Saturday 8 October 2016

Postal and Mail Related Cards

Postal and Mail Related Cards 

This weekend's Blog Link Up Party features Postal and Mail Related Cards, so I thought I would show you a few cards in my collection that would fit the bill.  I will include a couple of Gotochi cards, but also thought I might include a few that aren't.

This is a card that I have sent out a couple of times.  It was bought in the post office of course and features different styles of mail boxes that you might see around Japan.  My usual mailbox for my postcards is at my local post office and looks a little bit like the 1962 version, but it only has one slot. Quite often, the ones with two slots have a notice that one side is for overseas mail.  There are quite a few versions of the 1908 post box in my city, and yes, they are still being used!




This postcard was from a series of postcards taken in Niigata and it gives a little bit of a close up of the 1908 style of postbox.  

Most post offices in Japan have a version of a postcard with the traditional mailbox on it, and the address of the post office in kanji. Since the Gotochi cards are so popular, the Japanese Post Office has released quite a few versions of postcards with Sanrio characters on them.  The characters are all mailing an item, probably a letter!


I'm not a huge fan of the Sanrio characters, mostly because they are a little too simple for my taste, but they are quite popular.  Here are a few of the cards that I have collected so far.

My Melody, a little girl rabbit

Little Twin Stars
Angel-like characters whose birthday is December 24th.

This character may not need any introduction!  She is hugely popular in Japan and worldwide, if the requests I see for Hello Kitty cards on Postcrossing are to be believed.  Two versions of her for you today.




Japan also features many of these characters on its stamps.  Other sets of stamps encourage letter writing or feature postal bears.  Japanese stamps are quite delightful.  I am rather afraid to post actual uncancelled stamps along with my cards, but I will include a few links to the appropriate pages of the Japan Postal Services catalogue.  

Postal Bears and other creatures with letters, and mailboxes (scroll down a bit!).


Doraemon  (A very popular anime character) as a Postal Deliverer.

These are just a few examples of postal and mail related cards and stamps. 

Please visit the other members of the Link Up Party to see what they post!

(I will be unable to approve comments on this blog for part of the weekend, but will get to them eventually.)





8 comments:

Joy said...

I'm always rather envious of Japan's letter writing day and stamps. Always nice to see variety of postboxes. I think Hello Kitty is probably heading for world domination.

Helen said...

I agree with you about Hello Kitty and World Domination! Thanks for visiting :-)

Scriptor Senex said...

It's always nice to see the sort of box in use in other countries, thanks.

Helen said...

I enjoy seeing the mail boxes in other countries too!

Maria said...

Wow! I didn't know that the Little Twin Stars birthday is December 24th! Thank you Helen for these gotochi cards that remind me of childhood. I might be in Japan next month and I'll be looking for 1908 postal boxes. The one I saw in Yokohama back in April this year was just a rectangular box, none like these interesting designs on your cards.

John's Island said...

Hi Helen, Nice to make your acquaintance via Maria's Connections to the World and Postcards for the Weekend. I enjoyed all your cards in this post! Thank you for your kind comment on my blog and I hope to see you there often. Have a fine week ahead!

Helen said...

Always happy to help! I hope you find some. Sometimes you need to look in older sleepier cities...the bustling cities probably have more up to date boxes!

Helen said...

Thanks John! (@John's Island) Glad you liked them. It's been a lovely week so far!