22 Postcards, and Most of them Headed to Japan: Sent to China, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, & the USA

Have you ever sent someone the exact same card twice? I have.

It wasn’t until I’d fully addressed, stamped & decorated this evil queen card, that I’d suddenly realized I’d sent the person the same card–perhaps only a week before. This is part of a Postcrossing Forum Disney card tag, by the way, to a recipient in Shanghai, China. You can see the previous (same) card I sent her, by the way, in my recent post before this one.

The good news in realize what I’d done before I’d written the message was that I could start with an apology. Also, I promised to send her a different Disney card in a couple of days–which I did. Hence the Mickey dots here.

Another copy of the same card went to a different Postcrosser in Shanghai, in a “you choose” tag. He chose.

Coit Tower went off to České Budějovice, Czech Republic, to a recipient requesting postcards with famous places & cities in the U.S. When I worked in S.F., I used to frequently climb the hundreds of steps to get to this monument. The edifice itself wasn’t the goal–it was the beautiful, lush private gardens all the way up–a real escape from the dingy city.

Frisco’s Chinatown when to Taoyuan, Taiwan, in a “see my favorites & surprise me” tag. This recipient seems to like a lot of stylized, touristy cards.

The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas went to Renkum, Netherlands. That Postcrosser said she liked cards with “special buildings,” and this gateway out in the middle of nowhere leads to a really great Chinese vegetarian restaurant! So special, it’s worth the very long drive from anywhere. Okay, so there may or may not be a better one or two near me, but the remoteness, and authentic spirit–I mean, there are peacocks and deer on the grounds–make it pretty precious.

Bigfoot went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to someone originally from England who said he liked anything cute/weird/scary.

It’s REALLY good, sometimes, to be able to say a lot about the image on a postcard. For instance, when a Postcrosser gives you nothing to say to them personally:

“Hallo, I am looking for nice cards, as collecting postcards is one of my favourite hobbies. Preferring cards showing towns, castles, bridges or buildings, I also like cards of train stations or unusual tourist cards …. Thanks a lot and have fun”

I mean, what could I write to relate? “Hallo, I, too, am in this just for the postcards, and not the interactive element of the pastime! I enjoyed learning nothing about you from your non-profile!”

So I did find a “castle” postcard, and wrote about how what’s even better is the thousands of elephant seals down on the beach. I sent the card off to Gundremmingen, Germany.

I have nothing to say about pineapple-ring guy, which was requested in a tag by a Postcrosser in Köln, Germany, so I think I wrote something about my weekend. I really need to consistently photograph the backs of my outgoing cards.

Next we’ve got a couple of cards for coloring, sold by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The first card depicts the museum itself; I don’t recognize the bridge in the second card, but it’s the flowers I like. The cards go to postcard pals in Hawaii and Japan.

Mushu from Mulan goes to Crewkerne, Somerset, England, in a regular Postcrossing draw. The recipient is a young French person teaching her language at a prep school, and she likes Disney, sushi, and turtles. Based on that information, I’m sure you will be able to identify the card’s backside below.

This California map was requested by a new Postcrosser in Taipei, Taiwan, outside of any assignment or trade. She had seen me post my stash in an “offers” thread, saw one she liked, then taken a look at my favorites & discovered she had a couple of them. This card is on its way, and I am trusting there is one from her heading my way, too!

The next postcard is cut from a food package, and it’s off to Osaka, Japan! Hodo Soy is based in Hayward, California (in the SF Bay Area), and is sold in local Asian supermarkets. I’ve had the tofu veggie burgers a couple of times, and really enjoyed them.

It’s a good thing Franklin & Linus are getting along, because they’ve got a long trip ahead: off they go to Kobeshi, Hyogoken, Japan.

Thanks to a USPS catalog I got in the mail, I learned that they are selling books of postcards to go with their Disney Villains stamps! Yes, I snapped some right up. Here goes the first round: Maleficent to Tokyo, Japan; Snow White’s Mommy Dearest to Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; and Cap’n Hook to Tomiya, Miyagi, Japan.

Okay, that all might’ve been a bit too exciting, so I’ll bring down the room a bit before moving on to part two of the post. These last two cards are regular Postcrossing draws, and are going to Barcelona, Spain; and Climbach, France.

Okay, time for the backsides! Stamps, stickers, & washi tape. See if you can spot Snoopy looking rather guilty.

