Please Mr. Postman

So, the sad fact is that many of my days here in Japan are just not that exotic and exciting.  Hence, no blog posts.  I will try to do better.  Please bear with me. ;)

So today, I'm going to blog about the Japanese post office.  Thrilling, right?

The main thing you need to know about the postal service here is that while the mailman delivers letters and small packages he will not pick them up.  Anything I want to mail out, even a postcard, has to be taken to a post office or to a public mailbox (which can be anywhere).

like this one

The blog title is what I want to say to the mailman sometimes.....as in "Please can't you just take this to the post office for me?"  

here is our mailman.  they ride scooters here.

I heard somewhere that the Japanese postal system was modeled on the British one so maybe this is also how it works there.  I dunno.  All I know is that I've been in the Japanese post office way more than I was ever in an American one.

our local post office

You can recognize a post office by the red "T" with an extra bar.  That's the kanji for "yuubinkyoku" which is the word for for post office.  And the signs are usually red and orange.  I have mailed many large packages here at the counter inside, they are always very nice and helpful to the poor foreigner speaking pidgin Japanese.  And so far everything has reached it's recipient.

click to enlarge to read the services
(it's in English too)

And last, an interesting note about delivery services other than the postal service.  They will deliver packages any time of day or night here.  They have come at 8pm on a Friday night, 8am on a Sunday morning and any time in between.  I have no idea of the names of some of these companies....I know DHL and FedEx are in Japan but they come only rarely.  Yamato Transport (also known as "black cat delivery" because of their cat logo) is a popular one here but they come rarely too.  The ones who deliver to us most often I don't know.  If we are not here, they will leave a slip and we have to call to arrange a delivery time.  Usually, they will say "We'll be there in an hour.".  Even if it's 7pm.  They'll show up at 8pm with your package.  It was pretty amazing at first, but we've gotten used to it.  I have a feeling that American delivery services are going to be pretty disappointing when we go back.....

Update 6/22/12: I had to call today for package redelivery and it is actually the postal service (Japan Post) that brought the package.  And turns out they do bring most of the packages, so there you go.  They are also the best, because they have a number you can call to arrange redelivery in English.