Addressing an Envelope...

[Henjin]

Trust me, this belongs in this section.
I'm finally getting around to sending out the letter I wrote to a friend in Kobe. (in very poor Japanese handwirting. :p ) Anyhoo, I wanted to address the envelope correctly, and if possible, in the Japanese style. I mocked up what I was going to do in Photoshop (that's what I do. *shrug*) Please tell me if it's correct or not:
http://secret.agent.home.comcast.net/images/remote/fuutou.jpg

(Obviously, all the info's made up, I'm not writing a letter to Katou Natsuki. :p )

Thanks.

[Antinomia]

I wrote my Japanese letters and packages in normal ABC. Those postman really are good in Japan, right? They have to read ugly handwritings in Romaji and ugly Japanese handwriting as well :eek: I really can't do it ever, read handwritten Kanji (especially when it's small size)

[Henjin]

If I take my time and write a little larger, I don't think I'll have too much of a legibility problem. I'm just talking about the format... Anyone know? If not, I can just write it the good old American way. :p

[Kuzzy]

This link is in reference to 年賀状, but I think it should still be helpful.

http://www.tjf.or.jp/eng/ge/ge07nenga.htm

[Pierrot le Fou]

I'm sure that'll get there Henjin. I do it all in Romaji too.

[Henjin]

Thanks, Pierrot. I probably overthink things, but whatcha gonna do?

Appreciate the help.

[MNJetter]

I agree that it would probably get there.

I got a letter a couple of weeks ago addressed completely wrong - neighborhood, city, my own name, post office number, EVERYTHING. The only thing they got right was the prefecture. And yet, when I looked inside, there was a bill for something that I had ordered online which had come just a couple days before.

And when I mean completely wrong, just as an example, they addressed the envelope to an Airen Walfy (=Alyson Woolfrey???). The neighborhood and post office number were mangled at least as badly, and the city was actually the name of a different city.

The post office folks are so accurate sometimes it's creepy...sometimes I think they must open up letters to look for clues when they aren't sure, because I can't think of any other way that it could have gotten to me unless they just gave it to the JET office and said "one of yours, right?"

[Henjin]

Oooh, spooky. :D

[jindojim]

I write letters to Japan periodically and write the address in romanji. And it always gets there...(in like a week from USA's East Coast via standard mail). So if you write it in romanji to Japan, it'll get there, trust me...if you want. I don't have experience sending mail w/ the address written in kanji though, so I won't make any guarantees about that.

[Henjin]

As long as it's clear, it can't hurt, right? I mean all the US guy has to do is see the 'To Japan' and drop it in the right bin...

[jindojim]

Write the letter in romanji, you damn show-off :p

You can impress whomever you're sending the letter to w/ the content inside. Ahaha

[Pierrot le Fou]

All you actually need to get a letter there is the postal code, and the apartment name/number.

[Koios]

You have to fill out a small form to list the contents of a package. However, seeing as they won't physically check the package (it can be all nice and taped up when you take it to the post office), it won't hurt if you "forget" to list something. ;)

[Pierrot le Fou]

Be aware though that Japanese customs are pretty serious about checking stuff. They most likely won't care if it's something small, but don't try to ship a 30 carat diamond or drugs.

[MNJetter]

And make sure to label everything as a "gift," because they'll charge your friend duty taxes for anything that isn't.

My parents sent me a package once and instead of labelling "gift" after each line, they mentioned at the bottom that all items were gifts.

Because of that, whoever read the customs sheet evidently didn't read thoroughly, because I got a duty tax bill of over $90 a week later for a pair of shoes and a sweatshirt that I already owned. :p

....or maybe it's just because the Fedex guy hates my mom...

[Henjin]

Write the letter in romanji, you damn show-off :p

You can impress whomever you're sending the letter to w/ the content inside. Ahaha

I typed that. :p

And I already spent the couple hours of work it took to hand write the letter itself in Japanese, so I might as well go all the way. Believe me when I say that I don't hand write anything anymore, even in English. It was painful. :p