Postage Shock, and a photo from August 1987

My first package to Tito after he started work in Japan contained the usual assortment of tapes. The main difference was that it had a long and confusing address which I checked again and again to make sure I'd copied it correctly. It was addressed to his school's office since I didn't have his home address yet.

Both of us knew that our postage costs were going to increase after our long distance relationship changed from transcontinental to international, but I had no idea how much more it would be. I handed my padded parcel over the the nosy postal workers and they weighed it up. It would have cost $2-$3 if I'd sent it to California. They charged me $20 to send it to Japan. (Note: In 2020 dollars, that's $45 for one small package.)

I told Tito in my next correspondence that I didn't know how often I could tape him with that sort of price tag. He came back and said, "Don't you know about "small packet"? I had no idea what that was, but the mail bitches who read my mail and vexed me so didn't mention it when I asked them if there was a cheaper way to send my package.

In the end, I had to educate the workers at our small town post office about small packet rates. They argued with me at first, and I asked for a rate chart. In the end, they sighed as if I were imposing a great hardship on them and acquiesced after I'd pointed out the existence of this much lower rate.

Tito sent me a photo of himself mailing a small package (via "small packet") to me from his local post office once he had settled in Kitasenju. Fortunately for him, the Japanese postal workers were far more knowledgeable and polite.