 

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SCUBA Chuck: Sent to Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, & Taiwan

TWENTY outgoing cards in this post! This all happened over the course of a few weeks.

Several more Postcrossing Forum tags heading out. Charlie Brown & Woodstock are heading for Shanghai, China. If you poke around the Santa Rosa area, you will find many Peanuts statues, decorated by local artists in many different styles. My favorite of the few I’ve spotted stands outside a seafood restaurant in a coastal area: it’s Charlie Brown in SCUBA gear.

The food package is going to Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. I don’t remember much about the cookies, but it says “crisp and buttery,” so therefore I know I loved them.

From Guangzhou, Guangdong, we go to Guiyang, GuiZhou, China— that’s where this big “Let’s Go with Lucy” card is headed. A card as large as this leaves a large canvas for stickers & washi tape, as well as plenty of room for a message. I’ve obscured the message, but you can see the stamps, stickers, & washi tape below.

Lucy pounding sand went off to Hirai, Wakayama, Japan; and Linus the door-to-door salesman to Tsushima, Aichi, Japan.

I chose Charlie Brown for a recipient in Tokyo, Japan. The evil queen went to Shanghai, China, and the beautiful sea otter was destined for Eutin, Germany.

“California is So Cool.” When I made a Disneyland trip not so long back, I tried to find postcards in the park, but failed. This I bought at a convenience store across the street, and now it goes out to Koriyama, Fukushima, Japan in a Disney cards tag.

“California Has Everything.” Now we are clearly bragging. This one is heading for Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan, in a “what I’m reading now” tag. I’m reading The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead.

Completing the California trilogy is the California Coast Highway 1 postcard, careening off to Hong Kong.

Another California card? Yes, this view of Point Lobos goes via a rare Postcrossing draw, to a recipient in Gnesta, Sweden, who expressed a preference for cards showing places–and Point Lobos is a great place!

A second Postcrossing draw; this one goes to Dirgenheim, Germany. Sad to say, this lovely series of national park postcards neglects to mention the state where each park is located. This despite a long passage of text on the back so expansive that it leaves room for only a single stamp! The designer really does not understand the postally-obsessed. Not to mention that the postmark will more that likely obscure all of that printed prose.

Another one of the national park cards: okay, this one does mention on the back that Acadia National Park is on the Maine coast. This one is a regular Postcrossing draw, and goes to Lahti, Finland. The recipient requested that people not use stickers or washi tape on her cards, so I won’t bother to flip this one over for you.

Scuttle and his dinglehopper are going to Kuwana, Mie, Japan, in a Disney cards tag. Ursula is on the back of the card (proof below).

Now several more regular Postcrossing draws: not something I do so often any more, but I am just in the mood to send out more cards (and by extension, receive more). The California Natural Wonders card was actually in the “favorites” of the person to receive it; she lives in Zoetermer, Netherlands.

The lemurs are going to a paleontologist in Omsk, Russia. She wanted illustrations of animals, so here she goes!

The map card goes to a map card lover in Taipei, Taiwan; and the bridge card goes to Dendermonde, Belgium, to a lover of touristy cards.

Lucy and Schroeder are going to a Peanuts lover in Espanola, Ontario, Canada. Unlike the recipient in Finland, this person loves a decorated card, so I did my best on the backside.

Time for stamps, stickers, & stuff. I love these brand-new Bioluminescent Life stamps from the USPS!

My Favorite is the Fruity Stamp from Malaysia: Received from China, England, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, & the U.S.

I have learned what a “Maximum Card” is! Well, at least if the sender of this stamp-on-a-matching-card (received via Postcrossing from China) is to be believed. The college student writes:

“The picture of the postcard is Chinese New’s famous painter, art educator Liu Haisu. Hope you enjoy this Maximum Card!”

That card with the something-or-the-other with the diamond-shaped hole… well, it came by way from Indonesia via Postcard United, and the sender wrote little more than “Greetings from Indonesia”–but fortunately, the words “Borobudur, Jawa Tengah” were printed on the front, and when I asked Jeeves, he told me this:

Borobudur, or Barabudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, and the world’s largest Buddhist temple. The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The monument is the single most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. The high volume of visitors ascending the Borobudur’s narrow stairs has caused a severe wear out on the stone of the stairs, eroding the stones surface and made them thinner and smoother.

Sounds like tourist heck!

