Job Discussion Forums

[bornslippy1981]

I was wondering if anybody has had difficulty receiving mail from the US?

My mother shipped me some things from the Midwest in April, and they never arrived. I also had a birthday card somebody sent me in early June, and it hasn't arrived either.

I have heard it takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks assuming it's not express mail, but perhaps I am giving people the address wrong?

Does it matter if a letter or parcel is addressed as:

Your Name
Apartment #
Apartment Building
City
Prefecture
Postal Code
Japan

Or does it have to be in revearse order in order to receive anything?

[Gordon]

Your address order is fine. I think your care package got lost though. I usually get parcels sent sea mail in 4-5 weeks.

[injapantoday]

Have you registered your name and address at your local post office?

[Willy_In_Japan]

Ive had the Japanese post office return my mail, because they weren't sure I was actually 'living' there.

They just assumed I was the same gaijin that lived there before (It was GEOS Leo Palace) and since he 'left' they thought that they could just return my mail to sender.

I would check that this isnt happening to you.

When I moved, I had my mail forwarded to my friends address. I spent two weeks there, but of course had to 'register' at the City Hall.

A couple of weeks later, I found an apartment in another city and moved. Things were fine until a few months later, the post office stopped delivering my mail because they weren't sure that I "really" lived at my apartment. I had to go 'register' at the post office so they would turn on my mail delivery again. As you can imagine, I wasnt pleased. I don't know enough Japanese to have them dick me around like this. Well, naturally, they had to see my Gaijin card, which had my friends apartment on it (the two weeks I spent there).........they then started to redirect all of my friends mail to my apartment. Grrrrrr!

The point of all this is the Post office sometimes think their job is more than just delivering the damn mail. I would suggest visiting them and making an enquiry.

[Filinadian]

I had problems with recieving mails also. I sent a package back home to Canada, and it made it there in about a week. However, my parents have sent care packages from 2 months ago that have not made it here. Having registered at the post office is one thing, but being absolutely accurate about who lives there is critical.

I had my parents send a package to my girlfriend's address but with my name on it, it never made it. Japan post is so anal about accuracy, the address and the person living there must match or else you won't recieve the package. My package eventually got sent back to Canada, and only when my parents changed the name on the package to my girlfriend's name, was I allowed to recieve the package.

Make sure you register your address and name to the post office and tell the sender to make sure everything matches, or else you won't get your package or mail. Good luck.

[randerso]

I'd say that the easiest way to get mail is to have it delivered to your school (if that's the situation). Name, School, Address, City, Prefecture, Post code, JAPAN. I did this for an entire year in Toyota and got upwards of 50 letters and about 15 packages, all on time. I've also used this tactic for every other foriegn country I've lived in and it always works. If you don't want to have stuff sent to the school (or don't have one that will agree to receive your mail) then I'd go register with the post office. But it's much simpler the other way. Good luck!

[bornslippy1981]

Thanks for the info.

How exactly do I register with the post office? I have moved once before, and filled out a form stating my new address, but neither the package sent in April, or the letter in early June have arrived at my new address.
I am moving again in the next few days, and will have to fill out the form again. Is there a name you could provide in Japanese with this registration form, or should the change of address form be enough?

[Gordon]

I found the change of address form enough. Make sure you put your name above your mail slot in English and Katakana.

[Brooks]

surface mail from the US can take up to seven weeks. That includes letters too.
I have been unlucky with mail this year. At least a couple of letters to relatives thanking them for wedding gifts never arrived.

[Lister100]

I went to the post office today looking to send a money order to Canada. They told me they don't offer EMS to Canada and the delivery would take a month. This seemed pretty ridiculous to me as well as the clerks surprise at the prospect of mailing money. At the risk of sounding paranoid, I think she took one look at me and thought this foreigner has no right sending money earned in Japan out of the country. Maybe I'm just pissed off.

I'm ruling out money orders because as desperate as I might be to get money back to Canada, I'm not going to lose a month of sleep worrying about where my money is.

So I guess the question here is does Lloyds work with most banks in Japan and Canada? I live in Kyushu and I'm with the CIBC bank in Canada. There are no Lloyds branches that I'm aware of in my area so it will have to be bank machines. If anyone has any advice on this matter please share it before I start getting angry creditors with hockey sticks at my door.

[JimDunlop2]

Do a search on Dave's for "lloyds" there are some old posts on the topic that I can remember.

Anyway, Lloyds works just fine with most Canadian banks. The only issue is between CIBC and Lloyds, they will take a lot of fees -- it's not cheap to transfer money that way. Otherwise, it works well. I've been doing it for over two years.

[Gordon]

I've used Lloyd's with CIBC. CIBC charged me $10 and Lloyd's fee is 2,000 yen. Not too bad, but I recommend sending money every few months (if possible) instead of monthly as it will cut down in costs. If you have bills to pay back home, then this would be a moot point.

[Marika]

I've been sending money orders home for the last 10 months. No problems at all. Costs 1000 yen to send it and it does take about 3 weeks. What was interesting though is this last time they made a huge stink about me sending money home this time. You have to write why you're sending it home. Each time I wrote bills. Now I understand this is Japan and things are different but I always had the same darn teller and the same boss always ok'd my form but this month they were like NO...BUT...i said no same every month...same for the last 10 months and they did send it and it did get to Canada.
I know other people who sent money orders all the time as well and have had no problems. You should be fine.

I'm in Kitakyushu.

[Willy_In_Japan]

I send money home to Canada all the time with a money order. It does take 3 or 4 weeks, but the money does arrive, in the form of a Canada Post cheque. It costs 1000 yen, and they give the best exchange ive seen. I wouldnt worry about sending it that way.

However, as stated you MUST write why you are sending the money home. I made the mistake of writing "To pay Credit Cards" a few times, and they want to know EXACTLY what I bought. Since credit cards work different here, they couldnt fathom that the purchases were a few years ago, and I didnt know, and even if I knew it was none of their business.

After a long discussion, I found that putting "to pay a loan" was ok, but if you mention credit card, they will give you grief.

[Lister100]

Thanks everyone

That's really good news about the CIBC Gordon. I was worried that bank might cause me some problems here.

The paperwork is going through Lloyds right now and if that works I'll stick with them.

The money orders I'm sure are fine but it sounds like each post office has varying degrees of tolerance. The postal worker I had was a real dill weed playing dumb about things, telling me to go to a bank and her English was perfect too. No doubt if i had a better idea of what to say it would have gone over more smoothly. On another day it might be a different set of circumstances but I really don't want to go through that aggravation again.