Toon & Animal Edition: Received from Belgium, China, Finland, Hong Kong, and Japan

I’m finally making it around to showing some of my incomings! I’ve got the front side of 12 this time, almost all received through Postcrossing Forum tags.

Charlie Brown is writing to his grandma! That makes me feel nostalgic. This card is from Aichi, Japan.

Snoopy picturing himself on the beach came from Finland. The sender tells me:

I love forests, and meadows. If I only had a good camera, I would photograph, but maybe one day. Have bought online lots of used Peanuts albums (from the 60s and 70s) together with Calvin & Hobbes. You don’t have to take literature too seriously, ha ha!

Another card from Finland: it’s always great to see the Beagle Boys!

It’s probably pretty obvious the Disney card came from Japan.

The Moomin card is another one from Finland, from a true fan of the characters, who writes: “if you have not read Moomin books, I sure recommend!! They are also for adults!” She is a retired teacher, so she should know! Moomin isn’t my jam, but I do know a retired guy who is into it, in a big way–so I will send this card on to him.

Badtz & Hana came to me from Saitama, Japan.

The next card came to me from Hong Kong, and it is labeled “Little Warlord–Mai Min Zhong, 1960s.” The sender writes, “this is a Hong Kong comic book cover. It has stopped publish many years ago sadly.”

Okay, on to the animals! I am a squirrel lover, & this one found its way to me from Germany. It had a squirrel stamp, which you can see at the end of this post. The sender writes,

I love squirrels, they are so cute. They are quite used to people in the park, around here, so you can watch them closely. Did you know there’s a mythological squirrel in the Edda? He’s called Ratatoskr, a messenger running up and down Yggdrasil. Quite benefiting their swiftness, I think!

I love this panda card! It, too, came to me from Germany.

I always enjoy seeing jelly fish, and these beauties came on another card from Hong Kong.

It’s a card from the U.S., from North Carolina. I was trying to decide whether the turtle was digging into sand or snow.

This great big shaped card is from Belgium, and I would love it–but I see that the dolphin is in a swimming pool, rather than in the wild. I’m hopeful for a future where we don’t see the need to do this.

Time for stamps, stickers, & washi tape! Lots of great stuff, including stamps from some cards whose front sides didn’t make the cut. What do you love here?

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Let’s Just Agree to Ignore One Another: Sent to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, & Thailand

A mere 10 postcards this time! What’s the story with the title? We’ll get to it, but not too much into it–later.

Elephant & Piggie are going to Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan.

The recipes from a box of cake flour went to Niigata, Japan. Do you ever try the recipes on a food package? I have, from packages of chocolate chips & cocoa powder. I heard from the card’s recipient, and she does not cook anything from the recipes printed on food packages.

Off to Bangkok, Thailand, in a “marine life & sea creatures” tag, goes this sun star from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I tell the card’s recipient I enjoy visiting aquariums when I travel, and have been to her local, Sea Life Bangkok Ocean World.

Piedras Blancas Lighthouse goes to Saitama, Japan. I go to the area often, but never to the lighthouse; in fact, I just learned you can get a tour! For me, the draw of Piedras Blancas is the thousands of elephant seals. As it happens, on the very day I wrote this postcard, I took a little day trip down there to see the current denizens of the beach.

Far, far north of Piedras Blancas are Northern California & its coastal redwoods. This card goes out by request to a Postcrosser in Lublin, Poland, who noted, “blank in an envelope, please.” I’ll ignore that like she ignored my notation that I send my cards stamped and written, as the snail mail gawdz intented. And as I suspected, her “profile”is nothing but a list of cards she wants.

For a food tag, this goes to Jakarta, Indonesia. I may have already mentioned that this vegetarian Chinese restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown isn’t the best representation of its genre–but I sure liked getting free postcards!

Aladdin, Jasmine, & Abu are off to Hong Kong in a Disney tag.

This cool Totoro card should end up in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Franklin is off by request to Taichung, Taiwan. I sure wish he–or any of the Peanuts characters–had won that election!

More Peanuts: Li’l Lucy is headed for Yokohama, Japan.

