Divers can drop off postcards and letters in Susami Bay in Japan
In 1999, Susami was a struggling beach town in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan until the local postmaster, Toshihiko Matsumoto, decided to sink a working mailbox 30 feet into Susami Bay and make it a diver’s destination.
“I thought it would be interesting if divers could send letters from under the sea,” said Matsumoto, who worked for Susami’s Post Office for almost 40 years. “I thought it would be good for the Post Office and good for tourism.”
Although paper-based postcards can dissolve underwater, Matsumoto came up with a workaround. He arranged for waterproof plastic postcards to be sold at Club Noah Susami, the local dive shop, for around $1.50 a card, along with oil-based markers to write messages that wouldn’t smear.
Divers can deposit these postcards in the bright red cast-iron mailbox, which is anchored to the ocean floor and connected to Susami’s Post Office, a branch of the Japanese postal system. The underwater box is refurbished every six months to combat rust.
Club Noah Susami’s manager dives each day to collect the mail that has accumulated and delivers it to the local Post Office. By 2018, more than 38,000 letters had been delivered from the submerged collection spot.
Susami continues to attract divers from around the world who send mail from the bottom of the bay.
The underwater mailbox earned a Guinness World Record in 2002 for the deepest underwater post box, located 32 feet and 9 inches beneath the water.
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