Postcrossing Hiatus

December 18, 2019

Hello, and welcome back to my postcard blog.  I have put my Postcrossing account on hold for a little while as I will be travelling in December and January.

When I come back to Japan in January I will reactivate my account and hopefully have some nice cards to show you soon.

Thank you for reading and commenting along the way. I really do appreciate your comments and questions.

Poland - Yarn Related

October 19, 2019

This lovely card came to me from Poland.  Mariola wrote something nice and friendly on the back and all in all, it was a lovely card to receive.

She wrote,

"Hello Cześć!
My name is Mariola. I come from Poland. I live in a city Jelenia Gora. It is beautiful place. I don't speak in English very Wek and I like to get a postcards.

Germany - Movie Card

October 19, 2019

This card arrived quite a while ago from Germany. It's a Movie Card so I am a little biased, but I love it!

The sender wrote a short but nice note on the back too.

She wrote;

"Hello Helen, greetings from Hof in Bavaria/Germany. Sorry, I don't know the movie in the frontside! My favourite is "Dance of the Vampires"[AKA The Fearless Vampire Killers] from 1967. "

I think I did see part of Brassed Off, but not the whole movie. I probably came home after work and it was on TV.  

An interesting stamp and cancellation stamp I think.  

Russia - Books, Writer

October 15, 2019

This great card came from Alla in Russia.  She was friendly on the back of the card and used some gorgeous stamps, which I appreciate and will post below.

Alla wrote,

"Hello Helen!

Greetings from Moscow!

Today is September 7, 2019

Autumn is here but we still have warm (+24℃) and

sunny weather.

Best wishes,

Alla"

Really beautiful, big stamps.  I love them!

China - Flowers

October 8, 2019

This pretty card with amazing stamps came to my door in October and I'm just now blogging about it. Sigh.

Alfred sent this card with a very short note on the back.

He wrote,

"Hi! Greetings from China!  These days the weather is very hot. I hope a cool autumn.  Alfred"

I love the bottom stamp (is that a pun?). I think it might be the story of The Emperor's New Clothes.

United States - Actress in Black & White

September 19, 2019

This fabulous card came to me from Magnus in the US.  He wrote a friendly note on the back and used some amazing stamps too, so this was a very good Postcrossing!

He wrote;

Hi Helen!
Hello from Virginia! My name is Magnus and I write postcards with my dad. I hope you like this postcard and the stamps! Have a good autumn! 😀

Marilyn Monroe

These are perfect stamps for me!  I loved receiving them.

Great Britain

September 17, 2019

This lovely card arrived in my mail slot with a friendly note on the back. It came from Iago in Britain.

He wrote:

"8th September 2019
Hi Helen!

I hope you are well. I am a Spanish medical writer living in London. I have recently visited the Cotswolds, an area of outstanding beauty in Oxfordshire.

I will visit Japan in December, so any recommendations around your area would be very welcome!

Best regards, Iago"

Cottage garden in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

An interesting stamp...

Germany - Food & Coffee

September 17, 2019

Ralf sent this card with a lot of writing on the back.  I was very happy to receive this card!

He said,
"Hello Helen!
I am Ralf from Remscheid, Germany, 67 y.o., retired. You see the 'Bergische Kaffeetafel.' It consists of currants rye place, milk porridge, honey, black bread, butter, quark, waffles, cinnamon and sugar, Burger Pretzel, cast-iron rusk, jam, sausage and ham. The coffee pot with the name 'Droppel-mina' as the queen of the table. "Koffedrenken..." means: drinking coffee with all the trimmings.

With best wishes, Ralf"

Finland - Food, Flowers and Drink

August 5, 2019

This beautiful card came from a young woman in Finland.  She wrote in felt pen on the back, so she didn't have much space to write!

She wrote;

"Hello and greetings from Finland! Here in the picture there is a "metsa"mansikkaa" and "mehua" in English, Forest Strawberries and juice. This postcard I bought from city named Pori.
Happy Postcrossing."

This is a very pretty stamp!

Great Britain

July 30, 2019

Emma sent this card to me and it was a bit of a puzzle.  There was a sticker on the front that says she didn't pay enough postage so it was sent by another service.  Now then, the slogan on the card is about frugality, so my question is...did she mean to sent it by a slow service or was it a happy accident?  I have no idea!

She wrote a short and friendly note on the back;
"Helen,
I hope that you are well!
I am a student in the UK. I live by the beach with my boyfriend & our 2 rabbits.

~Emma

This is the card with the sticker.

This is the card without the sticker

The offending stamp. Oops!

I think I like the postcard more with the sticker than without!  What about you?

Philippines - Food

July 19, 2019

This card came to me from -S- in the Philippines. She wrote a very friendly note on the back in all caps so it is a little hard to read.  I won't transcribe it in all caps though!

She wrote;

"Dear Helen,
Greetings from Manilla, Philippines. We went to Osaka last year and we love it. Specially, my kids. We love the culture, and food. I love Kyoto the most. Maybe one day, we can go to Tokyo side. My kids love the Japanese braised pork. It taste clean and easy to cook. Adobo is a Filipino version of braised pork. It taste better when you freeze it for more than 2 days. It's good with rice. But we love ramen more than rice. Have a nice day ahead. -S-"

I like recipe cards, but my only beef(!) with this one is that it doesn't have the method of cooking on it. Some cards put the ingredients on the front like this one, but the method on the back. There isn't any how to make it. Sigh. If I was motivated I could look it up I suppose. I did make a Chicken Adobo once or twice in my slow cooker and I really liked that!

