to several packages being returned to us in the past
This does not always mean that shipping is completely impossible. However, it does mean that there may be a higher risk of delay, return, customs difficulty, or delivery failure. Because we are a small business, we have to be careful when accepting orders to destinations where we have experienced repeated shipping problems or where postal conditions may be unstable.
If your country does not appear as an available shipping destination at checkout, it usually means one of two things: either we have not shipped to that country before, or we have had difficulty completing a shipment there in the past.
In principle, this means we may not be able to accept an order to that destination through the website. However, if you are interested in placing an order, please feel free to contact us. In some cases, shipping may still be possible. When that is the case, we will explain the possible risks, limitations, and responsibilities before accepting the order.
Please understand that once a package enters the international postal system, some parts of the process are outside of our control. We will always do our best to prepare and ship your order carefully, but customs delays, returned packages, import duties, taxes, and local delivery issues may depend on the destination country and its postal or customs system.
For details regarding customs duties, import taxes, customs delays, and other shipping-related responsibilities, please refer to our Shipping Policy.
Thank you for your understanding and for supporting our small Sashiko business.