2017 Japan New Year Card

I just came back from vacation to Kyoto and Osaka, Japan early of the week. 

It was our annual family trip. However, it is not snowing in Kyoto and Osaka yet. 

In this trip, we even booked to stay at Japanese communities via AirBnb (free $35 credit if you sign up using the affiliate link.) It was a memorable experience trip for our family. 

Japanese is known to be politeness, they greet their customers/passengers 'arigato (thank you)' after each service. Japan appear to be one of tech-advance country, but the Japanese still love handwritten letter/card to express their gratitude. 

One suggestion : It will be good if you can pay to visit to their post office.
You may able to 'hunt' for some nice paper items.  

For the month of December, the new year postcard of 2017 is made available for sale. 

Of course, no one can resist those 'kawaii' card and postcard. 

Other than post office, the new year also available for sales in convenient store (eg. Family Mart) and some train station n(eg. JR).

A postcard that I send to myself during the trip :)

Next year (2017) is the year of Rooster. 

Whale watching activity at Guishan Island, Yilan

" Guishan Island is the largest island of Yilan County. With the growing popularity of whale watching, Guishan Island has become the hottest tourist attraction."

The shaped board postcard was sent from Lyo, Japan. 

As a postcrosser, we send and received postcards from different countries. 

But I feel so much happier when I received from Japan instead, 

The reasons are 

1) neat hand-writing from the postcrosser

2) the pretty stamps 

3) never-disappointing postcard

Santorini

What have made Santorini so irresistible ?

The blue    

Provence = Lavender

Friend of mine, Valerie able to send me a postcard during her visit to lavender farm at Valensole.

Lavender is the best representation of Provence. It flowers from mid June. 

Many lavender distilleries are scattered surrounding Valensole. 

First Letterpress postcard from Malaysia

Crafted by one of the oldest forms of printing - letterpress. 

This beautiful postcard is printed by using of the 1960s German vintage presses on premium paper.

It's a notoriously labour intensive process which adds an exceptionally gorgeous, unique touch. 

Today is a gift

I received a happy mail from a post-crosser, Sjoen.  

In the envelope, she included stamps that is made special for Postcrossing and paper ephemera that I can use for my art journal. 

What a beautiful day for me and you ! 

AKB48

AKB48 (pronounced A.K.B. Forty-eight) or Akihabara 48, is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (Akiba for short) area in Tokyo. 

Greeting send from a reader from France

Gilles Koch very kind enough to send me postcard from France. Thank you !

As I'm not fond with the language, attempt to find some clues of this postcard ...

Schéi Feierdeeg is in Luxembourgish means Merry Christmas. 

Joyeuses Fetes is in French means Happy Holidays 

*** WOW ! It's a Christmas Card ***

Wedding Ceremony of Olden Day in Jogyakarta

The Olden Day Indonesia

The weddings in the Javanese is often a village event. 

Krasnodar Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The building of the Krasnodar Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a memorial to the civil architecture of the beginning of the 20th century. In previous times the house belonged to Ekaterinodar merchant Vasilii Kondratevich Rubezhanskii, the owner of the Bomond-Illuziya, one of the first cinemas in the Kuban capital. 

Jota Cavitena

Jota Cavitena is a dance that shows strong Spanish influence. This jota (is a genre of music) came from the Spanish-speaking town in Cavite named Ternate. Costume is elaborately embroidered "Maria Clara" and "barong tagalog". Castanets fashioned from Bamboo provide clacking sounds adding to the lilting music. 

Beautiful Cingjing, Taiwan

 

I really love this illustration postcard from Taiwan, sent by Vita.  

It was design by the illustrator, Chiayi Chiu 

Cingjing is a beautiful spot for relax, it's at the top of the mountain and the air there is really refreshing. The famous Qingjing Veterans Farm covered by the wide grassy and the herds of sheep grazing on the land and the verdant mountain.  

Australia ~ Land of Contrast

 

India is known for Land of Contrast because it has various religious and languages. 

Australia also called as Land of Contrast of it different types of landscapes. 

Some are bushy, some are dry, and some are nave water all around. 

