Category: Blog

Postcards From Japan

  • February 18, 2024

So far we have received 37 postcards from our recent Japan trip, all of which I sent myself. Here they all are:

The panda one was purchased at Ueno zoo the day we went and saw the pandas. The Godzilla one is metallic and plastic. I have a few more like this waiting to be sent one day 🙂

The top right one is a lenticular postcard of an underwater scene. It’s the only lenticular we’ve received so far, and arrived about 6 weeks after it was sent. There’s at least one other lenticular card I sent us that hasn’t yet arrived, but it’s been about two months now and I’ve somewhat given up hope.

The left one was purchased in the gift shop of Hiroshima castle (which it depicts). The horse one was purchased less than two hours after we had arrived in Japan, and may be my favourite card of the trip (even though it has nothing to do with Japan). It effectively shows how I usually feel at the end of every day on a vacation!

The postcard showing ‘Alice’ is a mystery: I found it amongst some unsent postcards a few months ago and had no recollection or ever buying (or even seeing) it before. Naturally I took it with me so it could fulfill its destiny to be mailed! The Diavolo postcard depicts an Ultraman villian, and is an impressively metallic and textured card.

The cat one was mailed on Christmas Day!

The card at left was found amongst some old items when I was doing some spring cleaning a year or so ago. It’s about 30 years old and (I think) came in a magazine. I wonder if any Japanese postal employees looked and it and wondered where it came from?

The Buddha card was purchased in Kamakura in 2013 (when we visited with Bernard), and had been ‘gathering power’ – unsent – in my collection for over a decade. Now that power has been released into the world!

The Hermione (from Harry Potter) card is a beautiful high-quality all-plastic postcard and I doubted it would actually arrive. I may have purchased a few others at the same time…

I sent 12 New Years cards in different designs. Did you get the same one I sent myself? The Rilakkuma card was purchased at the Miyajima Island Rilakkuma shop which was insanely well-stocked considering how remotely it was located. I bought two in this series and sent the other to someone I knew would appreciate it 🙂

Nothing says Japan like a photo of a quokka! I bought three copies of that cute card but forget who I sent the others to. The card in top left was part of a set purchased at the cinema when we saw the Kamen Rider film, but the set was for another movie (that we didn’t see).

Four of the cards show here – including the middle one above – I had made myself and taken with me ‘just in case’. I do this every trip, but I’m a fool for every supposing I wouldn’t be swimming with options when it came to buying cards in Japan!

And lastly this gotochi (shaped) card of a Buddha. It’s fairly large, and Japan Post is emphatic that these cannot be sent through the mail internationally. And yet I put a stamp on it and tossed it in the postbox with a wish… and it arrived safe and sound. I also bought an oyster gotochi (in Hiroshima, which is famous for oyster), and sent it to AW’s sister who lives in Japan.

“What do you write on all these cards?” is a question I’ve been asked more than once. As an example, here’s one I wrote the evening of the Earthquake (we were in Osaka):

Most of the cards have silly anecdotes or in-jokes on them that we have invariably forgotten about by the time we receive and read them. They’re mini-diaries, and I’ve got decades worth of them now. They’re my most prized possessions!

In case you were interested, here’s (most of) the different stamps on the above cards:

I’ve become an expert at buying stamps in Japan, and always do my best to make sure I get a good variety for the cards. Take another look at the stamps on your cards!

37 (or more?) postcards in 16 days is a lot, but I never plan on sending myself so many. Truth is I always buy too many stamps, and then end up sending a lot of ‘extra’ cards in the last few days. Of course this post is just the ones I sent myself, and dozens more were sent to other people. I hope you enjoyed the ones you received 🙂

Dragons!

  • February 10, 2024

Today is Lunar New Year, and 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. This is traditionally an auspicious year, and those born under the sign of the dragon are said to be as charismatic and influential as the very dragons themselves!

As a fan of fantasy, obviously I’m a fan of dragons as well, and I like both western and eastern wyrms – as well as the fantasy archetype that is mostly an invention of the last half century. Today I thought I’d showcase some esteemed dragons from myth and fiction to honor these great beasts. How many of these do you know?

Shenlong is a dragon god from Chinese myth that has been described in stories and depicted in art for almost 1000 years. His domain is the sky, his gift is rain and his wrath is thunder and lightning. In ancient days people in many Asian nations would try to avoid angering him since his gifts were essential to agriculture, and an angry storm dragon god could wreak havoc on crops!

As one of the divine Chinese dragons of myth Shenlong had five claws instead of four, and as with almost all eastern dragons could fly, speak and change his shape to a human at will.

Ryujin (which literally translates to dragon god) is the Japanese deity of the ocean and all the creatures therein. An important Shinto deity, there are shrines across Japan to him to this day, especially in coastal areas.

Ryujin has a rich mythology and is said to be a direct ascendant of the Japanese imperial family. He has many fabulous powers, and as with many Japanese deities utilizes wondrous magical items such as a jewel he can use to control tides. He is believed to live at the bottom of a large lake near Kyoto.

Incidentally while Chinese and Japanese dragons resemble each other, you can tell them apart by their horns (Chinese look like deer, Japanese are straighter) and their claws (Chinese have four or five, Japanese have three).

