Learn Hardcore Japanese: rusu no toki ni kita takuhaibin no huzaihyou wo mite, 「uketoru zikan wo memosite okeba yokatta」 to sukosi koukaisimasita. - Seeing the missed-delivery slip that came while I was away, I regretted a little, thinking, “I should have written down the time I could receive it.”

いない just means “(someone) is not there / is absent” in a very general sense.
留守 strongly implies “away from home / not at the place you live (or are supposed to be)”.

So 留守のとき is more natural than いないとき when talking about delivery to your house while you were out.

What is the function of の in 留守のとき?

Here の works like “of” or a possessive/attributive marker:

留守 = being away from home
とき = time / when

So:

留守のとき ≈ “the time of being away from home” → “when I was out”

This pattern is very common:

ひまなとき → when (I’m) free
忙しいとき → when (I’m) busy
子どものとき → when I was a child
留守のとき → when I was not at home

Why do we have both とき and に in 留守のときに来た? Isn’t とき already “when”?

とき itself means “time / when”, but に is a particle that can mark:

the point in time when something happens.

So:

留守のとき – the time when I was away
留守のときに来た – came at that time when I was away

You will very often see ときに together. Omitting に (留守のとき来た) is not ungrammatical in casual speech, but ときに sounds more natural and complete in standard writing.

In 来た宅配便の不在票, what exactly is 来た modifying, and how is this phrase structured?

The structure is:

来た – that came
宅配便 – delivery (service / package)
の – possessive / “of”
不在票 – missed-delivery slip, notice

Japanese uses relative clauses before the noun:

来た宅配便 = “the delivery that came”
来た宅配便の不在票 = “the missed-delivery slip of the delivery that came”
→ Natural English: “the missed-delivery notice from the courier who came while I was out”

So 来た directly modifies 宅配便, not 不在票.

What does 宅配便 mean, and how is it different from words like 郵便 or 宅急便?

宅配便 (たくはいびん)
- Literally: home-delivery service
- Usually a private parcel delivery / courier (Yamato, Sagawa, etc.).
郵便 (ゆうびん)
- Postal service / mail, run by the post office.
宅急便 (たっきゅうびん)
- Originally a brand name (Yamato Transport’s service), now often used like “parcel delivery” in everyday speech.

In this sentence, 宅配便 is a neutral term meaning courier / home-delivery service that delivered the package.

What is a 不在票, and when is this word used?

不在票 (ふざいひょう) literally means “absence slip”:

不在 = not present / absent
票 = ticket / slip

Delivery companies leave a 不在票 when:

They came to deliver a package,
But you were not home,
So they leave a slip telling you they tried, and how to reschedule or pick it up.

So 宅配便の不在票 = a missed-delivery slip from the courier.

What is the role of を見て in 不在票を見て? Is it “after seeing” or “by seeing”?

The て-form (見て) here links two actions:

不在票を見て – seeing the missed-delivery slip
少し後悔しました – (I) regretted a little

In this context, it can be understood as:

“When I saw the slip, I regretted…”
or “Upon seeing the slip, I regretted…”

So X を見て、Y しました often means:
“When / after I saw X, I did Y”, sometimes with a nuance of cause.

How does the quoting with 「…」と少し後悔しました work? I thought と was for direct speech.

Japanese uses と to mark quotes, and this includes:

spoken words
thoughts
feelings that can be phrased as words

In:

「受け取る時間をメモしておけばよかった」と少し後悔しました

the part inside 「」 is like the sentence in your head, and と connects that quoted inner sentence to the verb 後悔しました (regretted).

So it’s like:

I regretted, thinking “It would have been better if I had written down the time to receive it.”

The verb after と can be many things:

と言いました – said
と思いました – thought
と感じました – felt
と後悔しました – regretted (with that thought in mind)

What does 受け取る時間 mean literally? Why is 時間 used here?

受け取る = to receive (a package, etc.)
時間 = time

So 受け取る時間 literally is:

“the time to receive (it)”
i.e. a time slot when you are available to receive the delivery

In context, it means something like:

“a time at which I could receive the package”
(that you would write down for the courier).

Why is there no object for 受け取る? Shouldn’t it be 荷物を受け取る時間?

Yes, in full form it could be:

荷物を受け取る時間 – the time to receive the package

But in Japanese, when the object is obvious from context, it’s often dropped.

Earlier in the sentence we already have:

宅配便の不在票 – a missed-delivery slip from the courier (about a package)

So 受け取る時間 is clearly about receiving that package, making 荷物 or 荷物を unnecessary. Native speakers very often omit such obvious objects.

What is the nuance of 〜ておけばよかった in メモしておけばよかった?

〜ておけばよかった is built from:

〜ておく
- Do something in advance, for future convenience or preparation.
- メモしておく – write it down (and keep it) in advance.
〜ばよかった
- “It would have been good if I had done 〜”
- → “I wish I had done 〜 / I should have done 〜” (regret).

Combine them:

メモしておけばよかった
= “I wish I had written it down in advance.”
= “I should have made a note of it (beforehand).”

So it expresses regret about not preparing in advance.

Is メモしておけばよかった about writing the time for myself, or for the courier?

Contextually, it’s about writing it for the courier / delivery company (or at least somewhere they or you could check):

For example, filling in a preferred delivery time on a form,
Or leaving a note on the door with a time when you’ll be home,
Or having a written schedule so you could have arranged/redelivered more smoothly.

Japanese leaves this a bit vague; it just says “if only I had written down the time to receive (it)”, and the exact situation is understood from context.

Why is 後悔しました in the past tense? In English, we might say “I regret it” (present).

Japanese often uses the past tense to describe:

Completed events, including completed feelings / thoughts at a point in time.

Here:

少し後悔しました = “I (then) regretted it a bit.”

Even if you still feel some regret now, you are talking about:

The moment when you looked at the slip and felt regret → a past event.

Saying 後悔しています would emphasize “I am (still) regretting it now”, which isn’t wrong, but the sentence is narrating what happened, so the past しました fits better.

What nuance does 少し add before 後悔しました?

少し (すこし) here means:

“a little / somewhat / a bit”

It softens the statement:

少し後悔しました – “I regretted it a little.”,
“I felt a bit of regret.”

Without it:

後悔しました can sound like stronger / more serious regret.

Using 少し makes the tone lighter and more everyday.