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snarpbecause I am an idiot! Paying for International Express would have been ridiculously expensive, so I didn't do it; I just sent the package normal priority. Mee and Conan are accustomed to my doofusitude in such matters.
It's now Christmas morning in Japan. An hour ago I got an email from Mee saying, "Thank you for your present!" In English, even.
I said, "Mom? What do you think's the fastest a box could possibly get from here to Japan? Because Mee says -"
Mom: "Oh, surely not. She can't have gotten it already."
"Yeah, I don't know how she could have! The delivery estimate was like, early January! I guess she knows I'm sending it because I asked her to confirm her address, and she's just saying thank you in advance?"
Mere moments after we had this exchange, Mee sent another email. It contained this photograph:
THEIR PRESENTS ARE THERE
THEY HAVE ARRIVED IN YUKIGUNI
HOW DID THAT HAPPEN
There are only two possibilities I can think of, and they may both be true at once:
1) The woman I dealt with at the post office upgraded the package to Express out of consideration for the pain my doofusitude might cause Mee and Conan. I know her, we talked for a while the day I mailed the stuff, and she is definitely very familiar with my habit of mailing gifts to Japan in a less-than-timely manner.
2) Random unrelated people at USPS and Japan Post recognized it as a gift for children due to the picture I made for the label:
and thus decided to rush it along. (I drew them both as characters from the books I got them; Mee is Mee, and Conan is the bear whose hat is gone.) Also, in addressing the envelope I referred to Conan as "Coconuts." And I'm pretty sure I told the complete and unvarnished truth on the customs declaration, that being "2 books and 2 origami penguins." Was their present given special treatment... on grounds of cuteness?
Regardless of what actually happened, I clearly need to go by the post office and thank the person next week. This is badass.
It's now Christmas morning in Japan. An hour ago I got an email from Mee saying, "Thank you for your present!" In English, even.
I said, "Mom? What do you think's the fastest a box could possibly get from here to Japan? Because Mee says -"
Mom: "Oh, surely not. She can't have gotten it already."
"Yeah, I don't know how she could have! The delivery estimate was like, early January! I guess she knows I'm sending it because I asked her to confirm her address, and she's just saying thank you in advance?"
Mere moments after we had this exchange, Mee sent another email. It contained this photograph:
THEIR PRESENTS ARE THERE
THEY HAVE ARRIVED IN YUKIGUNI
HOW DID THAT HAPPEN
There are only two possibilities I can think of, and they may both be true at once:
1) The woman I dealt with at the post office upgraded the package to Express out of consideration for the pain my doofusitude might cause Mee and Conan. I know her, we talked for a while the day I mailed the stuff, and she is definitely very familiar with my habit of mailing gifts to Japan in a less-than-timely manner.
2) Random unrelated people at USPS and Japan Post recognized it as a gift for children due to the picture I made for the label:
and thus decided to rush it along. (I drew them both as characters from the books I got them; Mee is Mee, and Conan is the bear whose hat is gone.) Also, in addressing the envelope I referred to Conan as "Coconuts." And I'm pretty sure I told the complete and unvarnished truth on the customs declaration, that being "2 books and 2 origami penguins." Was their present given special treatment... on grounds of cuteness?
Regardless of what actually happened, I clearly need to go by the post office and thank the person next week. This is badass.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 05:59 am (UTC)I definitely suspect big-hearted postal workers at somewhere along the line - maybe multiple places!
(This is one of the reasons that I tend to put holiday sticker art on my card envelopes. They can pretend that a red or green card-sized envelope is just a birthday card, but when it is tricked out with candy canes, holly, polar bears wearing mufflers, silver stars, etc. (and dreidels and such on the Hanukkah ones) , it's hard to pretend that you don't know it's a holiday card!)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 12:05 am (UTC)