The orangey building painting is from Taiwan, via Postcard United:

I’m sending you a card image of an UNESCO site in which I like to visit one day–“Toulou,” an unique historical architecture albeit structure that exists in southeastern China. Such structure is aparments alike as its interior has many households. Toulou comes in square, rectangular, circular and oval like architecture. Toulou in Chinese means “soil floors.”

I’m so confused; I looked up “Toulou China UNESCO” online, & none of the photos seems to resemble this postczrd image.

From India, via Postcard United, I received the hilltop-castley-forty-looking “General View Golconda Fort.” A couple of issue with the card: it’s printed on what’s a lightish-medium-weight magazine cover stock (but I don’t care); and the “caption” printed on the other side covers all of the writable space, leaving the sender to squeeze a greeting & signature into the corners (and I do care). But it’s always nice to receive a card from India.

The white gate with pigeons came from Taiwan via Postcard United, and there’s not much of a message, but lovely stamps, and a very special dog postmark that the sender writes was only available on the day she sent the card. Wow, other countries sure to have special mail/postcard cultures!

That scene from the Thames came from London via Postcrossing, and the sender says:

“This time of the year it’s almost always cloudy outside, but since it’s a big city you can always find somewhere indoor forgetting about the weather!”

Do you think the books below were purchased soley for their uniform spines? The card came to me from somewhere in the U.S. via swap-bot–and you need to scroll down & see the very old stamps the sender used. She writes:

“I only have a handful of old books, probably oldest is from 1880s. I stared reading it and it was boring, LOL.”

I’m not sure what’s going on in that dark painting that looks like a child’s hand holding a wooden horse’s head. Creepy. It’s from Russia, and the decorations on the back–all snacks & Starbucks–lighten the mood considerably. It came my way in a Postcrossing Forum “last movie I’ve seen tag,” and if you look for the stickers I mentioned below, you’ll be able to read about her last movie seen.

That snowy scene is from Takamatsu City, Japan, and the sender sets the scene:
“This garden was constructed by the feudal lords in 16th to 17th century. It’s open to the public now, one of my favorite sites to visit. This card shows a snowy view, however, it hardly snows here. Good photo, I think.”

I’d love to see it green & springy!

We’ll transition over to the stamps by way of this stamp-themed postcard from Malaysia. Much more pleasing are the real-life stamps used to mail the card. Malaysian stamps never disappoint! I love the center of the three used, laden as it is with jackfruit, durian, mangosteen, and rambutan!

Animal & Food Edition: Received from China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, & the U.S.

I love these two little seals! They came to me from Germany via Postcrossing Forum, and the sender writes:

“I saw some cards like this at your favorites so I decide to send you this one. The word ‘wasserratten’ means ‘water rats,’ we also call people who loves to swim this way.”

The meerkats came from a sender in Italy who seems to have confused them for another animal:

“A few years ago, I visited, together with some friends, a zoo safari not far from my home. The first animal I saw was a lemur, standing on the top of his lair, who watched us curious.”

The wonderful pandas come from Fuzhou, China, but it’s food the sender has in mind:

“In Fuzhou, my favorite snack is called meat yan. Unlike other kinds of wontons, the wrapper of it is made of minced meat and sweet potato flour. I tastes so good that you should try it some day!”

This offers the perfect transition into the food postcard version of my post. The sweet postcard below if from my friend Cindi in Hawaii, and it shows hula pie. Even better is the Snoopily-decorated back of the card, which appears toward the bottom of this post.

The table laden with Indian delicacies comes from Chennai, India, via Postcard United. The sender writes:

Greetings from Chennai, one of the major cities in India. Here we speak Tamil, one of the longest surviving languages in the world. I am sending you a card that features some of the famous food in India.

Don’t miss the beautiful, huge stamp that was on the back of this card, featuring a scene from the Ramayana!

That mapo tofu sung to me so loudly that I went out & ordered it one night, and ate a homemade version the next! It came to me from Japan via a Postcrossing Forum food package postcard tag. The sender writes:

“This is a package of ‘mapo tofu.’ Do you know it? Its taste is spicy and hot. I like it.”

Next comes the soup, and it’s from Hong Kong:

“Hope you like my own postcard. Noodle soup is Asian staple food.”

The last postcard came to me from Germany from the regular Postcrossing, and the sender tells me:

“I’m sending you this card depicting the specialty of my region: Schäufele. It’s the shoulder part of the pork and the meat on the bone. Has to be very tender but it has a crispy crust. Yum!”

