"Derek Field" <dkfield@eggbutnospam.btinternet.com> wrote:

>
>"Steve" <steve_h@dsl.pipex.net> wrote in message
>news:ek23e09pm1m4mottkqssn3kqm2n36skeqe@4ax.com...
>> I have recently been chided for not putting the full name on a parcel
>> to a person's home address. I have been told that without the family
>> name it will not be delivered!
>>
>> I wrote Yukako Chan: Yukako being the given name and Chan being the
>> familiar suffix.
>> The rest of the address was OK. ward, city country and included all
>> the right numbers in the right places: the subarea number, block
>> number and house number and the postcode.
>>
>> From experience of the UK postal service I thought that the post
>> office would deliver the parcel to the correct address no matter what
>> the name of the recipient. The residents of the house would then
>> decide if the parcel was for someone they recognize. If it isn't they
>> can either open it anyway or write "return to sender".
>> I'm told instead that the post office look to see if the family name
>> is registered at this address and if it is not return it to sender
>> themselves or otherwise dispose of it. Consequently, addressing always
>> has to be done formally with the full name and the "joke name" that I
>> used will result in none delivery.
>>
>> Does the Japanese postal system work in such a formal, complex way or
>> has my friend misunderstood the workings of the postal service?
>
>Here is my theory on the matter.
>It could be that us Europeans are used to living in good sturdy brick or
>stone buildings which generally line up in nice rows with a road down the
>middle which we call streets.
>They generally stand there for many years in the same place. My own house is
>about 120 years old. Not far away from where I work in London you can find
>some streets which are about 250 years old. If you knock a house down and
>build more in its place or turn a house in to flats (apartments) you use
>letters a, b c to distinguish the sub-units from the original house number.
>If you extend the street you just add more numbers or call the new street
>segment something else! That gives you a nice long term indexing system for
>each home on that street. The name of the recipient serves only to
>distinguish between the occupants of that home. So if Yukako chan lived in
>Swindon you could send it to her address with the name Skinny Bum - Tiny
>Tits and it would get delivered to her home without disturbing the postal
>system unduly apart from a few sniggers. (Of course, it is highly likely
>that her flatmate Asako also has similar bodily characteristics but that is
>your problem.)
>
>In Japan, well Tokyo anyway, many homes are made largely from woody
>substances and the homes are irregularly arranged in blocks. The indexing
>system is a bit of a nightmare - I'm not sure what the the logic behind it
>is. I dont imagine that these homes last very long - not more than 50 years
>before refurbishment/replacement.
>They also have a habit of knocking down a big old house and putting in
>several small new ones on the same land. Hence the old address now refers to
>several new homes. Quite often the homes have the name of the occupants near
>the letterbox so the postman knows to which house the letter should be
>delivered. (Checking buttock/breast sizes is largely redundant as far a
>Japanese women are concerned. Also, checking on the doorstep would probably
>be viewed as impolite and beyond the call of duty for most postmen and
>besides involves a subjective appraisal and so is unreliable as a
>referencing system.)
>So find out if her neighbours have the same address - they might.
>
>Does that seem feasible?
>

She says that her (parents) new house was built on a spare piece of
land that was previously undeveloped surrounded by houses. Her
neighbours do have the same address! So that part at least is correct.

2 weeks and the parcel has not arrived. The postman sent it back as he
didn't recognise the name. It has been sent back to the UK.
For the record, Yukako's breasts are 34DD!