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Postcards From Japan

Sunday, February 18th, 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 🙂

Posted in Blog, Japan, Memories, Postcards, Trip | 1 Comment »

World Postcard Day

Sunday, October 1st, 2023

It’s been a year since my last Postcrossing post, which was when I passed 750 cards received. I was going to wait for 1000, but since today is World Postcard Day (did you send someone a card?) it felt like a good day to catch up.

As of today, I’ve received (and sent) 943 cards. I’m getting about 25 a month, so I’ll pass 1000 this year. There’s been no change in the top 10 countries from which I’ve received cards, but the order has shuffled a little bit:

Interestingly while I’ve received about 30 cards from Russia in the past year, I’ve sent none. I didn’t realize until writing this post that the service seems to not be assigning Russian addresses, no doubt due to the ongoing war.

The above is a map showing the locations from which I have been sent cards since I joined back in 2018. As you can see every continent is represented, with a strong concentration in Europe. If you look closely you may see one unusual one off the northwest of Africa:

That’s the island of Madeira, which is a region of Portugal. I believe that’s the most remote place from which I have received a postcard so far.

The above shows where I have sent cards, which is similar to where they have arrived from with an even larger concentration in Europe. Once again, one marker is notably more remote than others:

That’s Guam, out there in the Pacific. Although it’s counted as a country by Postcrossing, it’s a US territory and therefore I was able to send a card there using domestic postage! It also arrived very quickly, which suggests the USA doesn’t mess around getting mail to its territories 🙂

As far as cards received, the top two are notable. Both came from Australia, and both were examples of pre-stamped postcards sold at post offices. They date to 1997 and 2001, and the postage on each is much lower than what it costs today to send a card internationally. But since these are forever valid for international use, both made it here without problem. For comparison, it costs about A$3.60 to send a postcard from Australia to the USA today, but the doll one has only A$0.45 postage on it!

I was inspired by the above to test this myself when I found (in an Australian antique store back in May) a similar postcard from the early 1980s with even less postage on it. I mailed it and it arrived here without issue! If I ever see any others for sale, I’ll buy and send them for sure.

As usual I love looking at the cornucopia of stamps on the postcrossing cards, and during this past 10 months there’s been a lot of exceptional examples. I’ve only showed a couple of examples above, but the Diana stamps were unusually included on a postcard sent from Germany. I was under the impression that in most countries it wasn’t allowed to put foreign stamps on postal items so maybe this was simply overlooked by a postal worker or perhaps it’s not a problem at all. I’m tempted to try it myself…

The above show five unusually shaped stamps received in the last year. The standout is the absolutely wild owl stamp from Finland which was a Valentine’s Day issue back in 2011! It was one of five similarly unusual (but differently shaped) bird stamps, and I’m happy the sender hung on to it for so long and sent me one.

The other Postcrossing news from the last year was that for a time I was seriously facing the need to stop due to lack of postcards. It’s become impossible to buy new ones in Albany, so I used to depend on the freeway rest stop shops and used to stock up every time we took a long drive. However they have closed as well, which left only Rochester which itself has run nearly dry. Things looked grim indeed until by a happy twist of fate I learned of the existence of a dedicated postcard shop not half an hour from our house! Two visits later and I’d bought 200+ cards for about $0.25 each, most of which will be used for Postcrossing. It seems my membership can continue for the foreseeable future 🙂

Posted in Miscellaneous, Postcards | Comments Closed

Tea Cards

Saturday, July 15th, 2023

A few weeks back, on the way from fireworks shopping in New Hampshire, we stopped at a flea market in a field in ‘the middle of nowhere’. Imagine my surprise to find – amidst people selling their own unwanted stuff – two postcard dealers! Their cards were vintage and pricey, but I fell in love with a collection of tiny cards one guy had that had been distributed in packets of tea in the 1960s, so I made him an offer and walked away with the entire binder!

The cards were issued by a tea company called Brooke Bond, and in the USA and Canada came packaged in boxes of Red Rose (brand) tea. They were also issued in several other countries, and were most popular in England where 87 sets were issued over several decades!

The album contained 172 unique cards in eight different series. Six of the series (on birds, plants and butterflies) were for the US market, and two (transport and space) are Canadian. I also have dozens of doubles.

