Post Office

Japan has two sides, the modern high tech side that I imagined before I got here, and the frustratingly primitive side that I discovered upon arrival.

Today I went to the post office to send a parcel. I bought a bag, stuffed the contents in and wrote the address. The lady weighed it and told me it would be 1900 yen. I opened my wallet to discover I only had about 1500 yen. I asked if I could pay with Visa or EFTPOS or whatever they have. Of course it was cash only.

Now when I say Japan is sometimes behind the times it's because I expect Japan to be at least as sophisticated as Australia, if not far ahead. And some things are; for example you can get a train ticket which works on credit and uses radio frequencies so you can just touch it to the ticket gate and it gets read. Now that's better than Australia's lowly but serviceable magnetic ticket system.

However to buy a regular ticket for a one off use you have to consult the map and find the price yourself, the ticket machine doesn't tell you how much it is. Also there are some private lines and to use two different lines in the same journey requires you to use a separate map to find the cost of the fare and then when you change from the public to private platforms you must get a new ticket at the fare adjusment machine even though you've paid the correct fare.

Anyway, I left the post office to get some money from the atm and returned to a different counter with a different lady serving. I showed her the package, she weighed it and asked me for the somewhat more affordable sum of 1300 yen. I had had enough for that on my first visit, however, as usual, the language barrier prevented me from understanding why/ how/ what, and I went home in continued ignorance.