lost in confusion
House addresses in Japan are notoriously confusing. At first glance they make no sense at all. At second glance they make even less sense. Three glances leave you feeling nauseous.
A typical address might look like this:
Osaka
Sumiyoshi ku
1-3-9
664-9356
That's right, no street name or building name. Just a general area and some numbers. But it gets worse - you'd think the house next door might have a similar address, but no. Next door's address will be something like this:
Osaka
Sumiyoshi ku
5-1-4-6
226-92355
45-00-2222
This leaves postal workers and taxi drivers across the nation scratching their heads, and more often than not, completely lost. The bizarre system goes back forty years to when the building companies fell out with Japan Post over JP's unreasonable demand that building companies pay a "per-residence" fee to finance expansion of the postal service.
Relations between the two broke down, and building companies began deliberately numbering their properties in as confusing a way as possible. They even use a machine to select house numbers at random.
But in recent months the situation has deteriorated further. Some construction companies are doing away with numbers altogether, and are simply 'having a laugh' at the expense of stressed out delivery personnel, giving buildings silly names such as the one below.
A block of flats with no numbers. Just a cruel name to taunt those working for Japan Post.
The machine used to select house numbers in Japan.
A typical address might look like this:
Osaka
Sumiyoshi ku
1-3-9
664-9356
That's right, no street name or building name. Just a general area and some numbers. But it gets worse - you'd think the house next door might have a similar address, but no. Next door's address will be something like this:
Osaka
Sumiyoshi ku
5-1-4-6
226-92355
45-00-2222
This leaves postal workers and taxi drivers across the nation scratching their heads, and more often than not, completely lost. The bizarre system goes back forty years to when the building companies fell out with Japan Post over JP's unreasonable demand that building companies pay a "per-residence" fee to finance expansion of the postal service.
Relations between the two broke down, and building companies began deliberately numbering their properties in as confusing a way as possible. They even use a machine to select house numbers at random.
But in recent months the situation has deteriorated further. Some construction companies are doing away with numbers altogether, and are simply 'having a laugh' at the expense of stressed out delivery personnel, giving buildings silly names such as the one below.
A block of flats with no numbers. Just a cruel name to taunt those working for Japan Post.
The machine used to select house numbers in Japan.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, February 24, 2007 at 4:07 pm.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
On Saturday, 24 February, 2007,
Anonymous said:
http://anenglishmaninosaka.blogspot.com/2007/02/unveiled-birth-giving-machine.html
On Saturday, 24 February, 2007,
Brit said:
"Boys be ambitious,but let's have a sensible way of numbering the streets".
On Monday, 26 February, 2007,
Turner said:
On Tuesday, 27 February, 2007,
Name: Mr Moshi Moshi said:
Castle Merry.
Yeah, it's a real riot.
On Friday, 02 March, 2007,
Life Out East said:
That machine is soemthing else.
On Wednesday, 07 March, 2007,
Val said:
On Friday, 09 March, 2007,
Anonymous said:
My hat is off to the little guys on bicycles who deliver the mail.
Gosh, I'll just strip down nude for them.
On Sunday, 11 March, 2007,
Anonymous said:
On Friday, 30 March, 2007,
Perkunas said:
On the other hand, that's how the French (and others, no doubt) used to address their houses -- only with names. Much more poetic than numbers.
» Post a Comment