Before stamps, stickers, & washi tape, let’s look into my Postcrossing Forum U2U inbox. I just got a thank you from an earlier send to Taichung City, Taiwan, with a little museum report:

Thank you so much for the beautiful cards! They arrived at the same time 😀 We don’t have a lot of museums in Taiwan. There are two in my hometown, the science and art museums. But the museums are small and do not have a lot of works contained. I once took my foreign friend there and she said it was boring compared to those in her country. Thank you for always using great stamps 😀 Have a great day!

Reclaiming My Time: Sent to China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan, the U.S. & the U.K.

In my last post, I lamented how attempting to track my postcard comings & goings is claiming too much time. Thanks to some commenters on the post, and some introspection, I have begun to implement a few techniques to chip away at the time suck:

• Going as I go: I am posting outgoing cards & info in a draft as I go–no more spending time trying to rediscover the information to post. I will be clearing all the shots on my phone & computer that I may or may not have already posted. This is huge.
• Faster than scanning: I will use the photoscan app on my phone when it seems faster. It’s–inelegant, as you’ll notice below, but it makes things faster!
• Keep it simple: I have begun editing my scans using PAINT! Just a simple shrink & crop. The free photo editing sites are adding more hoops that suck up time and computer space, so this has made a HUGE amount of difference.
• –And simpler: However I scan the backs of my postcards, I am trying to do it BEFORE I write them out. This means less editing later to protect recipients’ personal info.
• Making choices: Moving forward, when I finally make another post of received postcards, I may well leave out the ones I don’t care for so much (though I’d still show stamps I like). This has got to save a lot of time, right? We’ll play that one as we go.

Updates on this project as we go, and your input welcome. OKAY, let’s get on with the cards! When you see repeated cities down below, some may be going to the same person in that city. Sometimes. Didn’t necessarily keep track. See how well I’m doing with this project, already?

First off, there’s a food package postcard going to Ruian, Zhejiang, China. When I requested the recipient’s address, I received a response that this was to be a greeting for her friend’s 18th birthday, that the friend would like a Marvel card, and that she likes two singers no one over the age of 17 has ever heard of. Since this is a food package postcard tag, I sent her this sweet card, with the birthday greeting, and lots of stickers (which you will see, if you scroll down far enough).

A second panel like this is going to Osaka, Japan.

Cute otters heading to Yonago, Tottori, Japan…

Morro Rock going to Taoyuan, Taiwan…

The evil queen is off to Essen, Germany. This was in a “I’m Offering” tag, and the recipient had at first selected a card I just could not find in my available cards. I apologized, and this was her second choice. It’s just as well: the first choice was a lovely view of Trinidad. This Postcrosser mentions in her profile that she would like to live in the Caribbean, so I have the feeling she doesn’t realize that the “Trinidad” emblazoned on the missing card actually refers to Trinidad, California.

Here’s one going to Novi Sad, Serbia…

More Peanuts, this by request to a Postcrosser in Taichung City, Taiwan.

This pair of otters was requested by a Postcrosser in Pencoed, Bridgend, Wales:

By request to St. Petersburg, Russia…

The Aladdin card goes off in a Disney tag to Taichung, Taiwan.

One of the handmade envelopes I made some time ago takes the hula Jetoy card (my last, I think) off to Novi Sad, Serbia. The recipient asked that the card be written, but in an envelope to “keep it clean,” I think were the words she used. I don’t usually stick my cards in an envelope, and the standard-sized boxed envelopes I have wouldn’t fit the card–but what the heck.

The best thing about this Chinese vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco’s Chintatown? FREE POSTCARDS! This one goes to Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. in a food card tag.

Hey, the Disappointmentassortment rears its head again! I repurposed some stamps accumulated via Postcrossing to salvage an ugly card received in a cheap set I purchased. This goes to Englewood, Colorado, U.S.A., to a Postcrosser who wished for collage cards.

I drew another name in Postcard United; this card goes to a recipient in Nagoya City, Japan.

She’s a power user: 2,610 cards sent through this service in less than 3 years of membership. She’s also one of those people: the ones who list all of their “expired cards” that have disappeared into the ether (or postal service) without being registered. What purposed does this ever serve? I think many people do it just because they see others doing so. In this case the user realizes that close to half of her 380 expired postcards were sent to inactive members. This is probably why Postcard United is now tracking how long senders go between requesting an address.

