Through the Eyes of a Vagrant

Living in Japan as a foreigner (for the time being) means you get special treatment. When this works in your favour this is called a “gaijin smash.” This term was not coined by me but has been around for a while now. I hadn’t explained this term until now so I figured I’d clarify it before continuing.

I sent a package to a friend containing some extremely late Christmas gifts. I sent it through EMS which is a courier, but when you do, you have to fill out a detailed form stating the addresses, contents, how much it is worth, etc.

Having mailed the package I figured it was done with and all was right with the world. The day after, the post office gave me a phone call. I’m always nervous about answering the phone in Japan because it’s much harder to carry out a conversation in Japanese over the phone than in person. You don’t have the crutch of hand signals and you can’t follow their lips. So I answered the phone and this was a time where I had no idea what he was saying. I could pick out most of the words but I couldn’t make sense of it. I understood that the package wasn’t able to be sent but I couldn’t figure out why. At the end of the conversation when I asked him to repeat himself he just responded with another question that once again I did not understand. He hung up and I called the BOE and asked them to ask the post office what the hell was going on for me.

As I got off the phone with the BOE there was a ring at the door. I answered the door and to my surprise the guy who was just on the phone was standing there. He had the package in his hand and a new form to fill out. He explained to me that I had filled out the application using Chinese characters for the return address but that EMS wanted me to fill out the return address using English characters, which I understood now that we were face to face. So I filled out the form again properly and he left and remailed the package for me. I may have language difficulties once in a while but at least the Japanese can be understanding about it.