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It’s common knowledge that in order to mail something, you’ll need to know the name and rough address of the recipient, even if you’re lacking a couple of minor details. But what if, let’s say, the intended mailing destination is not in a building, but on some random corner of a street? Chances are, your mail is going to be left undelivered. Unless, it seems, you live in Japan!

Japan Post’s dedicated workers successfully delivered mail to someone whose location was “on the street”, leaving Japanese netizens in awe of their dedication and skill! But how did they do it?

We’ve seen Japan Post’s platoons of postmen embarking on their journey to deliver nengajo (New Year’s greeting cards). You might have realized by now that the Japanese take this whole nengajo business very seriously. Keeping that in mind, it would totally suck if the nengajo you sent out didn’t reach its intended recipient, right? Knowing how important these postcards are, the Japanese postmen put in effort to ensure every nengajo is delivered, even if the recipient doesn’t have a proper address!

Yasuyuki Kosaka recently received a nengajo delivered to his workplace, which, as a Big Issue vendor, happens to be on the street! With no designated address, how did the sender manage to get his card delivered?

This was the “address” written on the postcard:

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To Mr. Yasuyuki Kosaka, who wears a red cap and sells The Big Issue next to the staircase near the Starbucks located before Meitetsu M’za on the road towards Ohmi-cho
Ishikawa Prefecture, Kanazawa-shi, Musashi-cho
Postal Code 920-8583 (around there)

*The Big Issue is a magazine whose proceeds go towards helping homeless people get back on their feet, and give those who work as vendors selling the magazine on the street a way of making a little money. 

Utterly surprised, this particular Big Issue vendor, Mr. Kosaka, posted a photo of the absurd “address” on Twitter, which was an instant hit with Japanese netizens.

▼ “A New Year’s card that got delivered to me despite the ridiculous address on it. The postman had difficulty holding in his laughter as he asked, ‘Are you the man who sells The Big Issue?’. I’m totally impressed by the skill of these people who deliver to destinations regardless of it being ‘on the road’. LOL”
こんな宛先でも……届くんです! 日本郵便の配達スキルに思わずびっくり   ねとらぼ

Some of the Twitter replies to Mr. Kosaka’s tweet mentioned that there have been previous cases of such “miracle mail” being successfully delivered, such as mail addressed simply to “Mutsumi-sho, Odori Kasuga” (Kasuga is a famous comedian who belongs to a duo named Odori, living in Mutsumi-sho). Someone has even posted mail without knowing the recipient’s address, instead attaching a poorly drawn map of the destination, and the mail, allegedly, made it there!

Now we know how reliable and dedicated the Japan Post mail heroes are! But even with that said, there’s no guarantee that every postman and woman on the team is just as good at finding their way to these “mystery addresses”, so don’t bet your mail on it!

Source: Netorabo
Image: The Big Issue Japan, Twitter