I'm not sure why it shows as a pinkish card, it is the colour of cardboard, a light brown card.

China

July 8, 2019

This card came to me from China and has a short but enthusiastic message from the sender.

He wrote;
"Greetings from China. Do you like roller coaster? Do you like adventure and excitement. I've never been on it, so I bought this postcard from nanluoguxiang in Beijing.  Welcome to China.

Russian Federation - Books

July 8, 2019

This card was a bit of a deja vu experience as I had received one the month before with the same picture. The writing was different though. The person didn't write a very personalized message, it was more of a geography lesson....

She wrote;

"Hello!
Download the app and direct the phone to the poststamp: App Store, Google Play ⇒mARko....and surprise:) [I never did try this]
Ulyanovsk is the only place in Europe where two deep rivers: Volga and Swiyaga proceed parallel to each other at a distance of 2km in the opposite direction. Best wishes!"

A really lovely stamp.

United States

July 6, 2019

This card arrived (a long time ago!) from the US.  Thomas sent it with a friendly note on the back and some nice stamps.

He wrote;

"Hello, Helen!

Greetings from the Midwest U.S.A.! I was born & raised in K.C. MO. area. we have great B.B.Q. in K.C & a great football team!  I work in It field & like it alot. I would like to hear more about Japan.

Take care, Thomas."

I like the coffee pot stamp!

Germany

July 6, 2019
Elke sent this huge card to me from Germany. It's quite interesting! She wrote a short and friendly note on the back.

She wrote;

Hello Helen,

nice to meet you 😀

I live with my family in Chemnite, Saxony. My hometown was called Karl Marx Stach from 1953 to 1990.

I like to read in my free time. My favourite author is Clive Cussler. 

Enjoy your day!

Elke

The card has a stamped URL at the bottom. It's to a site for fantasy books. If you read German, or have a translation button, check it out!

This is a rather oversize card.  It is quite large!

German stamps are always quite interesting!  I like these ones.

United States - Art Card

July 5, 2019

Yufang sent this card to me from the US. She used great stamps on the back and wrote a chatty note about herself and movies that she loves on the back.  I love this kind of card!

She wrote;

Hello Helen!

Greetings from New York City (Brooklyn). USA! 

My name is Yufang, came from Taiwan 16 years ago. I love to read, play piano, and collect stamps. My favorite movies are "Scent of a Woman", "Amelie", and lots of good action movies.  I definitely love Daniel Craig's Bond movies! He actually lives about 10-minute walk from my house! :-) Hope all is well! Yufang

PS. You live in my dream country!

Woman reading in a Forest - Gyula Benczur

Look at these wonderful stamps!  Greta Garbo, Love and Celebrate! How wonderful.  I've never seen such a good example of the Garbo stamp before. I love it!

South Korea - Movie Card

July 3, 2019

Rucy sent this card from South Korea and wrote a very nice note on the back of it. I haven't seen the movie on the front of the card, but I hope to be able to see it one day.

She wrote;

Dear Helen

Hello~

I'm Rucy and I live in Goyang City, South Korea. The pronunciation of Goyang is similar to a cat. So my city's mascot is a cat.

I like ancient Egypt. So my favourite movie is The Mummy in 1999. I'm reading Don Quixote these day. Let me know if you have a book to recommend to me. Have a good summer time! =) 2019.06.24  

The stamps that Rucy used on her card are really lovely.  The one with the pig on it has cold leaf on it, the outline of the pig and the waves are all gold. It is really beautiful.

Belarus - Actress in Black & White

July 3, 2019

This card came to me from Natalia in Belarus.  She wrote a friendly note and wrote about movies, so I was very pleased with it!

She wrote,
"Dear Helen,
I'm Natalia from Belarus. I live in a small town not far from the capital city Minsk. My town is called Molodechno. 100, 000 people live here.
Recently I saw a film with L.diCaprio as the main actor. That was "Inception". I recommend it to you, too. "Interstellar" is one more that deeply touches. "The Prestige" and "The Illusionist" are also great.

June 17th, 2019  23℃

Marilyn Monroe

Czech Republic - Food

July 3, 2019

Verka sent a friendly message from the Czech Republic.  Some of it is in Czech, which I will not type here, as I'm not sure how I would do that!

She wrote,

"Hello Stella, Greetings from Czech Republic.  On the postcard are cakes-typical Czech with poppy and nuts. Have a nice day.

Vĕrka

I really like these stamps, although I'm not sure who the man is in the big stamp.  

Russia - Books

July 2, 2019

I enjoy receiving postcards from people who take the time to write a lot. Their cards are fun to receive.  I try and write a lot on my cards, I'm not sure if the receivers always appreciate it though.

This card came from Irina in Russia.  She wrote a lot, but it was a good thing!

She wrote,

Hello, Helen! Greetings from Astrakhan from the south of Russia ;-) My name is Irina, I'm 20. I'm studying foreign languages: German, English and French. I dream to visit as much countries and places as I can. I have a big family: mother, father, sister and brother. My grandma lives with us too.

I like reading books (detectives and romances). I can't imagine my life without sport: ice-hockey, football, ice skating, volleyball and etc. 

I really like tea. I don't drink any coffee. 

My region is famous for watermelon, fish and the river Volga. Our main attraction is the Kremlin of Astrakhan, you can find photos in Internet. It's old, but very beautiful, I think. 

Have a good day.