I live in Japan!

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Helgen

Totally wrong. This is how I get my items sent to me and have sent to where I live:

Yours or their Name
3-16-37 Nishida
Shibuya, Tokyo (or you can put Japan here too)
Zip Code
(You can put Japan at the top where I typed it.)

If you want, you can PM me your address or you can post it here (scrambling it up, of course,) and I can help you again.

Read what I wrote above about testing the different ways of writing the address and the differences in how long it takes to actually get there.
Writing it the way I suggested has ALWAYS gotten things to me more quickly, and I have yet to have something delivered to the wrong address with the Japanese ordering. With the English ordering you are suggesting I have had lost packages, things being much later, etc etc.

Either way will get it to you, and the Japanese ordering is not "Totally wrong".

[SSJup81]

Well, they went...

My name
Postal Code
Ken, City, Nishida 3-16-37
Apartment Name, Apartment Number
Country

Got here fine.

[Tsuwabuki]

American businesses, like my bank (Navy Federal Credit Union) do it the American way, and I even get their junk mail.

My parents do it the Japanese way which is:

XXX-XXXX
Kyoto-fu, Fukuchiyama-Shi
My Neighborhood XXXX
Apartment Name, Apartment Number
JAPAN

(Japan is usually underlined). In the two years I have lived here, I have only ever had one package sent back undeliverable to my parents. I still have no idea why, but it's never happened again.

[sarasi]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I have found that when written in romaji, things actually tend to be delivered more quickly if written out the exact same way you`d write them in Japanese.
Prefecture first style. I actually tested this by having relatives mail two letters at the same time, one with the Japanese ordering on the address and the other with the "standard" romaji version. The Japanese version got to me a week earlier.

I don't think you can assume that would happen every time. My grandmother's letters from Australia have arrived here in Tokyo in as little as 3 days, and she writes the address in the standard English order, similar to what I gave above. She also writes in fairly hard-to-read cursive, but that doesn't seem to slow her letters down any.

There is no reason to think that writing an address in the standard order would make letters take a week longer when most letters and parcels I receive take less than a week to get here (usually from NZ, Australia and the US). I have had things take two weeks or more, but the address is always written the same way, so in my experience at least, it's irrelevant. I have never in 12 years here had a letter or package go missing, that I am aware of.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by sarasi

I don't think you can assume that would happen every time. My grandmother's letters from Australia have arrived here in Tokyo in as little as 3 days, and she writes the address in the standard English order, similar to what I gave above. She also writes in fairly hard-to-read cursive, but that doesn't seem to slow her letters down any.

There is no reason to think that writing an address in the standard order would make letters take a week longer when most letters and parcels I receive take less than a week to get here (usually from NZ, Australia and the US). I have had things take two weeks or more, but the address is always written the same way, so in my experience at least, it's irrelevant. I have never in 12 years here had a letter or package go missing, that I am aware of.

I was just giving my experience, and the results of me actually testing it with two letters sent at the exact same time, exact same post office, to the exact same address - the only difference being the order of the address. I received the Japanese ordered address much more quickly than the English ordered address. I have also had immigration advise me to write it in the Japanese order (before they realized I was writing my address in Japanese).

My address includes a long building name, that just happens to include both the name of my town and the name of a similar complex of buildings. It seems that this completely screws up delivery when out of the expected order.
When written out in the English order, without fail, every single time, my things are delivered to the same room number in the other set of buildings. This has never happened when written in the Japanese order.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by sarasi

I have had things take two weeks or more, but the address is always written the same way, so in my experience at least, it's irrelevant. I have never in 12 years here had a letter or package go missing, that I am aware of.

I can't say I had any problems with stuff arriving or not in Japan or the address order but I will say there are huge differences between rural and urban postal deliveries. Same in England really.

If I posted something from my local post office, it would take a week or two to reach england. If I popped into the big one in Kyoto, it often got there within 48 hours! No exaggeration. I posted two t-shirts home, one before I met my parents for two weeks in Tokyo and one the day after they left us in Osaka to return to Tokyo (one day spent there) to fly home. The one posted from Kyoto main post office beat them home and they were heading to the airport as it was posted. The one posted before I caught up with them was delivered to my sister (same address, note) just before the second one, but still almost a fortnight after it had been sent.

As you live in Tokyo, it's probably easier to dispatch from the airmail main sorting office, and they'd be more used to western style post due to the higher concentration of business dealing with foreign companies, and foreigners living there. Out in the sticks, some of the post workers couldn't understand even which country my stuff was addressed to, despite having ENGLAND written on it, which usually suffices, so I can imagine in that circumstance that muddling up the address order could cause small delays.

