This beautiful flower postcard was sent to me from Japan, and it wasn’t originally meant as a postcard! The sender explains:
This card is famous souvenir cookie’s box from Hokkaido–the northernmost prefecture in Japan.
The onions are an actual postcard, rather than from a box of souvenir onions or something. The card was sent to me from Kaluga, Russia, by a sender who writes that her town is not far from Moscow, and:
We are proud of Cosmonautics State Museum. I love art, puzzles, psychology.
The child-on-cattle card came from China, and the sender explains:
This kind of painting is called shuimo, an old traditional kind. There’s a kid riding on the back of a cattle, farm cattle. Guess you know the importance of cattles to ancient Chinese people. Also, there’s a poem written in ancient Chinese characters. The poem dated from 2500 years ago.
The Indian Court card came to me from Wisconsin via Postcard United–Postcard United does that thing, pairing a person with someone from their own country. It also does stuff like this:
That is correct: as of the moment I am writing this, I have received 36 more postcards than I have mailed out. This embarrassment of riches points out the fact that other people out there are getting screwed over.
One more thing of note about that card: the man who sent it decorated it with a couple of banana stickers. Scroll down, you’ll see.
This sketchy little village is also from the U.S., but via a swap-bot trade. The sender, who lives somewhere near San Diego, is just the first person in this post who spent some time living not far from me:
Hello! I grew up in Hayward, lived there until I was 20. Not too far from you. 🙂
The Japan card came from somewhere in–guess what country–via Postcard United. The sender tells me she, too, lived quite close to me for a time:
I spent a year in Oakland, CA as an exchange students & almost every weekend I visited S.F by myself. It was about 30 years ago (!!) But still I ❤ Bay Area and I’m so happy to write to you. My host mother used to work your place as a teacher.
Speaking of true callings, and professions of high purpose & service to humanity, this next card came to me from a self-professed “full-time lifestyle blogger.”
She lives in Belgrade, Serbia, and took time out from her busy schedule to tell me about the card:
You can see “the face” of the Statue of Victory, one of the most known sights in Belgrade. It’s the symbol of our city. You can Google it and see what it looks like in nature. Hope this will help you find out more about our country.
The card next to the last one looks like death, and it was sent to me from Spain, in a Postcrossing Forum “last movie I’ve seen” thread. She tells me about “My Life as a Zucchini:”
…a French animation film for adults that is just one hour long but the impression it makes lasts for a lifetime. I was deeply moved by it and cried buckets. So if you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend it.
I want to see “Coco,” but I’m not sure if they’ve removed the 21 offensive opening minutes I keep hearing so much about. I would have to adjust my arrival time.
This headphone-wearing letter C is from a Postcrosser in Xinyu, Jiangxi, China. He had a standard message translated into English and printed on a rubber stamp, as you’ll see toward the bottom of this post.
I end with the “NORMAL” postcard, which I may or may not have shared many moons ago–but it’s not marked as having been logged, so there we have it. This was received from Bonnie Jeanne
This was from Bonnie Jeanne of Postally Yours, who had an “orphaned postcard project” in which she logged the postcards in her personal collection, and people like me would “claim” a card to which they had a personal connection (a place they were from, a favorite place to visit, etc.). She would send us the card in an envelope, and we would write on it, about the card/place, and send it back to her. Her website would share those stories. I participated twice, and really had fun with it. It seems she has moved on to other things. I wish her all the best.
Stamps & stamps & stickers follow. I especially loved this one stamp from Japan, so I made sure to show an enlargement (for my own enjoyment, if for no one else’s).