Postcard that made from Biomass, Palm Paper

I bought the 2 postcards of Twin Towers when my last visit to this gigantic beauties last December. 

We went to see the Observation Deck at level 86 (total is 88) .

This postcard is made out of Palm Paper. 

Palm paper is a by-product / biomass waste generated during the production of palm oil. 

It is chlorine free and 100% biodegradable.

As if you know that Malaysia is one of the major Palm oil producer in the world. 

For every tonne of palm oil produced approximately 5 tonnes of agricultural waste, and which for Malaysia this equates to over 80 million tonnes a year. 

Read further for How Palm Paper is Made. 

The artist behind this postcard is Peisy. She is a Malaysian and own a company called Palm Republik which produced line of stationery products using palm paper as its foundation. Peisy even showcased to the world her project and raised the fund through KickStarter. 

Read her in Tiga Artistry ~ a journey how she raised up the Palm Republik and Tiga Artistry. 

Someone must be daring with Chocolate

 

A WordsUp postcard sent by Franziska of Austria. 

Tokyo Drive

A postcard shows the sights in Tokyo ~

Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Sky Tree tower, Senso-ji Temple, the Imperial palace and so on. 

Thank you to Chiho. 

The Aktru Mountain

The place is called The Aktru Mountain which is translated as "White House'. It is the highest part of Northern Chuisky Range, about 4,000 metres high and very popular among hikers and mountain climbers.

Leipzig of Germany

The postcard shows a piece of Leipzig's city center. 

Leipzig is the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. 

Leipzig is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk which means "settlement where the lime trees stand. In 1937, under the ruler of Nazi government, the city was then renamed as Reichsmessestadt Leipzig. 

Portrait of Yekaterina Khrushcheva and Pricess Yekaterina Khovanskaya

Portrait of Yekaterina Khrushcheva and Yekaterina Khovanskaya

1773

This oil painting is keep in the Russian Museum, St Petersburg

Dmitry Levitsky (1735 - 1822), the painter.

According to what I had read in Wikipedia, Levitsky died in poverty in 1822, even he had many commissions, but all was poorly paid.  

Niagara Falls - Chutes Niagara

 A December sunrise enhances the majestic beauty of the Horseshoe Falls. It is called as Horseshoe Falls because it is in the shape of a horseshoe. 

Niagara Falls is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the international border between Canada and the United States. 

Many years ago, people would go over the falls in barrels! 

Now, it's illegal. 

If anyone dare to across the Niagara Falls on tight ropes ?

YES ! In 2012, Nik Wallenda did that. Wallenda became the first person to cross directly over Niagara Falls on a high wire. 

Brave ? Wacky ?

Checkout the Map Postcard here. 

Ride on the Red Trolley

I received this lovely Salem Trolley postcard from LizD of Boston. Salem is a city on the north coast of Massachusetts above Boston. Salem Trolley is operated since 1982 and it is kinda like the "hop-on,hop-off" shuttle service and with the total of 14 stops and claims as one of the best option to explore Salem.  

Another Moomin card, Tove 100

 I'm so happy to have another Moomin postcard in my collections. 

Paula told me that she store her postcards in a big metallic tea box. 

Before we left, Grandmother talked a lot about the arctic night we would fly through. ‘Isn’t it a mystical word, “arctic”? Pure and quite hard. And meridians. Isn’t that pretty? We’re going to fly along them, faster than the light can follow us… Time won’t be able to catch us.

Tove Jansson, from her book Art in Nature.

Doors and Windows of Peranakan Penang Houses

I always found fascinating of the design of the doors and windows for the houses in Penang. Peranakan in the Malay language means the child of those who are descendants of an intermarriage between a Malay and any other ethnic group. Some houses display the stylistic trends of front facade in different periods. In early 20th Century, the houses in the Straits Settlements (Penang or Malacca) adopted Western architectural styles, full length timber shutters, an arched transom over the window opening. Some of the riches during that time, even had a coloured tile on the walls and floors of the front facade.

Map Postcard of Sweden

My first map postcard of Sweden was send by Anelte.

Tags: Sweden Map Postcard