I went to the post office today to send a vinyl record to my friend. I’d weighed it at home: exactly 500g. This meant it would cost me 510 yen. Perfect, as anything over 500g would cost a hefty 710 yen, but I was sure I had it under control.
I handed my package to the ojisan at the post office. He placed it on their digital scale, and I watched with satisfaction as the numbers danced between 499.5g and 500g. With a triumphant smirk, I mentally high-fived myself. "No one out-cheapskates me," I thought.
Then the ojisan asked if I’d written the address. Of course, in my excitement, I forgot. He handed me a tiny slip of paper, no bigger than a post-it, and told me to jot down the address and tape it to the package.
Fine, no big deal. I did as he said, slapped the little paper on the package, and confidently put it back on the scale.
That’s when it happened.
The scale flashed 500.5g, stubbornly refusing to back down. My heart sank. I couldn’t believe it. That stupid little piece of paper had outsmarted me.
Utterly crushed, I had no choice but to fork over the full 710 yen. I fled the post office, wallet lighter and pride shattered, desperately trying to hide my tears.
The postal scale won this round, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever financially recover from this.
by Jealous-Drop1489
44 comments
My wife asked me why try so hard to get all the groceries from the car in one trip.
“Because going back for a 2nd trip means I lost.”
“Lost against what?”
They don’t understand.
Weird pretty sure when I’ve mailed things they slap the address slip on after weighing it.
The scales always win, no matter how many times you try to exercise or send a vinyl. They always win.
this post is heartbreaking and very well written 🥲
Why wouldn’t you just write the address directly on the outside of the package (carefully, of course, considering its contents)??
You could’ve just bitten off a piece of the corner of the package
Maybe you can cut some pieces off from the vinyl. A real fighter wouldn’t give up
This was my literature read for today, thank you🤝
Trying to shave off grams is the bane of my existence. Adds up when you’re sending a lot. Pretty sure i undo any savings I make in the time i spend meticulously packing. Sometimes they’ll weigh it with the post office receipt edging it over and I’ll have to tell them to remove it.
I’m pretty sure any documents related to the postal service shouldn’t be included in the weight. I often send packages abroad worldwide that require accompanying customs paperwork and it’s definitely not included in the weight of the shipment when calculating the postal cost.
I hope you are doing at least Yu-pa-ku and not the normal mail. For normal mail postman will try their best to smash it into any postbox they could find in the destination, or just put it next to the door BECAUSE require postman to notice the people to receive it is another paid-service. Of course some of the postman is nicer but I am losing trust to the Japan’s post service. They only know to increase the price and cry every chance they don’t have money.
A young disciple can easily get cocky, carried away by the illusion that he has everything under control.
That is the moment for the master to silently humble his apprentice.
A piece of paper, no bigger than a post-it, is one way of doing so.
Typical Japanese way of thinking “rule is a rule”
You should write a book! This was awesome. And sorry for your loss. My condolences.
Hahaha! I do things like these all the time…and I empathize with your failure. I think a lot of us have these stories.
Lmao, this very same situation happened to my (Japanese) husband a few months back.
He ended up ripping off some cardboard of his package though to make it under 500g but still spent an entire half hour ranting to me about it in an izakaya later that week.
This is the kind of story I expected from this sub when I joined many years ago.
You should write the address on the package itself,…saves you from the weight of the post it note and tape.
I hate it too when my wallet is 200 yen lighter…🥺
TRUE STORY: Have you ever noticed the “peel-apart” postcards you get have 5 little dots on the side, little holes in one layer of the paper? My partner researched and they’re actually an “invention” to reduce the weight of the postcard by *just enough* to get it under the weight limit. The “name” of the dots is written inside them.
This is real Japanlife..
Thanks for the story, this made me laugh!
Maybe you could have nipped off some cardboard off the corners to get the 0.5g back. That surely would have been embarrassing to do in front of the guy and other people in the post office, but it could have saved you 200円. 😂
EDIT: I just read further to see that it was a female employee and that she suggested exactly what I just wrote.
luulu wa luulu dakara
Package weights exclude the weight of any required postal documents. Not sure if that would include a slip of paper that you write an address on, but it does include EMS slips and things like that. Probably too late to argue the point now but I bet you could have argued it at the time.
Quick! Someone write a haiku about this!
What was the record?
take this award 🥇
I was once a few grams overweight on my 23kg bag at Narita and was forced to remove my baggage strap to get below 23. “Sorry, Japanese rules,” the lady said…
I feel your pain. Be brave.
You got off cheap and settled: I once sent a small parcel to Germany and since it contained a bigger calendar I put it inside a long, narrow box. Post office measured the 3-size length, remeasured, then told me it’s just below 90cm, the limit. But 2 weeks later I am asked to the post office and they hand me back my parcel! Apparently some overzealous worker in Germany remeasured it and the sum came to more than 90 cm and thus they sent it all the way back to Japan! I was too dumbfounded to say anything but at home I measured myself and certainly it was more than 90cm. So the Japanese staff wanted to be helpful but instead wasted 2 weeks time and my money!!
Haha, I spend hundreds without worries, but when I waste 10 yen unwillingly then can’t sleep overthinking why it happened. Reasoning I should have avoided it in the first place. The caring part of our brain is overly caring for no reason sometimes. It shouldn’t. 😊
The lady at the post office once pulled some duct tape off of my international package, until it was in the lower weight category, weighed it, then taped it up with post office tape afterwards. I didn’t even ask them to do it, she asked if it’s ok to do so. I guess it depends on the staff and how nice they want to be.
Tiny little life hack for you: You can cut the INNER cardboard flaps of your box (both top and bottom) around 1/3rd shorter without damaging the integrity of the box or how well it seals. You can cut a few grams off that way to give you wiggle room for the scale in the future!
There was probably a paper inside with a code for a « free downloadable album online » that you could of had removed.
So funny 😂🤣
That’s cute 🥰
Thanks for the story 🐱
Another english teacher forced to only eat one meal a day because of that damn yubin.
You should have waited 5 min for the solvent to evaporate from the sticker lol
What a tale…. Someone call Peter Jackson because I smell a trilogy.
I also did that. scale said 1kg but also some grams. the staff insisted this is now a 2 kilo package. So I just removed a little tape… got it down to 1 kilo cost just from that tape.
You should have written the address or just cut a little corner of your package (I’ve done this 2 many times…)
Just tear some paper off the package to get it back down under the limit.
Maejunbi. It’s always that. XD
That’s why you should always have some sandpaper in your bag. That way you can shave 1 or 2g of what you’re sending in a place which doesn’t matter.
Whens the manga coming out