The cards are small – about an inch wide and two tall, and are beautifully printed with lots of information about the subject written on the back. Each series had 48 cards, and from what I can determine were available for a year each, so they would probably have been a challenge to collect!

The cards I have range from 1961 (Wildflowers of North America) to 1969 (The Space Age), which is about when they stopped including them in America (they continued until 1999 in England). They’re in incredible condition: some look like they came right off the press and it’s hard to believe they’re 60+ years old!

While these were inexpensive (I paid $25) I don’t plan on seeking out any more, and this will just live in my trading card collection (such that it is) as a lovely little curio from before I was born. As I said I’ve got a lot of doubles: if you want some let me know.

Coincidentally when I was in Australia I bought two cigarette cards from an antique shop. They were also inexpensive ($1) but were almost 100 years old (the above is from 1930) and I couldn’t resist them. They’re the same size as the tea cards, so this one will live in the same binder forever 🙂

Earlier today I went to what I believed was a local stamp show, but when I got there discovered was actually a postcard show! About a dozen vendors were there selling vintage (what I learned was before about 1963) cards to a room of people mostly older than me, but I found a few $0.25 bins of ‘modern’ cards and spent almost an hour sitting next to an elderly gentleman and chatting with him about his collection of 275,000 postcards!

I learned a lot, but perhaps the most amazing thing was that less than a half hour from our home is a postcard shop with 14 dealers selling all sorts of postcards from the 19th century through to modern times. Guess where I’m going next weekend?

Posted in Art, Collecting, Postcards, Retro | Comments Closed

Monster Contest: Results

Saturday, May 6th, 2023

It’s time for the second five subjects – and final results – of our Monster postcard art contest.

To summarize the midway point, I had 3 wins to Bernard’s 2. The voting had been tight, and the art quality had been improving every week. Onto the next five then:

Skeleton

It was clear by this point that we were both taking this very seriously, and both of these show more detail than most of the previous entries. Mine on the left was supposed to suggest a giant skeleton, hunched over due to his massive bulk. He was a king in life, and is a boss in a Soulslike game in Death! Bernard’s (on the right) was – in his words – based on an image he saw on Etsy!

Once again the voting was close and any one judge could have changed the result with the decision. I won 2.75 to to 2.25.

The judges were much more verbose during the second round. Here’s their skeleton comments:
“The skelly on the right is more of a dude.”
“The detail in the skeleton of left is very well done. I like the almost reptilian spine and the massive rib cage. I’m just not sure about the floating crown and laser beams. They seem like an afterthought that don’t really suit the skeleton. Right is bold and striking. I like the blood moon and the bloodied knife but I don’t like his oversized jacket or his button nose.”
“This is a tie. I love the detail on the spine on the left, specifically the curved round saw like vertebrae. The contrast and the samurai tie in on the right are just too cool though.”
“Right reminds me of Japanese flag and Seppuku (I think that was the intention with the yukata), but the sword is too small. Left has impressive depth expression on skull and shoulder bones; I can feel the back pain. I don’t know what that crown is for though. Old king aging or back stabbed by enemy???? And as you know both are anatomically quite wrong.”

Vampire

Bernard is left, I am right. I love that we both went for a minimalistic style here, and I think in each case this was the least ink we used the entire contest. I was going for a ‘poster art’ style but my portrait of Lugosi never looked quite right to me. Bernard’s lady was very subtly vampiric, and even in person the teeth are tiny!

The judging was extremely close and the winner switched with every vote! In the end Bernard won with 2.55 to my 2.45!

Here’s what the judges said:
“Left could be something else.”
“The male vamp is very traditional. Lugosi? It’s also too good not to receive at least a portion of the mark. The reason I prefer the female vamp is it does more with less ink. Sentimentally, it also reminds me of the Redheads matches mascot, despite this gal being a different kind of “bloodnut”.”
“Left gets points for minimalistic hot girl vibes. But I love the kitschy feel of the right.”
“I love that the left vampire is female. I love the sensual curves of hair and the bloodshot eye. She’s fresh from a feast and still dripping with blood and enticing her next foolish male victim. The right vampire is very stylised and cartoonish. He is the classic villain of childhood tales but with laser beam eyes. I don’t like his red teeth.”

