thanks for the hugs and the well wishes lady - things have been getting better.

and sadly no, there's really not much i can do. i paid for the cheap shipping from Japanese postal service - the slow boat, literally. My guess is somewhere in transit my actual box got crushed or something and everything fell out, and so whoever discovered it packed up as much as they thought was in there, retaped it with my label, and sent it onwards. on the glass half full side, at least i got something instead of the package disappearing into the ether (which apparently has happened to other grad students in the department)