Abandoning Doraemon



Notably, this week, we lost a friend. J sent a package a few weeks ago from Bangkok to Japan. He and his kuroneko-ed (yeah, I verbed the romajified noun) a rucksak to my address from Fukuoka a few days later. I received the rucksack about 2 days later, and we anticipated the usual tardiness of Thai post to take it's toll on the package.

On Tuesday, I found a slip from the post office in my door, saying that I needed to come pick up something. I assumed this was the package. Nope. I was instead handed a letter from customs in Yokohama. Why they didn't just put the damn thing in my mailbox is beyond me. The letter stated that hey were holding the package due to import restriction violations. ? The package contained some suits J had made in Thailand, and possibly a few knicknacks from his students. Upon further reading (with my dictionary in hand) I came across an odd mix of katakana and hiragana. ドラえもん Doraemon? Yup. Turns out, customs opened the package and found a knockoff copy of a stuffed Doraemon, which had been a gift from one of J's students. I was sent an official document asking if I would... hold on, they say it better than I ever could

I hereby swear that I have complete and full authority and legal capacity to dispose of the article(s) given bellow, and also declare that based on my authority I voluntarily abandon the said article(s).

I left in the misspelling of "below" as well. Good to know there are still jobs available for translation over at the customs department.

So, after killing trees to send me this letter (and a lovely color pamphlet on illegal imports), I have to sign, hanko, fill-in, and mail off the Declaration for Abandonment of Articles for a stuffed animal before they will send the rest of the package to me. They had already (get this) sent Doraemon to the official Doraemon manufacturers, to have it evaluated for authenticity. Yes. That is where the government is spending the nation's money. They should have received my response by now, and hopefully sent the package on its way to me. I hope I hanko-ed in all the right places, or who knows, they may send the form back to me!