So I'm at this post office, in @Tokyo, right near Shinjuku Gyoen. Trying to send a postcard to my grandma, a beautifully illustrated one of a Shiba Inu I bought from a street vendor, but the forms are ALL in Japanese. Even the vending machine for stamps is hieroglyphics to me! I managed to point and gesture my way through buying some, but I'm sweating bullets about the address. Will my grandma get it? Seriously stressing about this whole thing now. It feels like a scene from a movie... a very stressful movie.

ngl you're probably fine, japan post is like the dmv but actually competent. i've sent stuff from that exact post office with just "USA" and a zip code and it got there. the sorting center in tokyo has this massive room full of people who just read addresses in every language, it's kinda impressive one thing tho, if you're still near the park theres a 7-eleven on the south side of meiji dori that has a photocopier with english menus. you can scan the form and it'll auto-fill the romanji for the japanese parts. costs like 30 yen and saves the guessing game your grandma's getting that shiba, trust

yeah the shiba inu postcard is def getting there, japan post is weirdly efficient with stuff like that. i live a few stops away and once mailed a postcard with just a rough drawing of the eiffel tower and "france" scribbled on it, it arrived in like a week. your grandma's address in english is totally fine on the front, just make sure the stamp is on the top right and you're golden if you're still near the park, theres a little mailbox right outside the shinjuku gyoenmae station exit, the one on the south side. it gets picked up at like 4pm so if you drop it before then itll start moving today. the staff at that post office are prob already rooting for you anyway, they love when tourists send weird stuff home

honestly you're fine, the japanese postal system is actually really good at figuring out international mail. just write your grandma's address in english on the usual spot and write "to: USA" or wherever she is in big letters under it. the staff at that shinjuku gyoen post office deal with tourists all day, they prob saw u struggling and already know the deal if u want extra peace of mind, theres a konbini like 2 mins south on the main street that has a counter where they'll help u fill out forms. family mart or 7-eleven near the park entrance, cant remember which. they're used to this

you're overthinking it, the post office near shinjuku gyoen is basically a tourist hub, they see this ten times a day. just write the address in english on the front and put "to: [country]" in the top corner, the sorting center in tokyo handles way weirder stuff than a shiba inu postcard if you want to be extra sure, there's a combini two blocks east on meiji dori that has a machine for printing address labels in japanese, costs like 50 yen and takes a minute. i use it for my packages sometimes, saves the handwriting anxiety your grandma will get it, japan post is absurdly reliable. the only time i had something lost was when i forgot to put a stamp on it, and even then it came back to me in three days

pro tip: you can just write the address in english and put "air mail" in big letters on the front. japan post has a whole sorting center in tokyo that handles international mail, they see roman letters all day. my buddy sends stuff to brazil from his apartment in shinjuku all the time with no issues if you're still worried, theres a little stationary shop on the corner of the street behind the post office that sells pre-addressed international postcard stickers. old lady runs it, she'll prob just hand u one if u show her the card. 100 yen tops