The frustration of double standards

November 2022

I walked into the Post Office, three letters in hand, and was engulfed by very warm, stuffy air, a major contrast to the crisp autumn air outside. Missy had finally written to her friends, and I had finally come to post the letters. She had included a small packet of lollies in each letter. I placed the letters on the counter and said, "Australia. Kitte okudasai (A stamp please).”

Carefully picking up the first envelope, the clerk, in shirt sleeves and a skirt, held it gently and inspected it and asked what was in the envelope.

"Letter and candy." I figured I needed to speak American.

She seemed to understand. She checked each envelope. I respond with the same answer three times. Another clerk in the same uniform came and joined her. The first clerk nodded with my answers, but I knew something wasn’t right. I unbuttoned my jacket, the heat was getting to me, and I was feeling uncomfortable in more ways then one. Placing the envelopes back on the counter, both clerks went hunting through shelves and drawers and eventually produced three green customs labels and three blue "International Post" stickers. What?! How come I couldn’t use these simple green labels last time, when posting the rice crackers??!! How much easier that would have been!! The only big deal this clerk was making was the hunt to find the things!

I took them over to the side counter, stripped off my jacket, and started filing out the customs labels, trying to focus on the task at hand rather than putting energy into being annoyed or frustrated. Upon finishing I lined them up on the envelopes, trying to figure out how on earth I was to fit such big labels on these small narrow Japanese envelopes! I hoped I could put them on the back where there was more space. But then I worried that the envelopes would end up coming back to us as the return address was on the back... The room was feeling hotter still. I gave up and passed everything back to the clerk; labels, stickers and envelopes. The dilemma was merely passed on and not fixed. After much polite debating I took everything back. We would need to take them home and re-envelope all the letters into bigger envelopes and place the labels on the FRONT... Argh!

I walked out of the Post Office, three letters in hand, jacket hanging over my arm.

I returned to the Post Office the next day, letters re-enveloped, labels and stickers and addresses in place, neat as a pin. In the stifling heat of the room, I confidently passed the letters across the counter and said, “Australia.” Confidently because I believed they were all done right, but also because Okasan was by my side, so I had an interpreter, if need be, this time!

The clerk inspected the first envelope and placed it on the scales. She turned to the computer screen and started tapping the touch screen. Another clerk joined her. They searched together, like two lost foreigners inspecting a map of an alien world. I unbuttoned my jacket. “Hours” later they found Australia. The price came on the monitor sitting on the counter in front of me and I almost died: ¥3,100 (over $30!) for one little letter!!! You’ve got to be kidding me!

With Okasan as the middle-man I soon learnt that adding “candy” to a letter instantly classifies it as a parcel. You can no longer send it as a document. Parcel rates apply. So what you might have gotten away with when posting domestic, you certainly can’t when posting international. I stripped off my jacket and proceeded to open up all three letters and remove the packets of lollies. There’s no way I’m paying over $30 each for the 10 cent packets of lollies to be posted to Australia!!

In frustration I carefully removed the customs labels, thankfully without destroying the envelopes. I was feeling hot, defeated, and disappointed, but I just couldn’t justify sending what Missy had prepared. I consoled myself with the face that at least her friends will receive her hand-written letters. The clerk calculated the postage for the three letters that are now free of lollies and labels. It’s more than the standard postage. I have to pay a higher postage rate to post the bigger envelopes that I used to fit the labels on that I no longer needed!!! My mistake. Live and learn!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My world has just been opened up: Masato showed me Google lens. How had I been in the dark for such a loooooong time?!! No longer needing to rely on other people, now I can just point my phone camera at any Japanese writing and in an instant it’s translated into English for me! Now all I need is a Japanese sim card so I can use my phone in the supermarket! Getting a sim card in Japan is strict and complicated (apparently) so hence the delay in getting one for me. I guess there had been no urgency, but now with Shujin working and me having to do the grocery shopping without him, it certainly would be convenient. Okasan does help, and we get by. I have to exercise a lot of patience at times as she translates an entire list of ingredients on a packet of food just to see if it contains dairy… and then there’s other times that are fun and entertaining. Like when we were at the egg section and I wanted to buy free-range eggs. She didn’t understand the term “free-range” so she proceeded to pick up different egg cartons and translate what was written on the carton. She picked up a carton and tilted her head to the side, trying to think of the English translation.

“Hmmm, I don’t know how to say it in English!”

Placing the carton down, she tucked her hands under her armpits, stuck out her elbows, flapping her “wings”, and put her head down, pecking invisible food toward the ground as she walked around in circles. HAHAHAHA!!!! We both had a good laugh and I concluded that those eggs must be free-range! Haha!!!!

Whilst I can’t yet use Google lens when I’m out and about, I can certainly use it at home. At school pick up the children excitedly told me that they were given the December lunch menu. They couldn’t wait to get home and read it. With a mix of Okasan translating and Google lens (hello world!) we poured over the sheet of paper. There was a few “Oooo”s and “yay”s and “YUM!”. The last few weeks the children have seen what the other students are given at lunch time and it’s pretty impressive. Rice and soup nearly every day with salad or vegetables and protein. They are well rounded meals and nutritionally minded. The monthly menu not only lists the meal items for each day, but nutritional facts as well.

We got halfway down the menu and Missy started squealing. “Cream sandwich!” She is absolutely delighted and literally jumping up and down. Meanwhile I’m reocovering from a surprised shock!

“Kinako-pan!” another squeal.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“It’s a deep fried bread dusted with sugar and soybean powder on the outside. It’s soooo yummy!” Missy explains enthusiastically. Hmmm, sugar huh?

But wait, there’s more. Chocolate cream bun is on the menu for the last week of school term. Chocolate cream bun??!! Another surprise for me.

The last day of school for the term may as well have been Christmas day with all yummy menu items and jelly to boot! Jelly!!

The kids were SO excited and eagerly chatting about the lunch menu and all the yummy things they will get to eat in December. Meanwhile I’m left shocked, perplexed, and confused. Isn’t this double standards??? I wasn’t allowed to pack snacks or sweets for my children in their lunch box, but if the school provides it, it’s OK???? I think it’s lucky for the school that I don’t speak Japanese…!!!