Quote:
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.
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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.