Elephant & Piggie are bound for Hong Kong, in a Postcrossing Forum trade of children’s book illustrations…

…and California’s North Coast should land in Selangor, Malaysia, thanks to another Postcard United draw…and my very next Postcard United draw (a day later) was to Sarawak, Malaysia!

Right after that, I clicked again & came up with Shanghai, China.

Back to Postcrossing Forum trades, this Ben & Jerry’s map will go to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The recipient wanted food cards, and Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops are some of my favorite restaurants! Chocolate Therapy, please…

Time to show some stamps, stickers, & washi tape. New since the last post are the USPS scratch-n-sniff Popsicle stamps (which pair well with the older ice cream stamps), and also many stickers. What do you like?

I Am Finding This Difficult: China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Russia, Thailand, and the United Kingdom

I’m finding I just can’t keep up on this blog. The point of it has been to keep up with postcards going in & out, and recalling a little bit of the ephemeral nature for posterior posterity.

IT’S EATING UP MY FREE TIME.

The scanning, & editing, then going back & matching everything back up–it’s a deep research project, with none of the intellectual or professional benefits. I am losing a whole lot of time I could be reading, for one thing.

I suppose I could put each card up on a blog draft as I go, but that even eats into the bits of time I steal to prepare a postcard to send. Something needs to give.

With that downer of a start, let’s dive into the joy: the cards I WAS able to assemble for a blog post today. I have added fewer details than usual–in the interest of saving time.

San Francisco went to Lubeck, Germany.

The bridge went to Saitama, Japan.

Elephant & Piggie went to Yonago, Tottori, Japan. This was part of a “sticker” tag, in which we were to cover the back sides of the cards in stickers. Since I take pride in putting messages on my cards, I squeezed one in, while still being very pleased with my sticker game. I guess it was silly of me to say I was let down when I received a card in this tag that was all stickers, no message.

My sticker game is strong, so sayeth me:

Krtek went to a Krtek lover… somewhere. He gave a link to all of his already-collected cards of The Mole, and I was surprised to see he apparently didn’t already have this one, which is from a pretty widely-distributed set of toon cards. How about you– have you received any cards from the set?

This otter goes to Isojoki, Finland…

I just bought a box of these “Women in Science” postcards. I went looking for the images online, so I would not have to scan them all. The postcard of paleontologist Mary Anning isn’t QUITE like this one from the original book…but it’s close enough. The card is going out to Rhede, Germany, in a regular Postcrossing draw.

I don’t know where this Playboy cover came from, and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get rid of it–but then I drew the address of the Postcrosser in Chelyabinsk, Russia, who requested cards featuring alcohol or pinups. HELP IS ON THE WAY, SIR!

Double-Snoopy time. One to Oita, Japan…

…and the other to Bangkok, Thailand. Wish I could travel with both cards!

A Postcrosser in Novosibirsk, Russia, actually requested this gray pomegranate. Another card I didn’t think I’d ever get rid of!

The Matisse image, “A Glimpse of Notre Dame in the Late Afternoon,” goes to an art lover in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, China.

Flounder is off for Foshan, also in Guangdong, China.

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon is off in a Postcard United draw! They notified me that I had been gone from the site so long, they were about to switch me to “inactive.” Can’t have that! This card will go to a recipient in Edinburgh, U.K.

Time for more stamps, stickers, & washi tape!

 

Send help!

So Much Talk of Food: Received from Canada, China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, & the U.K.

Look at these two cool mailbox-shaped cards from my postcard pal in Tokyo, Japan! Since I am perpetually behind in logging my cards, or course these two were received 6 months apart! I swear some of today’s post will be recently-received cards. I don’t know for sure, but I’ll swear it, anyhow. These are the times in which we live.

Okay, I received this tray of XLB not so long ago. This is a really substantial, thick, plasticized card, and I love it. I love XLB. It’s a direct swap with a Postcrosser in Taiwan, and the printing on the card reads:

Taiwan mini steamed dumplings, a snack originally from Shanghai, has been improved upon and is known internationally. Their wrapper is famed for its tender, smoother, and somewhat translucent, rather than being white and fluffy.

The postcard’s sender adds still more detail:

Mini steamed dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) is one of the most famous food in Taiwan. DIN TAI FUNG is the most famous chain stores and I think it has also some stores in California! Have you tried it before? 

