Buffet Edition: Sent to Australia, China, Finland, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan, and the U.S.

I like Ritz crackers, and I like chocolate — so what can go wrong? THIS. My mistake: “fudge” does not mean chocolate. Yuck. One bite, and the rest went to work. Sending this box panel off to Tokyo, Japan, in a food package postcard tag.

More packaged foodstuffs, but this time something much better: the seasoned flour for Tom Yum chicken goes out in a food package postcard tag to Cedar Hill, Texas.

This is the restaurant in San Francisco where the food may not be the best, but free postcards? Yeah, I guess I love this place (even though I may well never decide to eat there again). Going off in a food tag to Rui’an, Zhejiang, China.

These messy cones are going to Foshan, Guangdong, China.

Let me show you the back side of that one right now. Never have I been so matchy-matchy.

 

The creme brulee with blowtorch goes to Gunma, Japan.

Brown foods go to Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. I should have paid more attention, not to send Chinese foods to China, but maybe the guy will love it. I told him I’ve eaten most of these things–and cooked with some of them–over the last month.

Moving away from food, while staying on topic: part of the joy of buffet (all of the joy of buffet?) is about choice. Postcrossing Forum has many tags where users can link to their available postcards, and others can choose the card they want. The redwoods were chosen by a Postcrosser in Nairne, SA, Australia.

This one was chosen by a Postcrosser in Saint Petersburg, Russia:

This one was requested by someone in Lübeck, Germany. I told her that I’m not convinced the trees are actually in Hawaii. This is one I received as a part of a disappointassortment. Look it up, you’ll find it, I’m sure.

By request to Omsk, Russia…

By request to Fiskars Village, Finland:

Franklin meets Linus, off by request to Taichung City, Taiwan.

“Have a great country day!” WOOOO! I never thought I’d get rid of this stinker! Off by request to its recipient in Cheboksary, Russia.

Moving off the buffet line to non-request tags: this one went out in a Disney tag to New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Another one to Taiwan, this one to a map lover in Taipei.

This, from my most recent quick shopping stop into the Charles M. Schulz Museum, goes off to Yokohama, Japan.

Moving along… I took another stop at Postcard United! a click on the “send a postcard” button, and I prepped this one for its trip to Johor, Malaysia.

Stamps, stickers, & washi tape time…

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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!

A Few of My Favorite Things: Received from China, Japan, & Russia

Three wonderful cards to share this time, representing some of my top favorite categories: toons/toys, food, & animals! One of these arrived months ago, the other two just yesterday, all via Postcrossing Forum tags.

First postcard is this very large one from Yokohama, Japan. I love this old-school Astro Boy artwork.

The sender’s message on the back is intact in the scan below. As you’ll see, she writes of a toy museum in her town. I would love to visit. It made me think of one I have visited, the MINT Museum of Toys in Singapore. It also makes me think I should organize my own toys. Heck, I should organize my everything.

Some delicious food ahead, from Xi’an, China:

They are one kind Chinese pie on this card. There are many tastes: Chinese leek & egg, blanched garlic leaves & egg, Chinese leek & beef, Chinese sauerkraut & carrot. I like the fried taste.

Love that squirrel, sent to me from a Postcrosser in Russia! She tells me:

I love animals so much! By the way, squirrels are very common animals in Russia.

Time for a look at stamps and washi tape! Isn’t this an interesting trio of toy stamps on the card from Japan? I just looked them up, and they are from Hungary (the sender posted this card to me inside an envelope).

The Traveler, the Cook, and the Sailor: Received from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, & the U.S.

This time:

• Snoopy!
• Disney!
• “Word lovers” with nothing to say!
• Falling apart in the post!

 

Let’s start with a great pair of cards I actually got to choose, thanks to Postcrossing Forum offer tags.  This Peanuts postcard, with Patty scratching Snoopy’s chin, came from Japan, and the sender wrote, “I hope you will enjoy this card!”  Well, yes… I did ask for it…

The sender in Hong Kong tells me about her local Disneyland:

“(It’s) the smallest one in the world, but it’s still popular, especially with Chinese tourists.  Every day the park is crowded with tourists.  😦 and I am not interested in it.”

