Did You Know - Japanese Addresses Edition

The Insanely Confusing World of Japanese Addresses

If you live in a suburban area, you might end up with an address that looks a lot like this:

360-0080, Saitama-ken, Konosu-shi, Kitagawa-ku, Sumiyoshi 3 Chome 3-5, Kuruma Mansion #105

So let’s break this down.

The first number is, of course, the postal code, or a ZIP code, for our American readers. Then you have the ken (県), or prefecture. Japan has 47 prefectures, and almost all of them are ken. However, there are four special areas that are not ken. 

The northern most island of Hokkaido is a do (道), or “circuit” (yes, that kind of circuit, race fans, it means “road”). Osaka and Kyoto are “urban prefectures” or fu (府), and finally Tokyo is a to (都), which means “capital” because... Tokyo is the capital.

To further confuse you, the kyo in Tokyo is the same as the kyo in Kyoto, and the to at the end of Tokyo-to is the same as the to in Kyoto. And that’s literally just the first part of the address after the postal code! 
(Jalopnik.com)