Yes, I have.

More food I love, Dan Tat! It’s a regular Postcrossing card from Hong Kong, and the sender says that egg tarts are her favorite snack, and…

Have you ever tried it when you were eating around in HK? Apart from egg tart, fish ball, and siu mai (pork/fish dumpling) are also popular street food here.

Okay, here comes some food I’m less excited about. This is partly because the brand is not a great one, and anything you can make that color is not actual chocolate. I do love food package postcards, though! I received it in just such a trade, from a sender in Japan who tells me:

My boss gave me Hawaiian Host chocolate. He bought the chocolate in Hawaii. I’d like to visit Hawaii someday.

More food-related fun from Japan, from a sender in Tokyo who tells me that when she was writing to me (back in January), the city was having its first heavy snow in 4 years, and she’d already seen 2 traffic accidents that day. To be honest, when it comes to snow, I’d like to visit Hawaii. And not the high elevations where there is actually snow.

If you thought you’d seen the last of postcards & food from Taiwan in this post… well, you were mistaken. The scan, unfortunately, fails to accurately portray the golden undertones & sparkly nature of this card–a card I would call “delicious,” if not for the cat stuck amidst the noodles.

My second regular Postcrossing card this time is also my 2nd steamer basket of deliciousness, this time from China. Making this post is making me really–did you think I’m about to say hungry? FULL, actually! This sender tells me she loves “K-pop, music, plants, etc.”

I wonder if she loves seals. I do! Third regular Postcrossing card is from Germany. We may have moved on to animals here, but the sender is still talking about food!

I’m also a big lover of the Asian food, especially Thai, as I love the spices there. In August we’ll travel to Thailand again, and I’m looking forward to all those delicious meals!      

This beautiful swimming seal came to me from Canada, from a sender who tells me she visited The Aquarium of Niagara in New York at the end of last year, and that the seals “have a nice rocky outdoor exhibit. They seemed to love the cold!”

Squirrels! I love watching squirrels. It’s fun to turn this card sideways, to make it look like the little guy is sitting at a table, giving us an odd look. Nah: he’s giving us an odd look while peering around a tree. This is a regular Postcrossing incoming from Germany, from a sender who tells me that like me:

I also like to eat Asian food, I have often eaten Thai food in Thailand and Indian food in India, what an explosion of different tastes!

The Beatrix Potter squirrels came to me in a Postcrossing Forum tag for cards bearing children’s book illustrations, and it’s from someone in the U.K.:

As a Hongkonger living overseas, its always very fascinating to hear foreigners talking about Hong Kong and other east Asian countries. As you live so close to San Francisco, I think you can eat a lot of authentic Chinese food! BTW SF is my favorite city in the USA!”

Okay, now what–oh, an otter! I love sea otters. This arrived from Japan in a Postcrossing Forum marine life tag, and I hope you are braced for more food talk:

I was living in Santa Clara until August 2017. I used to eat around in Bay Area. Especially I love “Beyond Thai” in Fremont and “Madras Cafe” in Sunnyvale. Ah… I wanna go back there… What is your favorite restaurant? Enjoy your meal!

Last card, the seagull, is from a Postcrosser in Murmansk, Russia. She tells me she is in the far northern part of Russia:

There is very, very cold all year and a lot of snow. =)

Okay… time for stamps, stickers, and washi tape!Some great stuff down here.

5 Durian Facts! Received from Malaysia

This one deserves a post all its own. It’s not just because I love the front, featuring a fruit seller surrounded by beautiful rambutan and durian, but it’s the backside of the card that ends up distinguishing this. The sender, someone in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia who tagged me in a Postcrossing Forum thread, wrote 5 DURIAN FACTS for me:

1. Malaysians love the “Musang King.”
2. Durian BURGERS are popular here.
3. Malaysia alone has almost 2 million durian trees.
4. Rocketing demand in China is causing shortages and price spikes.
5. In reference to this, a minister recently pledged “never to durian-starve the people.”

I did not know that! Here are more durian facts.

It was nice that the day I got this postcard, I ened up at an ice cream shop where I enjoyed some delicious durian ice cream. I want more right now!

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.

 

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.