Germany and Food

 February 11, 2026

I received these cards recently. 

From Switzerland I received this cool cards featuring marzipan pigs. They are supposed to bring good luck for the New Year after eating them. 

The stamp on the card was the first of its kind that I have seen before. It looks like it is made out of a knitted material!

Jane sent this next card and says that it shows the medieval town of Esslingen in Southern Germany. 

She used some gorgeous stamps on the back of the card too. They are beautiful!

Belarus - Art & Culture

 June 12, 2020

This card came from Belarus from Katerina.  She was a little unusual in that she used a printed message attached to her card. I do prefer actual handwriting, but since there all are sorts of reasons why people might send that to me, I don't mind. The good thing is I can actually read it!  She wrote about the culture of the people depicted on the card, which I enjoyed learning.

[handwritten in Belarussian] Hello!

Greetings from Belarus! My name is Katerina, I am 20 years old, I study in Germany, but I come from Minsk. I am very happy to send a postcard to Japan! I am interested in foreign languages and once tried to learn Japanese with a Japanese person. This is incredibly difficult! I like to learn different cultures and I want to send you a postcard with very interesting people - the Tatars. These are people who live in Russia and speak a language similar to Turkish. They usually practice Islam. There are also Tatars in my country, but very few of them.

[handwritten in English]

Best Wishes 

Katerina

I really love the unusual stamps that I receive on my postcards, this one is no exception!

Thank you Katerina for the card and stamp!

India - Food

November 5, 2018

This delicious looking card came from Soumya in India. She wrote a friendly note on the back of the card too.  When I wrote to her I said that her card made me hungry for Indian food, so I visited the Indian restaurant in my city soon after I received it! Funny thing is, writing about this card again makes me want to go back again :-)

She wrote;

Namaste! greetings from India! I have heard so many good things of Japan. That make me wanna visit it some-day. Japan's cherry blossoms are my favourite. I heard people pack picnic lunches while they bloom. I have also heard a lot about Mt. Fuji :-)

United States

November 5, 2018

This fun card came from Linda in the US.  She wrote a lot on the back of her card and used some great stamps so this was a lovely present in my mailbox!

She wrote;

Hello Helen from Milwaukee Wisconsin on Beautiful Lake Michigan. Fall here, lots of pumkins everywhere as it gets closer to Halloween, people dress up in costumes & scare others ~LOVE this time of year ~ fresh apples picked from the trees dipped in caramel and rolled in nuts, "Yummy".

We are waiting for our second grandson this December.

Peace & Joy ~ Linda USA

Linda used some amazing stamps on her card as well.  

Thanks Linda!  A really cool Postcrossing!

Gotochi Card - Tohoku 2017

2017 Tohoku Cards

A friend of mine bought these cards for me at her local main post office.  I had asked at my local main branch but they said they didn't have them and couldn't get them.  Methinks they couldn't be bothered to try!

I have already posted the card for Yamagata, so I didn't repost it here.  

Wooden Lunch box from Akita

Aomori

Aizu Wakamatsu Castle in Fukushima

Morioka's Jajamen noodles

Sendai's famous Gyutan, or beef tongue from Miyagi

Taiwan

April 6, 2018

This lovely card from Taiwan was sent by Pei. She wrote a short note and used a gorgeous stamp on her card.

She said,

Hi Helen,

I am Pei Han from Tainan, Taiwan.  I like to travel and special places of different countries. This shows Lungshan Temple in Taipei. :-)

Pei Han 31. 03. 2018

On the back it says," May the Gods hear my prayers, may the Gods bless all.
(Lungshan temple, Taipei.)

This is the gorgeous stamp that Pei used on the card.  It's really interesting I think!

Gotochi Cards

January 23, 2018

Just before Christmas, I did a few Gotochi Card exchanges with other people in Japan, and I will share a couple of the cards with you now.  I got some great cards!

From Chiba

This is the 2017 Limited Edition Card.

From Okinawa

This is the 2016 Card.

I'll be posting more of these swapped cards soon!

Japan - Gotochi Card

November 6, 2017

I am back!  I finally got a few cards sent out and have already received a couple. I hope to be able to post a little more regularly for a while.

Anyway, this card arrived from a Japanese sender and it was a great one.  She sent me a Gotochi Card and it was one I didn't have already. Yay!

She wrote,

Hi Helen!
Nice to meet you. こんにちは
My name is Mayumi. I'm 45 years old. I live in Shizuoka with my daughter. I'm very happy if this postcard makes you smile.  Have a good day.  Best wishes,
Mayumi

This is Kunozan Tosho-gu
and here's the Wikipedia article about it!

