2 weeks as a postman

By Kok Hong on January 15, 2009 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Finally I've posted an entry about this ....

2 weeks of winter holidays.

here's a long story ...

I applied for a short term job at the post office, sorting out and delivering letters and new year postcards.

The interview was rather simple, but I was really shocked to learn at the end, that only 20 people who applied for the job were employed. And then my friend was complaining that she couldn't get the job... wow...

I was just being lucky ... Apparently there were well over 60 applicants.

They need the help of students/part timers over the new year holidays. I wanted to work here since 2007 winter holidays, but I spent my holidays in KL that time.

Even with the help of 20 part timers, we still worked overtime until Dec 31. There is a reason ...

I'll start off with the basics; uniform which is also a raincoat which i miss wearing. And the red bicycle which I don't miss because 10 days of 3-hr continuous cycling really hurts my butt.

By the way my friend (kyon) took the picture on the left and started making silly jokes about staff of the year

For 10 days (Its actually 12 days but 2 day offs) , I cycle to and from Kibana Post Office.

It isn't the closest post office to where I live, but this is a lot bigger and that's where I do my job.

Work starts at 10am. I am in charge of delivering letters to Gakuen Minami 1-chome and half of 2-chome.

In total, I cycle for around 10km in one day's work.

My duty is to put letters into ....

Come to think of it, postmen in Malaysia just throw a bundle of your letters into your car porch instead of inserting it into your letterbox .... SOMETIMES ... hahahah

If it isn't letters, I'm sure its newspapers ... (or probably both, I can't remember)

But here, you get scolded by your employer and your customer for doing so. Sometimes I have to chuck the letters in because the newspapers occupy 90% of the postbox.

Well, working around Gakuen Dai Minami 1-chome and 2-chome isn't too bad. Its mostly flat. After all, you can tell it is flat from the name of the town.

The word 'dai' means platform; a flat piece of land on an elevated ground?

Which means ... I have to go downhill to the post office, then back up the hill to deliver letters, then back to the post office and then back home. Sometimes, I have to deliver twice in a day too.

It doesn't look that steep because it is a long way up. And don't forget the amount of load you have to carry along the way up. I can sweat in winter, even with temperatures below 10C most of the time. And not to forget the crazy winds as well as the crazily blue skies.

But at least there's an amazing view of the rice fields and Pacific Ocean waiting for you up there....

these are just the standard sized letters. I have another load behind.

I'm not supposed to take a pic of this but I did anyway.

These are sketches of how the job went.

Every few hours, letters will come into the post office. The girls will sort them according to 'in' or 'out'.

'in' will be letters for this post office to settle, and 'out' will be sorted by other post offices.

Then they will stamp every single letter. Thousands every day.

Please appreciate the date stamp on the top right of the envelope the next time you receive it.

Then it will be sorted according to town, district, street, house, person.

Imagine this ... thousands every day.

Each slot is for one banchi (simple translation would be street, but Japanese neighbourhoods have no street names anyway .. so ... make it street)

The bottom half of the sketch of me smiling happily at a slot-box is an interesting thing.

One banchi is like how it is portrayed above. A cluster of houses is one banchi. Lets make this 14-banchi.

According to the map, I will pass by Matsumoto, Yamashita, Kobayashi, Miyazaki, Oba, Ueda, Iguchi. It is a fixed routine.

SO .....

The letters inserted into 14-banchi's slot at the steel slots will be removed with the namecards and sorted out here.

Matsumoto, Yamashita, Kobayashi, Miyazaki, Oba and follows...

Back in Malaysia, (I just discovered, even Taiwan) it probably ends here.... but not in Japan.

Here the letters for each house has to be arranged according to the people living inside the house.

Father's letters mustn't be below mom's letters; unless Mom owns the house. Elder sister's letters has to be above younger brother's letters. ... and etc

And one important point is that nicknames are not allowed. It will be sent back to the sender because it is not found. hahaha... 'Soh zhai' is not Kok Hong. Don't waste your ¥80.

freaky system....

Reading names has challenged my level of Japanese to another level...

Anyway, there is a reason.

Say, if one person has moved out, or has died, the letter will be re-sorted.

Letters to the person who has moved out after one year, or who has died will be sent back to the sender.

If a person has moved out, it will be sent to his new address. And we had to look through the directory just to do that ....

And Malaysian postage system is not doing this because letters for my brother (who has moved out) still comes to my house in KL. And I shifted from Cheras to Sri Damansara in 2005. Some of our letters still go to Cheras.

.....................

These are New Year postcards ... Delivery started at 8am on Jan 1 - 65 stacks in total. The heaviest load I've carried so far.

"Just throw them.. Japanese people are doing stupid things" <-- that was what my friend said. HE IS JAPANESE

One fat rubber band binds up postcards for 5 houses. one small rubber band for each house. Imagine that some people actually receive postcards from more than 100 people.

And there is a lottery number on each postcard. What a creative way to earn money. Prizes include Nintendo Wii, a trip to Hawaii?

Things that pissed me off during the job.

It isn't the working hours nor the workload. Afterall I was paid to cycle and exercise.

The one thing that pissed me off is the location of the letterbox.

Only considerate people place their letterboxes by the curb. Some are so hard to reach from my bicycle, I have to get off everytime. Some are attached to the door. It is made convenient for the house owner and not the postman. #$%&!!

This particular house really drove me nuts ....

I hate this house ...

And there are some house owners who somewhat hid their letterboxes behind bushes and trees... One house had trees with thorns too!!

Translation : No matter how troublesome, no matter how difficult, they're still our customers. We don't have the position to complain about where their letterboxes are, just deliver what they're waiting for...