Can anyone help me figure out this addy?...

meewchan · Post by **meewchan** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:11 am

I've made an order with Japanese dealer and they only accept IPMO and this is the address they gave:

Kazunari Komura

ADDRESS:Postal Code 599-0221 225-14 Ishida Hannan-Shi Osaka-Fu Japan

It's been YEARS since I had to write a Japanese address. How should it be broken down/written on the envelope? I asked the seller, but I don't think they understood my question. Should it be:

Kazunari Komura
599-0221 225-14 Ishida
Hannan-Shi Osaka-Fu Japan

or

Kazunari Komura
599-0221 225-14 Ishida Hannan-Shi
Osaka-Fu Japan

I don't like the USPS as it is and this addy confusion has me worried.

vapalla · Post by **vapalla** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:21 am

You know, I just ordered 6 cels from Animetime, and I had the same problem. There isn't much room to fill in those slips (especially for me with my terrible handwriting!) so i block-lettered as best I could, and I think it came out like your top choice. There was no way the 2nd line could fit all that! Hopefully it will get to it's destination regardless.

Gonzai · Post by **Gonzai** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:32 am

I would do it like this:

Kazunari Komura
225-14 Ishida Hannan-Shi
Osaka-Fu, 599-0221
Japan

klet · Post by **klet** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:56 am

You know, it doesn't really matter. When you're actually writing the address in Japanese, you write it in one line. If you run out of room, you move on to the next line.

The reason you can do this is that the provinces and cities have markers (fu=province, shi=city) so the postal workers will never get confunsed as long as the markers are there. Just don't break up the numbers.

It looks to me like Ishida is not part of the city name--it's a ward that's missing its marker (probably ku). But, people often drop the marker if a place is well-known--as in, once the money order gets to Hannan, the postal workers will automatically know where Ishida is.

wELCOME cONSUMER · Post by **wELCOME cONSUMER** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 10:04 am

Klet, that's fascinating. I never knew this stuff before. Very interesting.

meewchan · Post by **meewchan** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 10:37 am

Thanks for the help everyone!

That's so interesting, Klet! I didn't know that! I always dreaded sending payments and packages to Japan and the UK because of their long addresses.

klet · Post by **klet** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 11:30 am

wELCOME cONSUMER wrote:Klet, that's fascinating. I never knew this stuff before. Very interesting.

Heh, well, I know nothing about the UK, but during our post office chapter in Japanese 202, we had to learn how to write letters and address them.

One of the most common dropped markers is -to. On an envelope, Tokyo is supposed to be written Tokyo-to. But, Tokyo is the only city that has that marker (all other cities use the marker -shi), so it's kind of meaningless to put it on, right? Unless it's for a grade in your JPN 202 class.