These are the stamps she used.  To be honest, there was one more of the ten yen stamps, but to show it I would have to show my address and I would rather not do that!  If you look closely at the 50 yen stamps, you'll see that there is a kimono shape around the flowers.  I like these stamps a lot!

Thank you so much Mayumi! 

Taiwan

September 11, 2017

This card came to me from Yi Chieh from Taiwan.  She posed a few questions with her card and it was unusual enough to make me smile!

She wrote,

[Kanji]! Greeting!

My name is Yi Chieh from the friendly neighborhood "Taiwan" LOL. Have you travel here yet?

I really enjoy visiting National Palace Museum where you can find lots of old stuffs there. Just like this card shows the comb used by someone who was a nobility. (I guess)

How did people use it with so many delications on it?? Wouldn't it very heavy? So confuse 😕?

What do you think about it?

Happy Postcrossing"

Silver comb with floral ornaments
Qing dynasty

Gotochi Card - Kagoshima

September 14, 2017

I received a Gotochi card from a friend in Japan.  We are both Postcrossers and we started exchanging our prefecture cards a few years ago.

This card shows Shirokuma, a dessert made of shaved ice.  In Kagoshima, it is covered with condensed milk and then fruit is scattered on top.  It is said to resemble a polar bear...Shirokumi translates to "white bear".

You can read more about it if you like here.

Thanks, Annette!  It's a great card.

Gotochi Card - Yamagata

September 1, 2017

The new Gotochi cards have been released finally.  I like the one for my prefecture this year. It shows the LaFrance Pear, which is a famous product of Yamagata prefecture.  I found a little blurb about it on a Tohoku Website...love the last paragraph about not squeezing the fruit in the store!


I am not completely sure, but I believe that LaFrance Pears are not a major product of my city.  I do enjoy them when they are in season.

Postcards for the Weekend: Mount Haguro Pagoda

March 11, 2017

The theme for today's Blog Linky Party is from a country you have visited or a favourite place in your country that you have visited.  That's quite a mouthful, so I am choosing Japan and specifically, a place in my own city.

Tsuruoka is known as the gateway to the Dewa-Sanzen, three sacred mountains.  The Three Sacred Mountains are Mt. Haguro, Mt. Gassan and Mt. Yudono.  Mount Haguro is within Tsururoka city  and is a very special place.

There is a pagoda on the Mountain that was built hundreds of years ago out of wood, without using nails.  It has burned down on occasion or been otherwise damaged, but has always been rebuilt.  To visit the pagoda, you must climb down many stone steps and walk through gorgeous woods.  Walking through the woods is magical.  The area is special and peaceful and incredibly beautiful.

The man with the shell is a Yamabushi, or mountain priest.  I sometimes see them
walking through my city!

This is the Gojū-tō, or five storied pagoda on Mt. Haguro.  

A night view.

This is the best view of the pagoda that I could find in postcards.  It doesn't do it justice.

Japan Post office also released a Gotochi Card of the pagoda. Since I have seen the original, I wasn't terribly impressed, but since it a "local" card, I like it!

For people in great physical condition, or pilgrims, the next step is to walk up the 2000 odd steps to the top of the mountain to the shrine.  I have never done that.  What I do instead is climb back up the steps to the road and have my husband drive us to the top of the mountain!

The shrine at the top is also quite beautiful, but I'll save that for another day!

Thank you for joining me on my too brief look at the Mt. Haguro Pagoda.  Please visit the other members of the Blog Linky Party to see what they are showing off today.

Love Related Cards

February 11, 2017

Warning: Lots of long expository paragraphs here today.  Feel free to skip and just look at the pretty cards if you are in a hurry!

Apologies for the lengthy gap in posting.  I took a week off to celebrate my birthday and travel to another city which is generally a little warmer and has a lot less snow than my city does.  It was a bit of a winter break, except it was cold and snowy there too for a change!

Today's Blog Linky Party's Theme is Love. I am not always the biggest fan of "Love" because sometimes my definition of love doesn't agree with other people's definition of love.  However, Valentine's Day is just around the corner so it is seasonally appropriate!

As an aside, I thought I might mention the difference between Valentine's Day in Japan and most other countries.  In Japan, women give chocolates to the men in their lives.  They give "Giri-choco" or obligation chocolates to male co-workers, male friends or anyone close to them with whom they do not have a romantic relationship.  Women give "Honmei-choco" to their boyfriends or husbands. The Honmei-choco is often handmade or very gorgeous.

There is quite a lot of information about this tradition on the internet, I am referring my readers to a blog that I follow if interested.

Men are obliged to respond in March on White Day (March 14th) when they give something back to the women that showered them with chocolates.  Unfortunately, they usually don't give back chocolate, they give cookies.  Cookies are nice, but they aren't chocolate!

