Story on post offices in US and Japan

Shipping a box at a Post Office: Culture shock

Remember the old saying about post offices in the U.S.? Something like: neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever. How time erodes away such sayings. Though I did observe an exceptional case of going beyond duty in Queens, NY one day when the postman helped a woman who had fell and called 911 waiting for the ambulance. But my experiences at the post offices in Japan and Queens, NY are like experiences from different countries. Oh, they are, aren’t they? First, here is how going to the post office in Japan.

In Japan, this is my procedure for using the post office. Walk down from the 4^th floor to 1^st floor of my apartment and walk about 12 steps and enter the local post office. Sure it is tiny, about the size of a bathroom in the U.S. without heat in the winter and three cages: one for stamps, one for savings (yes, Japanese post offices are also post office banks) and one for mail and packages.  When I walk in, the most I have seen is three people, and I always see smiles. Yes they may be fake smiles with the inner voice screaming “Not another customer. And on a Tuesday.”, but being the optimist that I am, I only let myself interpret the sweet smile that is saying to me, “Come on in. We are so glad you took time out of the day to visit.”

Then I might say, “I would like to send this box to the U.S.” They will then explain the options to me: express mail in 3 days, regular mail, and of course by boat and the costs. All the time smiling. I fill out the short form and pay and leave, looking back at the same smile.

This is usually the method, unless it is around Thanksgiving time 2010. That day I carried in my box and said “I would like to send this box to the U.S.” This time, however, the response was, “We can’t. The U.S. is not allowing postal boxes to be shipped.” Of course, they were crying as they blamed themselves for the predicament that I was in. My intelligent response was, “huh?” and they patiently explained, all the time smiling, that no one told them why, only that they cannot send boxes to the U.S...

I did investigate, and yes, it was true. I double checked the US embassy list messages to see if they had said anything about this. And nothing. Thus, I can only speculate that it was a U.S. policy to limit the stupid expats living overseas from giving gifts to their families at Christmas. Since the whole country is suffering, while should the Americans overseas get special treatment! So they fixed us. So the big downside of using the Japanese postal system is they can’t change U.S. policy about shipping during holidays.

So what about NY’C? I have lived in Sunnyside, Queens, NYC for five months. Several times my wife and I have plucked up the courage to try our tried and true procedure we have used in Japan at US post offices. Don’t try it. Walking into the post office is similar; we put one foot in front of the other, opened the door and stood in line. But there were 12 people in front of us, with the woman behind grumbling, “I only want a few stamps and I don’t have a credit card to buy from the machine.” Note: at this post office, the stamp machine only accepts credit cards, even if you want one 48 cent stamp.

Waiting is not so bad. I can watch the people get up to a window and flinch when they are told they can’t do this or that. A foreboding sign. So my wife and I get to the window, and we are smiling in order to try to placate the person on the other side of the window who is in a trance. We say something stupid, like, “We would like to ship this box to Japan.” We hand over the form for “boxes under four pounds”, as ours is about two pounds. The cascade of “what are you stupid” begins. “You can’t send by boat.” And I calmly reply that I marked “surface” on the form, as it was written there. “No, I mean we do not have any shipping by boat anymore.” I almost spurt out, “So why is there a space, and why can Japan ship to the U.S. and why are you being a jerk”, but since I really wanted to ship this box to Japan, I hold my tongue and lose 1/2 inch of my smile. I just hope the planes are still flying, afraid the U.S. has banned sending packages to Japan.

But it appears we can send packages to Japan, but he responds, “You can’t use this short customs & immigration form; you need the long one.” Stupidly, I inquire, “Why isn’t that made clear in some form? It just says ‘under 4 pounds’.” His eyes glare at me as if I was from a foreign country (note: Japan). He explained in great detail, “The long form; fill it out and get back in line after those 30 people.”

My smile disappeared, as did I. Time to go home and regroup.

At home I read the directions carefully, not finding the “4 pound” clause and not understanding words like “provided on the 2976A” and EEL/PFC, but fill in the form nonetheless. My eyes once again consider the boxes for “airmail” and “surface”, and I chose “airmail.”

Now, time to return to the post office, probably for more punishment. We only have to wait for 12 people. Hearing their groans and screams, I attach my smile once again. The smile from Japan is meant to imply, “This is a great day and I hope you are enjoying it. Let’s enjoy together.” Inside I was scared to death. A different postal worker! My lucky day. I hand in the form and the box with the cookies, chocolate, magazine, tea and coffee. Big smile.

Once again the postal worker frowns and my smile slips an inch (2.4 centimeters for those who do not know inches). I hear, “You know, you can only write one item on each of these three lines. And if you have more than three you have to fill out another form. And you can only have four different items in a box. You have five items.” I wanted to scream, “The form says nothing about four items. It only says that it must fit in this box. Are you making rules up as you go.” My smile disappeared; it had shipped off on some nonexistent boat to somewhere. I had lost.

However, my wife Yoko is wiser and more diplomatic than I. Tears welled in her big brown eyes, her lips quivered, and she wiped at an imaginary tear. It worked. “Ok, this time it is ok and I will send it.”

I had failed, but Yoko had figured out the system. Some things are universal: women’s tears and guys’ soft hearts.

We left the post office having learned a great deal.

1.     Take your wife with you

2.     Don’t worry about reading the forms because the postal workers make up their own rules.

3.     Smiles do not work; tears do.

4.     Finally, if you want to ship something overseas at a U.S. Post Office, you had better go to a Japanese post office. You will find it efficient and with lots of smiles.

Note: Just the other day the newspaper indicated that the post office system is in financial difficulty, so they will cut some mail sorting sites and the express next day service will become express 3-4 day service. A great way to improve service!