HOW TO SEND A LETTER | Guidable - Your Guide to a Sustainable, Wellbeing-centred Life in Japan

HOW TO SEND A LETTER

By Guidable Writers Feb 16, 2017

This post is also available in: Chinese (Simplified) Spanish Chinese (Traditional)

 

When you want to send Christmas cards or Birthday cards to your home country, do you know how to send them? If you have Japanese friends, you want to send letters to them, right? In this article, the way of sending letters will be introduced.

There are three types you can send; normal letter, greeting card and postcard. There are little differences between for domestic and abroad maybe only charge and how to write address. The charge depends on the type of mail and the region where you want to send. In details, please see below table.

 

Reference (年賀状・暑中見舞いドットコム)  http://www.nengasyotyuu.com/mamechishiki/airmail/

Area1: Asia, overseas possessions of the USA (Palau etc.)

Area2: Oceania, the Middle East, North America, Central America, the West Indies, Europe

Area3: South America, Africa

 

If you intend to send letters to friends in Japan, it will be like below.

 

Reference (JP 郵便局)    http://www.post.japanpost.jp/fee/simulator/kokunai/one_two.html

Following above table, you can buy a stamp in post offices and convenience stores as well. I always buy stamp in a convenience store near my school.

And where to write address on the envelope is different as well. For domestic, you should write name of the person who you want to send and destination address at upper left of the envelope while your name and address should be written at the back side. And your name and address should be a bit small.

But if you send abroad, you need to write opposite and don’t forget to write “AIRMAIL” on your envelope or your postcard!

The order of writing address is also completely opposite. For domestic, you have to write post number at first then continue in order of Prefecture or City name, street number and room number.

When you finish writing letters and put a stamp, the next step is looking for a post box. Have you seen Japanese post box like pictures? There should be some around you! If you find it, you can post what you wrote but take care of choosing which side you should take. Left side is for domestic and right side is for abroad.

 

 

If you cannot find any one, you should go to a post office. In there, you can definitely send your letter.However before going, maybe you should check opening time because once when I went there, it was closed and I needed to go again in another day.

At the last, I want to recommend you to send postcard like below picture to your family.

 

 

It is normally sent to celebrate new near and it is called “nengagyo” in Japanese.

In Japan, it’s really common to send them to friends, teachers or whoever close to you.

If you want, you can easily get cute one in stores and 18 yen stamp is enough to deliver it all over the world!

 

 

 

  1. ① Put 18 yen stamp
  2. ② You don’t need to delete them
  3. ③ Write your name and address at the upper left
  4. and write name and address of recipient
  5. at  thelower right.
  6. *Don’t forget to write “AIR MAIL” and “POST CARD”!!

 

 

 

 

By sending it, you can tell one Japanese culture with your message to your family.