Japan's Mail System

Compared to the US mail system, I love the Japanese system. It's sooooo convenient. Actually, I really disliked the USPS. FedEx and UPS were all right, but they could be annoying too sometimes.

For instance, our mailman would never come to our door to deliver the mail. Our mailbox was directly on the street, and the front door of our house was only about 7 meters away from the mailbox. If there was a car parked in front of our mailbox, we didn't get our mail. If we got too many packages, or they didn't fit in the mailbox then we didn't get our mail. Oh yes, and on more than one occasion we received no notice of the fact that something happened and that our mail was being held for a limited time at the local branch.

God forbid that happens.... because then we had to somehow manage to get to the local branch in time before it closes, which means one of us (me or my two roommates) had to leave work early just to get the mail that the mailman couldn't bother to carry 7 meters to our door.

Okay, enough bitching about the USPS, now you get to hear how great the Japanese postal system is. I'm almost never at my apartment when they first deliver my packages, but I have been surprised on a couple of occasions. They've even delivered things to me late on a weekend... something that I'd never expect to happen with the USPS. The best thing is that I can easily arrange to have the mail either redelivered, or sent to the branch of my choice for pickup. Not only that, but if I contact them before something like 3pm, then I can have it redelivered that same day in the time-slot of my choosing (it goes all the way to an after-8pm time-slot). It's such a great system, if only the USPS could follow suit...

And one more thing. I've ordered two things from Amazon.co.jp (free weights and a hard drive) and both packages arrived the next day using normal shipping. It's so refreshing compared to the 3-5 business days I'd always have to wait in America, not to mention having to be home when it's delivered so that I wouldn't have to go through the process of getting it after a failed delivery.