[sarasi]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

My address includes a long building name, that just happens to include both the name of my town and the name of a similar complex of buildings. It seems that this completely screws up delivery when out of the expected order.
When written out in the English order, without fail, every single time, my things are delivered to the same room number in the other set of buildings. This has never happened when written in the Japanese order.

Actually my building name also has the name of my town in it and there are a lot of similar building names in the area- I live in a Midori-cho, so as you can imagine every second building has "green" in the name. I often leave the building name out of the address that I give to other people- you end up with a long string of numbers, but that is actually how the city office writes it so it seems perfectly acceptable, and gets rid of any confusion about the building name.

Anyway, I was just saying that a one time test by one person doesn't necessarily suggest a pattern. Japan Post recommends the reverse order when writing in English so I follow their recommendation. Probably it doesn't matter much, at least in the bigger cities.

[blassreitter]

Dear people,

I cant almost believe that something like that exist in the world but im glad that you find your way of living and im a little bit..... how do you say that eh happy for you I'm also want to go to Japan first as a Holiday and im now saving money for that dream. But one day I want to come there and hope that they accept meI know that I must first leran the write style and the languages then they know that im not a idiot that alone pursing his dreams.
its sound selfiss but I loved japan at the age of 6.but I hope that you can tell me a little about your daily life (that about everyone that has his dream to live in Japan or already is)

I greet you all scott

[GabiSoare]

Good Evening (from Europe) ! In Tokyo or other cities are jobs for bikers ? Examples : Easy/Medium Couriers, Messengers? If there are , how much are paid (just as a rough guide)?
Any answer is greatly appreciated.

[AwakenxBenihime]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

The teachers who I have encountered so far have bashed every little bit of Japanese culture. I don`t think it has all that much to do with English-teaching stress, as none of it has much of anything to do with English. Cultural ignorance? Yes. My point is - Do you really want to be around such negative people while you`re trying to learn the language? Do you really want to hear the other teachers make quips about "He just has penis envy! HARHARHAR" any time a Japanese guy glances in their direction? Or if you`re a girl (Like me) who happens to have a Japanese SO - being told you`re a "monkey lover" or that "you must like pencil dicks!" That is the type of crap I got sick of - and it was in no way confined to my coworkers. I`ve had similar remarks made to me by a wide range of foreigners I encountered back in my silly days of actually thinking I might make a friend, or find someone else in a similar situation as myself.

I *know* foreigners tend to be more "open" and "outspoken". I wasn`t born in Japan. There is a huge difference between being open and outspoken and being downright cruel and insulting - which is what I see far too much of. Pointing out differences is fine, but that isn`t where it stops. If your coworkers are wonderful and kind people who do not do those sort of things, consider yourself very lucky.

I guess I sound a lot like I`m snapping at you, but it seems the picture you are painting is far too sweet and pretty. I worked as an interpreter for quite a while. Most of the people I interpreted for were English teacher groups on break, touring Japan. I must have interpreted for around 400 to 450 people. Never once did I have a good experience. In fact, I had some of the worst encounters with people in my life - everyone hated Japan but felt they had to get one good trip around the country when they had the chance, so they could go home and say they "saw" Japan. To put in perspective how horrible most of these "teachers" were - an example: I was taking a group of 6 around, and at the end of the day we were having dinner. They asked about me and I told them I was married to a Japanese man, and had a son in the hospital. I was asked why I`d marry a monkey, didn`t I crave a big white dick? And that my son being sick was god`s way of telling me not to mate with animals. They all laughed at this, and continued on to ask which primate my husband resembled - an orangutan, like that guy over there? etc. Similar conversations happened almost any time I was asked about my personal life by a group. I stopped answering, but even without using my life as a starter point Japanese people and life was always ALWAYS insulted.

After reading this post in particular I felt like I really related to it and you/how you must have been feeling. My fiance is Japanese/Filipino and I'm Caucasian and we recently came across some racism while playing some video games online. It started off with nasty comments about Asian people eating puppies and then turned towards me with similar comments that you encountered about my fiance's male parts *rolls eyes* I had honestly never encountered such infuriating ridiculous racist remarks before. After the anger subsided I just realized all I could do was pity someone so full of hate and ignorance. Anyway.. I just wanted to say that reading about what you went through really made me feel connected to your experience and I guess I just wanted to say that I can relate. I've really enjoyed reading about your story so far (I'm only about 4 pages into your thread) and am looking forward to reading more of it.