No Words Necessary; You’re trying to mail what?!
First up - I have to share this really funny (in my opinion) sign that is near one of the apartment buildings close by. Everytime I pay attention to the sign, it tends to make me laugh. Really, the illustrations are so good, no words are necessary:
Next up - another story about the post office. It seems I’m beginning to master the art of mail, but there is almost always some interesting occurrence when it’s me vs nihongo.
Today’s story actually comes from Monday. I went to the Japanesepod101.com office in Akasaka-mitsuke and on the way stopped to mail a small package. I entered the post office and stood away from the counter waiting for one of the 2 clerks to notice me. A gal was reviewing some other parcel, and a guy was reading a book. After 20 seconds or so, the guy looked up with a slight bit of surprise and said “dozo” as he beckoned me forward.
I placed the small box in front of him and used my set phrase “futsu mailu, yasui onegaishimasu” (regular mail, cheap please). He inspected the address then picked up the box looked it over - and proceeded to throw a full-speed question my way. I picked up about 3 of the words, and with experience as my guide I realized he was asking what was in the box. Thats simple, I thought, it’s a letter and a stuffed animal…
Then it hit me, I have no idea how to say “stuffed animal” in Japanese! Think fast…
“Umm… ehhh…” I muttered as I looked into the empty space on the side of the counter. “Ehhh…ahhh..”.
It wasn’t getting anywhere, I had to try something, so I spit out the only thing that could possibly make sense to me “kuma desu”.
“EHHhh??!” was his sudden surprised response.
I could only imagine his will power struggling to hold back a torrent of confused laughter. It didn’t translate in the way I hoped, so from his perspective this foreign guy just told him there was a grizzly bear in the box!! Although to me a teddy bear picture was being painted, to him - well not the cute and cuddly.
There was still fight in me though, so my next try had to use more descriptors “ehh… uhh…” my hands started to make gestures of squeezing something in mid air “sofuto kuma desu” (soft bear is).
Homerun! He understood and with a few chuckles said “Hai!”. Hard part complete, easy part to go - and the money did the rest of the talking.
