England

Today I posted the parcel containing my stuffs to my friend's house as I can't bring everything with me.

I put "England" where I would like to send to on the an address label. Then a lady, who was a staff of the post office, asked me, "Well, excuse me, where is the country 'England' is located in?"

I couldn't understand what the lady meant about the question though barely answered for it.

Until that happened, I didn't know that to call the UK as "England" is not really popular in Japan (..or in my hometown.) We Japanese don't call the country 'United Kingdom', 'Great Britain', or 'England'. We call the country 'イギリス- pronounced IGIRISU', or '英国- pronouced EIKOKU'. That's why the name of 'England' is not really familiar here I guess.

Although I knew that word, I haven't also understood the exact differences between 'United Kingdom', 'Great Britain', and 'England'. Actually several times some people tried to explain the differences. Although I had believed that I had understood completely thanks to them at the moments, I couldn't really remember the clear differences after that.

I'm not sure if it's because I have a terrible memory or just it's too complicated.