Demon

Another subject in which we both spent a lot of time. My original intent was ‘tattoo art’ with my Japanese Hannya Oni portrait (on left) and Bernard went with what to me looks like an almost Tolkienesque depiction of classic evil on the right. Mine took a long time to do since the red ink bleeds into the postcard so I had to be extremely careful not to overwhelm the black. I wanted the Sakura flowers to look good as well, without distracting from the face. Bernard actually covered the entire card in red ink, so his demon appeared flying in a conflagration. It’s a dramatic sight!

The judges seemed very impressed with both, and several indicated this was a difficult choice. Ultimately I was the victor with 3.14 to Bernard’s 1.86.

The judge’s comments:
“…the grinning skull leaps off the page, whereas the twin-sword demon is less distinct and less threatening.”
“I can see some good ideas in both of these”
“Left is immediately recognizable and just drew a tapestry of different texture with these markers. The flowers even look soft! Very clean drawing. I really personally love the style right was going for and credit the use of contrast. I absolutely love the “halo” feature and the wings. Also using a red background was probably time consuming and conveys an absolute MOOD. I can picture this scene in an anime. Ultimately left wins due to excellent & clean lines but I loved both.”
“Left: Love the detail of the teeth and flowers! Right: I like that entire body is shown.”
“I love the detail and design of left. The patternation in the face is very pleasing and the horns are perfectly crafted. The flowers are lovely and well done but the contrast of the beauty of the flowers with the misshapen jaw and teeth of the demon detracts from the overall impact I want the image to have. The form of right is perfectly constructed and the bold use of deeply applied colour is striking but the detail in and around the face is frustratingly lost and blurry”

Alien

Bernard is left, and I’m right. For me this was the most difficult category since the possibilities seemed endless, but I made an early decision to not do a grey alien since I thought there was a good chance Bernard would. I debated characters from shows such as Star Wars or Doctor Who before going with the iconic extraterrestrial itself: ET. He’s an ugly bugger and hard to draw, but I think I nailed the face enough to be convincing (just don’t look at his shoulders closely…).

Bernard on the other hand went with an amazing rendition of the cabinet art from the side of the original Space Invaders arcade machines. It’s an extraordinary work since the detail and colour saturation is amazing: it looks printed and not hand drawn. Obviously this image spoke to me, but I had a feeling it would be lost on most of the judges…

The results were closer than I anticipated. While I won with 3 points to Bernard’s 2, one judge gave him the entire point since mine wasn’t scary enough! Once again therefore, the result could have changed with the votes from a single judge.

Here’s the comments:
“I always appreciate the more detailed drawings! Also right one has better use of red color.”
“Excellent likeness of both a Space Invader and E.T.”
“Very good contrast on the left”
“I love these images!! Left is everything I want an alien to be. His terrifying form is beamed out of space with dark and electrified menace. He’s a black hole come to life to diffract and suck the light out of everything around me. Right is so well known and beloved by all. His image is beautiful and endearing. The line work is superbly executed and his tiny red spark just so adorable.”
“It’s hard to judge this one as both artworks are incredibly well done and pleasing to look at. I ask myself what I want to see in a monster image and unfortunately it is something scary, unsettling or disturbing not something I would cuddle up in bed with.“
“Left is interesting with the contrast but… I wouldn’t call it an alien! Wolf man maybe? Gets some points because of how much effort went into the black contrast. Right: I mean, I really like it and I didn’t really like ET as a child. The movie terrified me. This is a great rendition. It has me wondering, did the artist play the long game? Marker color choices are perfect for this content. I’m just saying we might be dealing with a Kira level master mind with how far ahead this artist was thinking. Anyway, great ET, I can see the whimsy in his eyes and that he comes in peace.”

Werewolf

Mine is left; Bernard’s is right. I think these are the two most similar images of the entire contest. I originally started drawing something else but had to colour over it with solid black since it wasn’t working. The tail was a late addition and the moon an afterthought. I originally told Bernard mine was weak but grew to like it more after I had mailed it. His has incredibly detail (the fur texture looks oily!) but – in his words – his art has ‘a fatal flaw’! Did the judges notice…?

