Thursday 19 February 2015

Japan - Gotochi Card

February 10, 2015

Natsuko sent this great Gotochi card from Kanagawa to me.  She wrote a lovely message on the back of her card.  She said, "Hello!  I am from Japan and live in the city of Kanagawa.  There are U.S. army bases and a U.S. navy base near my house.  Hope you like this card.  Have a great day!


Tokyo Train Station, near the Rotunda
Rather coincidentally, I have been in the Tokyo Train Station.  I was in Tokyo on February 10, 2014, exactly a year before this card arrived and met some friends in the station.  How cool is that?


 Natsuko used some gorgeous stamps on the back of the card.  They are all a little bit older than the ones I usually use.  I believe the 62 yen stamp is the building on the card.
Thanks Natsuko!


4 comments:

Mail Adventures said...

Very cool postcard and postage! These Gotochi postcards are amazing. It's the first I always associate with Japan. If one day I travel to Japan, I'm sure I wouldn't resist to sent some, even if they are so expensive!

Helen said...

They are great, aren't they? I'm collecting them, but I have a hard time getting some of the cards as there aren't people willing to swap!

I'm not sure where Natsuko got the stamps, but it was so nice of her to use them on my card. I tend to use up most of my stamps when I buy them!

Mail Adventures said...

Oh, I thought that a lot of people collect them in Japan...
Where do you buy these Gotochi cards? In the post offices or in normal postcards shops?

Helen said...

Lots of people do collect them, but not everyone wants to swap them.

They are only on sale in Post offices, but major centers sell out quickly. I was south of Tokyo last year and I went to two different post offices looking for the Kanagawa cards. Only one sold them, and they only had two out of five available.

They aren't _that_ expensive to buy, but we have to put extra postage on them to send. The post office frowns on us sending them outside Japan without an envelope as they need to be hand sorted because of the shapes.

Thanks for visiting :-)