Services and hours for the main post office in my hometown, Sasayama, Hyogo, here in Japan.
The full version of the unofficial creed of the U.S. Postal Service, as it appeared in the USPS Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations in 2001:
"We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever."
A noble sentiment to be sure, but one which unfortunately which no longer applies to the postal service in the U.S.
Let me introduce to you the postal service here in Japan first with a video. It's short (less than 2 minutes) but you'll get the idea 20 seconds in. Click here.
As it is in America, New Years Day is a big holiday here in Japan. But here they celebrate it by sending out New Years cards, the way we send Christmas or Hanukkah cards, millions and millions of them. It is so important to the Japanese people that these cards arrive on New Years Day that the post office sends an army of their employees into the communities far and wide to deliver them.
These postal employees are working ON a national holiday.
It gets better.
A quick glance at the photo appearing at the beginning of this article shows that all of the services of JP Post are available 9 am - 7 pm Monday - Friday, 9 am - 4 pm on Saturday. The ATM room is open 8:45 am - 7 pm Monday - Friday, and 9 am - 5 pm SATURDAY and SUNDAY. Why is this significant? Because there is a window in the ATM room where you can still mail packages, envelopes, whatever, locally or internationally, and pick up mail being held for you at the post office, vacation mail or mail which they attempted to deliver to your home needing a signature.
Let me also mention that mail is delivered each and every home six days a week, important packages also delivered on Sunday. On a few occasions, I have seen the mail deliverer for my little village on the outskirts of town appear TWICE at my mail box in a single day.
If your mind isn't blown already by the level of mail service JP Post provides, let me go on to describe what else it does. Here is the entire range of services available through this efficient and valued institution . . .
- Regular Mail
- Stamps
- Parcels
- Letter Packs
- International Express Mail
- Savings
- Loans
- Cash Transfers
- Money Orders
- International Remittances
- Government Bonds
- Investment Trusts
- Life Insurance
- Local Government Services
- Compulsory Automobile Liability Insurance
At JP Post I can pay bills __ everything here is done electronically and I have never seen a check in my entire five plus years in Japan) __ or send money to an individual.
They have gift and travel catalogs. I can select a gift (sending gifts is a national compulsion here) and send it off anywhere in the world. I can plan and book travel. I can withdraw from my bank account in America. I can transfer money all over the world.
At the post office.
I just read that the U.S. Postal Service will be cutting back and no longer delivering mail on Saturday, starting sometime in the fall.
I can't begin to express how frustrated and angry I get with America when I see what's going on there. Especially when I know from first hand experience what things are like in other countries __ countries like Japan, which ignorant, bellicose commentators in the U.S. love to smugly ridicule.
You may not want to read my next blog posting called . . .
Going Postal!
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