Yes they did, since a few of them mentioned that Bernard’s was more wolf than werewolf. Once again I was the winner, and a bit more decidedly here with 3.2 points to 1.8.

Here’s the comments:
“I love the angst of the left werewolf howling at the full moon and the striking moon against the red sky. I love the line work on the right werewolf. He is a ravenous beast dripping blood from his fangs. I particularly like his pointy ears.”
“Wow!! These are great! Both are really great.
Left wings for the high contrast red black and white. Amazing! I feel like this is something I could have drawn haha. So… I love it. Right is an excellent wolf man head!! I would have loved to see the paws and claws, haunches, tail, etc. obviously a wolf head, but where is the man???”
“Head/Mouth detail on right is great. Like the full body view with moon on left. Get a sense of his torture.”
“They’re both technically proficient. However, the drawing on the right, in not showing the body, could merely be the head of a large wolf.”
“Both look like Shiba inus but I figured out with my keen eyes that the intention was werewolf.”

Final Results

With ten subjects drawn, posted and judged, what were the final results?

I won, with 7 victories to Bernard’s 3!

This was a hard-won victory, since what I had assumed would be a leisurely (only two colours) and somewhat whimsical contest turned into a real struggle with every week being a battle! I think if you look back you’ll agree the quality increased week-to-week.

Here’s some of our own opinions on the contest:

Bernard felt his best piece was alien, and I agree with him. He felt his worst was dragon, and I also agree with that.
I felt my best was demon but Bernard thought it was my sea monster. I felt my worst was zombie and he agrees.
Bernard believed he should have won alien and I agree.
I believe I should have won bigfoot but he disagrees.
When asked for a comment for the judges, Bernard said: “They all ought to be ashamed!” (ouch!)
As for me, my comment to the judges is: “It’s reassuring to see that they looked past sensationalism and recognized the souls of the artists :)”

What remains is the awarding of prizes, which will happen soon. While I’ll be sending Bernard a special prize for his Space Invader unfortunately since he didn’t win he won’t be getting the amazing $8 retro 1980’s sticker I purchased for that purpose. It’s a good thing there’ll be another chance in the 2024 postcard art contest…

What will the theme be? That’s a surprise for now, but I will say as with 2022 the judges will once again have their say 😉

Posted in Art, Family, Postcards | Comments Closed

Monster Contest: Halftime

Saturday, April 1st, 2023

Once again Bernard and I are doing a postcard art contest. This year the subject is ‘monsters’ and we collectively decided on 10 subjects before starting. Each week we’re taking turns picking the next subject.

The rules are a little different this year. Firstly we’re using identical media, specifically only the markers in the above pic. I bought two sets of each and sent him one, and (aside from pencil for the initial sketch) this means our art is black and red only.

Secondly I printed the postcards in advance with the subjects on the front. This means, unlike previous years, we only get one go at drawing our art and can’t just grab another postcard and start again if we don’t like it or make a mistake!

The judges are the same as last year (JF, JK, SMS, SS and AW) and as far as voting is concerned the only change was I formalized that they could split their votes (which most of them had been doing last year anyway). We’re now half way through and here are the results so far:

Bigfoot

Lessons were learned on card one. I hadn’t done any testing of the markers, and was very surprised to note how much they bled into the cardboard of the postcard. I had visions of fine detail in our pictures that faded fast when this became apparent. Even so I think we hit the ground running, with Bernard’s creation on the left and mine on the right.

The voting was incredibly close, with Bernard’s 2.51 points just beating my 2.49. Most judges commented how difficult it was to choose, and how surprised they were by the quality 🙂

Some judge comments:
“It’s a strong start. The depiction of trees in the first artwork is very well done as is Bigfoot striding through the forest. Although I would have preferred for him to refrain from smiling at the artist.”
“The second artwork is stunning. The shape of the head is very pleasing and the use of negative space creates effective dimensionality. He’s a scary beast even though his square chompers are only built for chewing grass.”
“I like the way we see him in his environment in left image. And I like how scary he is in other image.”

Ghost

Mine is on the left, and Bernard’s on the right. This was another tough one for the judges, although I had a ‘judging question’ about the lack of red in the right picture (it is there, just difficult to see without zooming in). Some judges questioned whether mine was even a ghost!

