The Fox Post Office

An illustrated story by Moonbridge · Kids · Anime · All ages · English, Turkish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Also in: Türkçe · Deutsch · Español · Português · Français · Bahasa Indonesia

A bored city boy spends the summer delivering never-sent letters for an old fox spirit, until one of them turns out to be his own.

Twelve-year-old Haruto is stuck for the summer at his grandmother's house in Kirikawa, a mountain town with cicadas and no phone signal. Behind the shrine, a mossy red post box leads him to the hidden post office of Kogane, an old fox spirit who keeps every letter people wrote but never sent. Haruto becomes his summer postman. A son's apology reaches his father, a little girl's thank-you reaches the fox himself, and a shy grandfather's last letter reaches Grandma Fumiko on the night of the lantern festival. Then a crumpled letter in Haruto's own handwriting arrives. It is addressed to the best friend he hurt, and the fox road opens for one more delivery.

Characters

Haruto (Summer postman): A quiet twelve-year-old who moved from Osaka to Tokyo in spring and is spending the summer at his grandmother's.
Kogane (Postmaster of the Fox Post Office): An old, gentle fox spirit who has run a hidden post office in the cedar forest for centuries, delivering letters that were written but never sent.
Grandma Fumiko (Haruto's grandmother): A brisk, cheerful seventy-four-year-old who runs a tiny shaved-ice stand in front of her house and still misses her husband, Shigeru.
Ren (Haruto's best friend): Haruto's best friend back in Osaka, a loud, sporty twelve-year-old who was hurt when Haruto moved away.

Episode 1: The Post Box in the Cedars

A bored Haruto finds a hidden post office run by an old fox spirit, and his first delivery reunites a father and son.

Haruto arrives in the mountain town by bus. — *Kirikawa. A mountain town of rivers, rice and cicadas.*
**Grandma Fumiko**: Haruto! Look how tall you've grown!

Bored at Grandma's house with no phone signal. — **Haruto**: No signal. Forty days of nothing.
**Grandma Fumiko**: The forest has no signal either. Go and explore!

Behind the shrine, Haruto finds a mossy red post box. — *Behind the old shrine, the forest was very quiet.*
**Haruto**: A post box? All the way out here?

A glowing letter slips out of the slot by itself. — *Whoosh!*
**Haruto**: Hey! Letters can't fly!

He follows the letter to a hidden post office. — *The letter led him somewhere no map could show.*

Inside, an old fox spirit is sorting letters. — **Kogane**: Oh! A visitor! Mind the letters, they are shy.
**Haruto**: A fox... wearing glasses?

Kogane explains what the post office keeps. — **Kogane**: These are letters people wrote, but never sent.
**Haruto**: Why keep them?
**Kogane**: Because the words are still waiting.

Kogane asks Haruto to carry the mail. — **Kogane**: My old knees hate the hills. Will you carry the mail?
**Haruto**: Fine. I have nothing else to do anyway.

First delivery: a thirty-year-old letter to the grumpy tofu maker. — **Haruto**: A letter for you, sir. From... Daichi?
*The letter was thirty years old. It was from his son.*

That evening the tofu maker calls his son; Haruto walks home thinking. — *That night, Mr. Okada called his son. After thirty years.*
**Haruto**: Letters you never send... I have one of those.

Episode 2: To the Fox Who Walked Me Home

A letter with no address turns out to be for Kogane himself, and an old fox and an old woman finally say hello.

A rainy morning at the post office. — *Two weeks later, Haruto came every morning, rain or shine.*
**Kogane**: Good morning, postman! The tea is ready.

A strange envelope with no address, only a crayon fox. — **Haruto**: "To the fox who walked me home." That's all it says.

Kogane freezes and his spectacles slide down. — **Kogane**: Oh... oh my. That letter is for me.

Flashback: seventy years ago, a little girl lost in the snow. — *Seventy winters ago, a little girl got lost in the snow.*
**Kogane**: I only walked ahead of her with my light.

Haruto insists Kogane open it. — **Kogane**: Postmasters deliver letters. We never get them.
**Haruto**: Well, today you do. Open it!

Kogane reads the letter, a tear on his whiskers. — *"Dear Fox, I am not scared of the forest now. Thank you."*

Haruto recognises the name on the letter. — **Haruto**: "Chiyo, age six"... Old Mrs. Chiyo from the town?
**Haruto**: She leaves rice balls at the shrine every morning!

At dawn, they watch old Chiyo leave rice balls at the fox shrine. — **Kogane**: She still comes. After all these years.

Kogane steps out and bows; Chiyo sees him and bows back. — *Seventy years later, they finally said hello.*

Back at the post office, Kogane pins the letter above his desk. — **Kogane**: My first letter in eight hundred years. Thank you.
**Haruto**: Seventy years is too long to wait. Right, Ren?

Episode 3: Grandpa's Letter

On the night of the lantern festival, Haruto delivers a letter his late grandfather wrote but was too shy to give, and then discovers his own letter is gone.