Nihon Character

[Oly Spud]

I am trying to find out what the character before a number
Example: It looks like a T with a bar above it _T902-4506.

Jerry F. Barnes
Olympia, WA, USA
Yikiga nu kutubaa shuumun gaai. - A man's word is his honor.
Uchina Proverb

[Keiichi]

I can think of two things. Either the katakana 'te' in which the vertical line of the T is a bit curved to the left.
Or it's a postal marker, which is like a regular T with a line above it.

[Oly Spud]

It is a regulat T with a line above it.

[Elizabeth]

It can only be a postal marker before the address in your example.

[Oly Spud]

What is the postal marker used for.. A house address or what

[Elizabeth]

It's a little confusing since Japanese addresses are arranged more or less in quadrants, not hierarchically or linearly like here in the US. But the 丁 symbol is basically the "cho" in "chome" which is like the subdistrict or suburb of a ward in metropolitan areas. I don't think you don't really need it though since that is what the first group of numbers stands for anyway (the second narrowing it down to a city block and the third to the individual residence).

[Oly Spud]

Elizabeth

I have spent a lot of time looking for people in Okinawa and I find that the easiest way to find some one is to go to the police station for most homes do not have a house number. The police station has a map of the area with all the houses on it, they have a book with all the people that live in their area that have registered with them.

So my take on this is something like the US + 4 zip code.

Jerry F. Barnes
Olympia, WA, USA
http://home.att.net/~jf-barnes/okinawa.html

[Elizabeth]

Originally posted by Oly Spud
Elizabeth

I have spent a lot of time looking for people in Okinawa and I find that the easiest way to find some one is to go to the police station for most homes do not have a house number. The police station has a map of the area with all the houses on it, they have a book with all the people that live in their area that have registered with them.

So my take on this is something like the US + 4 zip code.

Jerry F. Barnes
Olympia, WA, USA
http://home.att.net/~jf-barnes/okinawa.html
Yes, I've heard that for small towns or rural areas there may be only one number used designating the section of the town or village. It makes sense in a way since house numbers are based on the order in which they're built, chronologically rather than spatially, so getting mail there would require a map with the coordinates in any case.