Here in my family in Japan we do things just a little bit differently!  My husband and I exchange presents on Valentine's Day and on White Day.  Sometimes we give chocolates, sometimes more creative presents.  One of my favourite gifts was a fishing rod so that I could join my husband in one of his favourite hobbies! I think we have the best of both traditions this way 😍

But, you came here for the postcards not a Social Studies lesson.  Here we go...

I received this card from France in 2015.  I like the happy fun vibe of the card, but as I originally noted in my blog entry, I'm a tad worried about the "Punch" like puppet that the man is holding.  What does that mean?

Rob Cochrane
Gay Couple 1986

My next two cards are both from movies.  The first one, which I received in 2014 is from a movie that I haven't heard of and have no information about either.  IMDb lists it as being from 1947, but there is no plot summary at all.  However, it looks very fiery and romantic! The card was sent from Australia in 2014.

Romeo and Juliet is one of those movies that probably soured me on romance.  They were such pretty people, fell in love with each other and died.  (I hope I didn't need a spoiler alert there!) During my Shakespeare class in University, we watched the movie.  The man sitting next to me was a Star Trek fan and at a point in the movie when Romeo's page says to him, "Live and Prosper," the man made Spock's Vulcan salute.  I wish I could say that I smiled politely.  I wish I could.  

Unfortunately I started howling with laughter to the point of tears running down my face and even leaving the room didn't help much.  This was just before the two lovers met their fate so at my college I am known forever as the girl who laughed at Romeo and Juliet. 

This card arrived in 2016 from Germany.  I actually like the card and the film, despite my story.  Olivia Hussey is quite popular in Japan as she had a Japanese husband at one time. 

 I do like this card below and how it shows the couple wrapped up in each other.  It was sent to me from Russia in 2014.

Valentine - Vladimir Kamaev

Thank you so much for visiting my postcard blog.  I love that you visited me, and I would LOVE it even more if you left a friendly comment. Please share the LOVE with the other members of the Blog Linky Party too and see what kind of cards they posted.

Until next time....

Hong Kong - Food

January 2, 2017

This rather attractive card came from Hong Kong, a place that I have visited a couple of times.  It was sent by a fairly new postcrosser, since she mentions that I am the fifth person she has sent a card to.  The picture on the front is interesting as is what she writes.

"Hi Helen.
Glad to pick you as my 5th Postcrosser. Reviewed your profile & found that you hv so many interests of postcard.  And finally I picked the yummy food for you.
As a Canadian..believe you will feel disgusting of this delicious-spicy chicken finger. Hahahahah.....

Tell you sth about myself.  I also hv family living in Canada. Toronto.  Japan is a lovely place that I've been traveled few times & last time I've been in Tokyo last May.  Nice to meet you here.  Leave me note how you like this postcard.
Christie"

Pickled Chicken Feet
As one of the most popular snacks, Pickled Chicken Feet is famous for its spicy
flavor and chewy texture, which makes it a perfect companion for
Chinese couch potato.

To be honest, I've never had pickled chicken feet.  I've seen chicken feet at dim sum in Canada, but I haven't eaten them.  I don't think they are disgusting, I'm just not sure that I want to eat them!

I've eaten a lot of things in Japan that many Canadians would look askew at.  I think it is a bit presumptuous to assume that I would think pickled chicken feet are disgusting, but perhaps she was just trying to get a rise out of me!

Sunrise/Sunset

January 20, 2017

The topic of today's Blog Link Up is Sunrise and Sunset.  There are no Gotochi cards dedicated to the sun of course as it is not a Japanese preserve!  However, there are a few cards that have what looks like a sunrise or a sunset in the background, and it is two of those that I will feature today!

I received this postcard from a friend who used to live in Hyogo Prefecture, on Awaji Island just off the mainland.  I believe that on occasion, she even used this bridge.  This is Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in the world. Wikipedia has a rather informative article about it here.  

This not very attractive bird (in my humble opinion) is the Japanese Crested Ibis, or Toki in Japanese. It is very endangered in Japan, and in fact became extinct.  However, there has been a concerted effort to re-introduce the toki to Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture. Although I have visited Sado Island twice, I'm afraid that I did not see a toki, nor did I visit the Preservation Center.  The Wikipedia article needs to be updated, but you can see more information about this odd bird here.

Thank you for visiting my not-quite-on-topic look at sunrises and sunsets.  I hope that you have enjoyed your time here.  Please visit the other members of the Blog Link Party to see their take on this topic. 

Transportation Cards

January 14, 2017

This edition of the Linky Blog Party is about Transportation.  There are many types of transportation available in Japan, but today I'll feature a few that are on Gotochi Cards.

