Written Japan Address: Strange or ok?

Hope someone can help...

As I did not know the kanji for the person's name, I wrote it at the top of the post card in Romanji.

Then I added the body of the address in Japan format, but at the end added the area code.

Something like for example:

TANAKA, Tomoko
神奈川県 横浜市港北区 篠原北
897
233-0098

Is this strange or acceptable?

MiniMoo,

There is nothing wrong with writing the name in romaji (not romanji) if you don't know the correct kanji, but you should add "様" or "-sama" at the end when writing the address in Japanese.
Also, the postal code should come first in the address, before the prefecture.

try it this way


〒233-0098
神奈川県 横浜市港北区
篠原北 8-9-7

TANAKA, Tomoko様

I don't think it's 8-9-7, but it's probably 897. But moreover, MiniMoo, you shouldn't be posting people's private addresses on the internet. I'm sure your friend will be offended. You should contact the webmaster to have this thread deleted, and if you need to, you should post again using a fake address and a fake name just as examples.

In case anyone thinks the details given are real...they are not...it is just made up. Name and address. But I did need to know how an address should be written,
Thanks for all your help!!!

Oh, goodie that it's fake :)

Actually, the reason I wrote that it's not 8-9-7 but 897 is because the former address cannot possibly exist but the latter can be.

As suggested, it's either

TANAKA, Tomoko
897 Shinohara-kita, Kohoku-ku,
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken
233-0098

or

233-0098
神奈川県 横浜市港北区 篠原北 897
TANAKA, Tomoko sama

It's different depending on whether you're writing it in English or Japanese.

If you're writing from overseas, don't forget to write "JAPAN" in alphbet at the very bottom, either language you use, so that postmen in any country can understand.

There seems to be some disagreements in the previous posts about whether the numbers (not the post code) should be hyphenated.

I believe they should be. In large cities, there are additional district of Machi (town) divided into numbered "cho" or precinct and then numbered blocks and then the number of the house.
So 8-9-7 often pronounced 8 no 9 no 7, means hacchome (8 chome), ku (9) no nana (7) banchi.

Old address system were only 3 digits but I think they disappeared 20 years ago. I lived in Tokyo’s 3-15-16 which is 3 chome 15 no 16 banchi. My sister lives in Chiba’s 2-5-27 which is 2 chome 5 no 27 banchi.

Chad

I'm sure the OP knows, so I'm going to make it short.

8-9-7 and 897 are totally different. If you want to have your letter delivered to an address that says 897, you have to write 897. If you write 8-9-7, it will be delivered to a totally different place or it will simply be sent back to the sender due to address not being identified.

To make my answer a bit longer, "8-9-7" is short for "8 chome 9 banchi 7 go" while "897" is short for "897 banchi."

I knew I was missing something... cho banchi and one more ... what was it?... it's been a while since I lived in Japan... ???

Thanks Uco

Chad

For some reason this part was written down wrong, so I followed it.

Do you think the PO will be able to work it out if all other info is correct?
Os should I redo it and send it?

Example only...897 vs 8-9-7

I google mapped THE NUMBERS I needed to check what would happen.

xxx belonged to a house and 5 to 10 minutes away x-x-x belonged to an industrial building.

I was given the right info. after all...as it was a house address..not business.

Phew!

Have certainly learnt alot and hope others will benefit from this post as well.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR BEING SO HELPFUL!

Chad, whether it is 897 or hyphenated depends on the area. Not all parts of all cities follow the x-x-x model, some just have a single house number- my home stay family's address is like that- there are no choume numbers where they live, just the area name and a single number. It would be quite risky to assume any given number in an address was wrong and just hypenate it yourself. Some addresses have this pattern as well: x-xx with just two numbers.

oh, I messed it up!
sorry for making such trouble.
it was my fault.
m(_ _)m
yeah, when I read he first post again, xxx would be the proper form.
maybe I was sleeping when I typed x-x-x.
but　丁目 is often used in adresses anyway... so good that we have discussed this problem...
(*^-^)b