Voting was very split and seemed to rest on whether judges liked a darker or a more whimsical ghost. Ultimately I won with 2.65 points to Bernard’s 2.35.

Here are some judge comments:
“Right is clearly Casper!”
“There’s not much I don’t like about left. I particularly like the flame, and the teeth. Right…… it doesn’t capture me unfortunately.”
“Love the bony hand and lantern flame!”
“…I do actually like the left pic better. But right is a much better ghost.”

Zombie

Bernard is left, and I am right. This one led to another judges question about whether multiple subjects was acceptable. We hadn’t discussed that in advance, and after this one we decided to keep it at one only going forward. By this third week some judges had observed that one of us was using the same style weekly, and the other was mixing it up. Although they didn’t know who was who, I suspect this began to be factored in to their judging (one suggested that variety was advantageous).

Bernard’s apocalyptic vignette scored him an easy win with 3.26 points to my 1.74. None of the judges noticed that mine was supposed to be Michael Jackson…

Here’s what the judges had to say:
“The vertical lines speak of skeletons, the horizontal lines the prison of the life of a zombie endlessly driven to feed. Baby zombies barely exist and the mushroom cloud of death is a creature of its own advancing on us. The bloodied satiation of the zombie family gives the viewer a moment of peace to view the encroaching doom before the hunger takes hold again.”
“Right is a punk zombie head on a red gingham picnic table cloth.”

Sea Monster

I drew left, and Bernard drew right. I had a vision of a medieval style ‘monster on old map’ which didn’t quite work out, but I love that we both basically drew the same idea. Both artworks have a lot of fine detail; I wonder how much the judges noticed?

Voting on this one was very split, with three judges giving us equal points! Ultimately though the other two preferred mine and I won 3.1 points to 1.9.

Here’s the judges comments:
“Both squidtastic!”
“Impossible to choose.”
“I love left. But right will get a few points because I dig the night sky contrast.”
“Left is very well crafted. The use of white space, the detail of the ship, the twining tentacles, the striking contrast of the bold red of the monster, the minimal detail of the background that gives the artwork perspective. I like everything about this artwork??”
“Right which depicts a sea monster attacking at night conveys a terrifying sight with the cavernous mouth and enormous teeth about to envelope and destroy the ship. The detail of the ship gets a little lost in picture with the tentacles of the monster and the waves of the sea. The spotty creature looks a little diseased.”

Dragon

Mine is left; Bernard’s is right. This was a somewhat controversial piece since two judges have very strong opinions of what dragons look like and one of the above pieces not agree with their expectations!

Voting was a blowout, and I won 4.05 points to Bernard’s 0.95. I was pleased by this since I put more effort into my dragon than any previous piece, but had been nervous since I had wanted to draw hind legs but couldn’t work out how to add them! I also liked that judges noticed I’d gone (more successfully this time) for a medieval art style.

Here’s what the judges said:
“While I’d like the artist to have shown the back legs as well, I prefer it to the “hairy” dragon on the right.”
“Left: great detail of body, especially scales and excellent flames. Right: Torching guy!”
“Left is really charming. Reminds me of medieval illustrations. I tip my hat to right for the dynamic flaming I feel in its depiction!”
“I love the shape of the flame and the traditional look of the dragon on left. A good solid effort”
“Right is a bit of an abomination I’m sorry to say. Being an ardent fan of the dragon I emphatically reject the enormous hairy slug that is for some reason breathing fire. The only saving grace of this artwork is the charred remains of the valiant knight who is a charming and comical figure.”

Halfway through I’m ahead 3 to 2, which means with five subjects remaining this is still anyone’s game.

I asked Bernard for his comments at this point and he said: “Once again the judges appear to be unable to recognize true art when they see it. My remaining five pieces will be of the same stellar quality as my initial five pieces have been.“

As for myself, I’ll probably still continue trying a different style with every piece and hoping the judges appreciate the detail and work that has gone into my mini-masterpieces 🙂

Come back in five weeks to find out what the remaining five subjects were, and who wins this years postcard art contest!

Posted in Art, Family, Miscellaneous, Postcards | Comments Closed

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