{"id":112,"date":"2005-12-17T23:43:26","date_gmt":"2005-12-17T14:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2005-12-17\/112"},"modified":"2005-12-17T23:43:26","modified_gmt":"2005-12-17T14:43:26","slug":"yesterdays-trip-to-the-japanese-post-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2005-12-17\/112","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday’s trip to the Japanese Post Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

\n\nAs I mentioned in yesterday's post<\/a>, I went to<\/span> the post office to mail some of this year's Christmas Cards. These were\nall destined outside Japan, so I needed<\/span> to add the postage myself (the\nin-Japan New Year's cards are postage prepaid, at the domestic rate).\n\n<\/p>\n \n

\n\nThe postage on an international postcard is 70 yen (about $0.60 US). I wanted<\/span> to use something more interesting than bland meter-stamped stickers\nfor the postage -- I wanted<\/span> pretty stamps.\n\n<\/p>

So, I asked<\/span> if they had any nice Christmas-type stamps. I don't<\/span>\nreally know what I was<\/span> thinking even to ask, since Christmas is only\nsuperficially noticed over here (somewhat akin to “Secretary's Day” in\nAmerica). Their response was an appropriate mix of bewilderment and “sorry\nwe can't help”. I recovered<\/span> quickly and asked if they had any stamps that\nwere particularly “Japanese” -- you know, I'm sending<\/span> these to people in\nfar-flung corners of the world, so I'd like to send something interesting.\nThey sort of shuffled through some drawers while shaking their head, and I\nfinally<\/span> asked if gee, anything with any kind of pretty picture at all?\n\n<\/p>

Basically, I got the<\/span> strong feeling that people only rarely actually\nask for stamps of any kind. Normally, they just say “please send this”, and\nin that process it gets an ugly machine-generated postmark-looking sticker.\n\n<\/p>\n\n

Post Offices in Japan<\/h3>\n\n

One reason this might be is that the post office only delivers mail --\nit does not pick up mail at your house. The only way<\/span> to mail something is\nto drop it off at post boxes scattered around town, or at a post<\/span> office\nitself. Thus, the need for stamps at home is greatly diminished. Plus, there\nare post offices all over<\/i> the place -- I can<\/span> walk to two from my\nplace within five or six minutes.\n\n<\/p>

Post offices in Japan offer savings accounts, investments, and\ninsurance policies. This ensures that people in every tiny nook and\ninsignificant cranny of the country are offered these services, because\nthere are post offices everywhere, and that includes places where banks and\nthe like would never find it profitable to set up shop. (Incidentally, this\nis one of the bones of contention with the whole privatization of the post\noffice being planned by the current prime minister. Opponents of\npost-office privatization worry that people in the boonies may be abandoned\nby a for<\/span>-profit private post office.)<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, other than the fact that you have to head out to mail something,\nthe Japanese post office is wonderful. If you come<\/span> home to find a slip<\/span> on\nyour door saying that they tried to deliver a package,<\/span> you can call them up\n(or go to their web site) and pick a two<\/span>-hour window to have it delivered. The same day<\/span>, or the next, or whenever. Until 9pm. 7 days. I've had a\npackage<\/span> delivered at 8:30pm Sunday evening. No problem. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\nThe stamps I ended<\/span> up with<\/b>\n\n(mouseover to highlight stamps)<\/small>\n<\/center>\n<\/div>\n\n