Ha, when I spent a mere 3 nights in HK a few years back (not nearly enough time to properly see the city), I tried like crazy to avoid Disneyland–but everywhere I turned, there was another image or large advertising display for the place.  I finally gave in, & made a whirlwind early-morning trip, before meeting a friend for a dim sum lunch.  Fortunately, my mid-week, early-morning trip yielded a very uncrowded park, with no memorable waits for any of the rides I chose.  I had a great time!

Speaking of tourist zones, look at this cool 3-D card my pen pal in Tokyo, Japan sent to me when she visited Tokyo Tower!  The fact that they had a special mailbox & postmark tells me that Japan is very much more of a postcard-writing-and-treasuring culture than is the U.S.  Now I did, on a recent road trip, see a general store in a little community that had its own postcards, which it would mail for you for free, should you fill one out to someone & drop it in their basket.  I didn’t take advantage of the offer, as I don’t carry an address book on me.  Guess I could have looked up addresses on my phone email app–but I don’t know how many Gs I was getting in that remote area!

The soup comes via a Postcrossing Forum food tag from a sender in Yokohama, Japan, who tells me about the photo on her card:

“This picture of Japanese local cuisine ‘Sanpei-jiru.’  It’s Japanese sake less soup with chopped salmon and vegetables.  It’s very good.”

A flying whale from Albany, New York, thanks for a Postcrossing Forum “marine life & sea creature” tag.  I see I made a note on the card quoting a line from this Postcrosser’s profile: “I love words.”  Now, why did I want to remember that?  Oh, I see now: the card was mostly blank space on the back, with the only message being “hope you like this card!  I thought it was pretty cool. :)”

So, that happened.

The rug-looking card seems to be a piece of cardboard covered in gift wrap.  I’d have guessed contact paper, but this thing arrived in my mailbox flapping apart, attached only at one end.  This has been a bit of a theme recently. This one came to me from Blitar, Indonesia, thanks to Postcrossing.  The sender tells me I am her first match–she just joined the night before!  She also wrote:

“I am 23 years old, living in a small city in East Java province, called Blitar.  I love reading too!  My favourite is about self development, business/marketing and also recipe book because I’m a chef… I am a food consultant here, my clients are spread in Palembang, Jakarta, Surabaya, etc… so I live nomaden sometimes… Hahaha.  I love traveling too!  My fave Asia destinations are Thailand and Hong Kong!  The food is superb!  I hope someday I can go to USA!!!  That’s my dream destination.”

Finally, there’s the St. Petersburg card, another Postcrossing draw, this time from a 16-year-old girl in Checkhov, Russia, who wrote that she’d just returned from Camp Artek, where she was in the sea squad, and had a great time learning knots, semaphore, and much more.

Okay, enough for now!  Here come the stamps, stickers, & stuff.  See anything you like?

Sent to China, England, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Spain, & Taiwan (Part 2)

Last time, I ended up just showing off the backsides of these eleven postcards I’ve sent out recently.  Time to flip them all over!  Most of these went out in Postcrossing Forum tag trades–if anything else is the case here, I’ll make note of it.

These three presidential Peanuts characters went out into the world along with my recommendation that each of them would have been a reasonable choice for my nation’s top office.  The worst I could say was that Pig-Pen may be dirty–but he’s certainly not the kind of dirty we are becoming used to!  That candidate went out to Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, and Charlie Brown (“He is kind & fair to everyone,” I wrote) went to Tokyo, Japan. The third candidate, Franklin (“Oh, how I wish Franklin had run! He’s such a good guy, who studies hard & is always fair”) went to my Peanuts-crazy postpal in Peacehaven, East Sussex, England.