Okay, stamp time! In the first row, don’t miss Hong Kong’s Kitchenware Street! I’ll have to check it out next time I am there.

Lots of Puffy Fish Stickers: Sent to Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, & the U.S.

This post is full of postcards–jam-packed with them, along with their accompanying stamps, stickers, and washi tape. What it lacks is full detail–but who cares, am I right?

We start off here with a couple of regular Postcrossing sends, and a couple of Postcrossing Forum sends: this set goes out to Zhengzhou, Henen, China; Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; Potsdam, Germany; and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

I visited the Charles M. Schulz Museum this month & reloaded on my Peanuts postcard stock. Mostly more copies of old stuff, but they did have one great new postcard to go with their new temporary exhibit celebrating the character Franklin. Three of these have gone out in the mail recently: two to Japan, & one to Hawaii.

These Postcrossing Forum sends are going to Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia; and Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

One good elk leads to another…

A food package and a movie postcard follow. I’ve had a lot of this drink; never seen the movie.

Flying squirrels & durian–this card went to Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, in a Postcrossing Forum “Last Movie I’ve Seen” tag. That movie: Black Panther. The best of the Marvel heroes movies!

Heavens help me, I’m dipping into swap-bot again. For this trade, I had to send a Disney postcard to 5 different people (4 in the U.S.; 1 in Ireland). A couple of these cards came from the Art of Disney: The Renaissance and Beyond box set, and the rest came from the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, which I visited for the first time recently-ish.

Stamps, stickers, and washi tape time. Do you have any favorites? I do!

Happy New Year! Nengajō to England, Japan, & the U.S.

Happy New Year! To mark the occasion, I send these cool Snoopy postcards to my Snoopy-loving postpals in England, Japan, & the U.S.

Nengajō is a huge deal in Japan–but just try finding New Year’s postcards (or even standard greeting cards) here in the U.S.! In fact, I had to get these through a Japan-based e-tailer. I sure do wish the custom would catch on here.

Do you ever send out New Year greetings?

Stamps, stickers, & washi tape are next.  Happy 2018!

A Fun Bunch of Characters Gathered at the Fireplace: Received from All Over

Hanging up some of my favorite postcards received this year, and in years past. Happy New Year!

Spicy Mail: Received from Texas, USA

Just in via Postcard United:

Greetings from Beaumont, Texas! I’m a cat lover, and I do love spicy food. The hotter the better. I put red chili flakes on almost everything I eat. I also enjoy hiking and camping.

The Rest of What I Didn’t Post, the Last Time I Posted, When I Didn’t Post Any of What is Posted Here This Time

Last time, I posted two Hawaiian Kids cards I received way back in January. Now I’ll show the back sides of those cards, and yet another piece of mail received at about the same time from my post pal in Hawaii. Let’s start with a look at this Peanuts Christmas card!

Now a look at the backsides of the afore-mentioned postcards. Look at this awesome stamp-and-sticker work!

It’s almost the Year of the Dog, and here I am, finally sharing the card I received for the Year of the Rooster. Shame on me!

Cooool envelope work here–and look at those classic stamps! Loving the Little Nemo & Bringing Up Father! When I was a kid, that second one was still hanging in there, & running in the Honolulu Advertiser! Or maybe not, but I think so.

There were some wonderful extras tucked into the envelope, too!

This Time, it’s All About the Kids

Preface: there’s great stuff–stamps and stickers–on the back side of these two cards, but that’s to be saved for another time because as I said: today, it’s all about the kids. Let’s proceed.

I’ve been playing a lot of catch-up lately here, in posting cards both sent and received. Here I present two of my most-favorite cards I’ve gotten in the mail, previously not shared because– I’m so disorganized. They came in separately 11 months ago from my dear post-pal Cindi in Hawaii, & I love the art so much I wanted to present them together, but I ever never been able to locate them both at the same time, until now.

I love Dole Hawaiian Kids art, I grew up with it. If I ever manage to find the small metal box containing my childhood postcard collection, I know it will still contain a couple of these cards. Having spent a lot of time in Hawaii growing up, and having had a relative who worked for the Dole company, I was exposed to this art from an early age (I think I even had a coloring book). I love Barbara Bradley‘s art for this series!

Now that the two cards are together again, they will go into my “keeper” pile together!