The Beowulf Dragon is not the best-known character in the 1000+ year-old Germanic poem, but in some ways it became the most influential. After Beowulf defeated Grendel and Grendel’s mother, he settled into kingly life for decades until a dragon emerged and threatened his kingdom. Taking up his sword once again, he slew the dragon but was fatally wounded in the struggle.

Germanic dragons are the origin of what most of us think of when we hear the word ‘dragon’ today, and there are notable ones older than the one in this poem (such as Fafnir). But the un-named beast slain by Beowulf was the first example of the western dragon template that continues to this day: a large scaly winged reptile that breathes fire and covets gold and jewels. One author liked Beowulf’s dragon so much, he more or less used it himself when he wrote a book called…

The Hobbit was published 87 years ago and for many readers in the decades that followed Smaug was likely their first exposure to a dragon. He is the archetype of the modern dragon: the Beowulf beast turned into a true character with the intellect, vanity, power and fire-breathing his kind would eventually become known for.

Just as Tolkien was influenced to create Smaug, his creation would influence the fictional dragons of those that grew up reading The Hobbit. Not the least was Gary Gygax, who appropriated the Tolkienesque dragon as the model for the many dragons inhabiting the world of Dungeons and Dragons, the styles of which have essentially become the modern ‘dragon’.

Of course there are some other famous dragons I didn’t detail today – no doubt many of you wonder about the beast slain by St George – but I think this presents a brief snapshot of both eastern and western dragons and their origins.

You probably got a 2024 Japanese postcard from me with a dragon sticker on it: did you notice you could peel the dragon off the sticker to re-use, and there’s a second dragon underneath? Why not wish someone else a Happy New Year by sending them a little dragon sticker 🙂

May 2024 grant you the wisdom, health and fortune of the dragons!

  • Posted in Blog
  • Robert

The Strong

  • December 16, 2023

We’re in Rochester for an early Christmas and today visited The Strong museum. We’ve been here before but they’ve had a major expansion so it was time to see the new attractions.

This included a massive room housing the Video Game Hall of Fame, as well as a fantastic interactive exhibit on gaming in general. We played lots of games and had a lot of fun but it was the many, many displays of toys and games and associated paraphernalia that I particular enjoyed. Here’s a selection of only a few of the interesting things we saw:

That’s a prototype table for the official Lord Of The Rings pinball, as well as the actual (playable) table on the right.

Here’s the Vectrex 3D accessory, which is famously rare. I’ve never seen one, much less a boxed one!

The above are two examples of overproduced Atari cartridges once buried in New Mexico. Long considered an urban legend, this was proven to be true after they were dug up a few years ago and the city donated a few to the museum.

An actual World of Warcraft server ‘blade’ that housed one of the realms for several years! This is physically about as big as a skateboard.

An actual Atari store display from the early 1980s, stocked as how it would have been in those days. I wanted to grab one of the catalogues!

The above is a fascinating item. Those of us that have been around for a certain vintage recall these home-packaged games but to think this one has survived for so many years!

An original piece of hand-painted art that was scanned and used as a backdrop for an early Leisure Suit Larry game! They also had other prototypes and original art examples, including of consoles and arcade games.

Speaking of original art, that’s a hand-drawn sketch of Sonic The Hedgehog done by the original designer!

A lcd game based on those Japanese ‘nammeyano‘ delinquent cat art photos from the 1980s. This is an example of how varied the museum collection is. (Needless to say I’m not showing any of the vast display of more common game or toy items.)

Esoterica like the above I love seeing: an ancient McDonald’s happy meal box (from the late 1980s) and a series or Japanese World of Warcraft scratch-off cards that came with meals over a decade ago!

Or this unopened box of Pac-Man candy. This (which is about the size of a playing card) is 40-odd years old.

And some Donkey Kong ‘action figures’. I imagine the one on the right wasn’t a big seller!

A variety of game-related books. I’d love to read the two on the left, and last year I actually bought and sent the calculator one to Bernard!

Bridging video games and other pastimes, look at these two sets! Kristin recalls she even had the one on the right and put them on her bedroom door.

Here’s some rpg miniatures from decades ago. The grenadier ones even came painted! They also had lots of early D&D products and even an original photocopy of one of the earliest design documents co-written by Gygax and Arneson!

Look at this absolutely beautiful (not to mention unusual) board game based on the BBC Narnia series! I’d love to play this one.

A Wonder Woman trio: artwork for an unmade Atari pinball, a box of colorforms and a funky looking record with ‘songs and stories’ on it.

This is a talking doll invented by Edison and produced in the late 1800s! It’s a little retro-futuristic isn’t it? It’s also in extraordinary condition for something that is over 130 years old. I wonder if it still talks?

Speaking of dolls, the above is apparently the world’s most glamorous ‘teenage doll’. This is another fantastic condition and sealed-in-box item that is decades old and full of nostalgia.

Can you guess who the above doll is? It’s a pretty good likeness for when it was released (the 1970s)…

The above toy set of ‘missiles’ was released in 1958 and appears to be cardboard cutouts. I googled this and it was popular and rereleased (and updated to plastic) several times into the 1970s! What boy wouldn’t want to play with world-destroying nuclear missiles?

The museum was incredible, and there’s so much to see. It’s bigger and better than ever and I’m glad we visited it again. I hope you liked seeing some of the many wonders we saw.