Peanuts 2020.  Because we’ve proven we’re not against cartoon characters holding office.

Okay, now that we’ve seen the would-have-been candidates, let’s rush through the rest of the cards, four at a time.  Which are your favorites, this time?

The Met Museum: Sevilla, Spain (Postcard United draw)

Tiled Peanuts gang: Yokohama, Japan

Marching ducklings: Udupi, Karnataka, India

Flying crane: Neuss, Germany

Monterey Bay Aquarium octopus: Shenyang, Liaoning, China

Pismo Beach butterflies: Selangor, Malaysia (Postcrossing draw)

Matisse-Still Life with Pomegranates: Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Postcrossing draw)

Matisse-The Divan: Weifang, Shandong, China (Postcard United draw)

Check-Check-Checkety-Check! Sent to China, Germany, & Japan

Tossed a trio of cards down the gullet of a mailbox yesterday:

The dancers go out in a regular Postcrossing draw, to a recipient in Waldheim, Germany.  She said she’d like to see cards showing people in traditional costumes, so there she goes!

The other two cards are for Postcrossing Forums tags.  Cap’n Crunch is for a food package postcard tag, & he’s on his way to Yokohama, Japan.  Speaking of recycled things, take a peek a the back of the card, scanned below.  The Postcrosser said she loves lots of decorations on her postcards, and that if there were any room on the card, it would make her day if the sender were to include tickets and other items.  I did, in fact, recently find some old arcade tickets, so I glued some into what would usually be the washi tape gutter between the address & my message.

Finally, the panda tourists go out in a China Meets the World tag, to a recipient in Yunfu, China.  Her list of things she would like to see on a postcard included animals, scenery, cartoons, and funny things, so check-check-checkety-check!  She said she also likes pretty stamps, so I made sure she got some.

Stamps, stamps, washi tape…and arcade tickets:

The Sun in Finland Only Works Part-Time: Received from China, Finland, & Japan

A nice trio of postcards in:

WATCH OUT, BADTZ!

I’m happy that the Postcrossing Forum “Hello Kitty-Wishlist” trade brought me my favorite Sanrio marketing friend, Badtz-Maru!  Badtz came to me from Yokohama City, Japan, and the sender writes:

“I love penguins, but I can’t believe that Badtz-Maru is a male penguin!  As you may know, Badtz means X, NG, wrong, and Maru means O, OK, correct.”

No, I did not know those things!  I never doubted Badtz’s masculinity, though.

The other two cards are the result of regular Postcrossing draws, and the shark came to me from Tampere, Finland.  The sender tells me that there was no snow at Christmastime, but…

“…now it got really cold, so I guess the snow will come soon.  🙂  With daylight only between 10am-3pm, the snow will light up our lives a bit.  :)”

Yikes!

Finally, from a high school student in Xiamen, China, comes what she tells me is an egg cake, which she tells me is delicious.  Since I can’t read the instructions that accompany the tasty illustrations, I will have to look up the recipe!

Postmarks, stamps, and stuff:

Those stamps from Japan look delicious.

Received from Japan, Lithuania, and the United States

Three more in…

The card at the top of the stack was sent to me from Denver, Colorado, in a swap-bot trade of map postcards.  You might or might not be able to discern that this is not a map of the Denver metro area.  The sender tells me that fall in the Rockies is beautiful.

The two bottom cards come my way thanks to Postcrossing.

The card at bottom right came to me from Yokohama, Japan, having traveled 5,180 miles in 8 days. The temple pictures is in Kyoto, which the writer thinks is one of the best destinations for a domestic trip, with leaves turning red & yellow this time of year.

The third card–the one with the fish party–is from Lithuania, and it made a trip of 5,739 miles in 30 days to get to me.  I like that the card’s writer shared this bit of wisdom: “cleaning with kids in the house is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos.”

All three cards had nice & interesting stamps:

I guess I forgot that we here in the U.S. can make whatever stamps we want, thanks to services like Zazzle.