First let me preface this post by saying that the Japanese postal service is different than the US postal service. You don't get mail everyday here and the postal service won't come to your house everyday unless you have mail. In some regards it's more like FedEx or UPS, only visiting when you have a package.
The junk mail fliers are put in your mailbox by employees of the companies themselves. The water, electric, and gas bill are put in your mailbox by the companies themselves as well. A lady comes around, takes a reading, and prints your bill right there from a portable printer.
The above picture is our first water bill. Sort of. All bills are done in two parts. First, the notify you of the amount you will owe. In our case it's 5,314 yen or roughly $65. In a few days we will receive another water bill with a bar code. This is how we know it's time to pay.
We take the barcoded bill up to 7-11 and they will scan it for us and we can pay right there. Remember, 7-11's are very different here than in the US.
Our household stuff should arrive on shore today. Not sure how much longer after that until we receive it. I hope it's within the next week.
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I don't know why they do the bills in two parts. Maybe to give you time to collect the money and maybe to give you time to dispute the amount if you feel it is incorrect.
ReplyDeleteI just know we can't pay until we present the bill with the bar code. The Japanese are sticklers for rules and order. In the US we can drop by almost any company and pay whatever we want. If we have $200 and don't want to worry about the electric bill for a few months, we can pay $200 to the electric company and have that credit on file. Here, if you cant show the bill with the bar code, they have no way to look you up in their payment system.
Weird, huh?
hey Kristin, how are you enjoying living off base? We are getting ready to move there and I'm thinking we'd really enjoy off base..
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