Lake Kasumigaura in Ibaraki Prefecture features some interesting boats called Hobikisen.  They revolutionized the local fishing trade, which before the invention of this boat was a group activity.  With the Hobikisen, fishing became an individual activity.  I don't have a lot of knowledge about this boat, but this link leads to a rather informative article from The Japan Times that might be of interest.

Lake Ashi in Kanagawa has Pirate Ships! These are tourist boats that cruise up and down the lake with Mt. Fuji in the background.  I have been unable to find any English history about them, but this website has some information about the tours and the cruises.

Saga City in Saga Prefecture is host to one of the largest Hot Air Balloon Festivals in the world.  This festival has grown from humble beginnings. Wikipedia has a short article on this Fiesta, and a link to the English website.  

Sad to say, but this is all that I have time for tonight.  I hope you have enjoyed the Gotochi Cards that I have posted tonight.  Please check out the other members of the Blog Linky Party to see more great postcards from all over the world.

Winter Scenes

December 9, 2016

Here in Japan, we are heading into winter.  My friends in the far north are already experiencing snow, and here in Yamagata-ken in Tohoku we are just starting our snowy winter.  Our local mountains are covered in the white stuff and we are all looking out our rubber boots and warm woolies. As a person from Edmonton in Canada, I don't find the winter here cold, but I often am surprised by the amount of snow we receive.

In another Blog Linky Party entry, I mentioned Mt. Zao and how it borders two prefectures here in the north.  The Yamagata card featuring Mount Zao shows the "Juhyo" or Ice Monsters.  This website, about halfway down the page, describes how they are made.

This is a postcard of the "real" Ice Monsters on it.  They are rather beautiful aren't they?

Winter Festivals are all over the northern part of Japan.  Probably the most famous one is the Sapporo Snow Festival at the beginning of February, but there is another one in February.  Akita Prefecture has the Yokote Kamakura Festival on February 15 and 16.  Part of the festival involves buildings called kamakura made out of snow, rather like igloos, all over the city. There is usually an altar set up inside the kamakura at which people pray to the god of water.  

Sadly, I don't have any postcard/photographs of the real kamakura in Yokote, but I do have this other artistic card of one.  I am posting it because I think that it is rather beautiful!

The winter here in Northern Japan can be rather fierce and anything that helps people get through it enjoyably is great in my books! 

Please visit the other members of the Blog Linky Party to see what fabulous cards they have posted about winter.  Thanks for visiting me here in cold Northern Japan.  Brrr!

Lighthouse Link-Up

December 2, 2016

I only have a couple of Gotochi Cards for you today.  The subjects of today's Linky Blog Party are Lighthouses.  I was only able to find three Gotochi cards for today, but will only show off two shaped cards and a bonus.

The first isn't exactly a lighthouse, but it looks a lot like one! It symbolizes a lighthouse to the landlocked city of Kyoto.  I have been to Kyoto and was probably very close to this tower, but I don't remember it at all.

Here is the website of The Kyoto Tower.  The building includes a hotel, restaurants and even a public bath.

The second Gotochi card shows a lighthouse, but it is in the background of the card.  If we ever feature trains on postcards, I will probably post this card again! The card represents the Choshi Electric Railway Line, a 6.4 km railway line.  It was popular at one time with people who wanted to watch the first sunrise of the year along the coast. I believe that the lighthouse in the card is the Inubosaki Lighthouse, which was designed and built by Richard Henry Brunton, a Scottish Civil Engineer.

For a more local view of a lighthouse I present this one...

This is a picture of a lighthouse in the next city, Sakata.  It is still a working port and there are often ships from other parts of the world visiting.  I believe that this isn't a "real" lighthouse, it is a tourist attraction in Hiyoriyama Park.

Thank you for joining me for this look at lighthouses. I'm from a completely landlocked area of the world, so lighthouses are not a thing that I am very familiar with. They are fascinating though.  Please feel free to visit the other members of the Linky Blog Party.  Until next time!

Museums

November 25, 2016

The topic for today's Weekend Linky Party is Museums/University/Library but I'm going to concentrate mostly on the first part of it.

In Japan, there are many old buildings, many of which are preserved and open to view.  I hope you will allow me to count some of these buildings as Museums.  They may not be exactly the kind of places that many of you are used to calling Museums, but they do provide a window to the past.

The first card would have been a good entry to last week's topic of Authors, but I forgot that I had the card.  A friend sent it to me a few weeks ago and I hadn't had time to scan it before last week.  This card shows Aomori-born author Osamu Dazai in front of a museum dedicated to his life.  He lived in the town for some of his childhood, and the building was built by his father. This is the Osamu Dazai Memorial Museum.

Below you see a Gotochi Card for Ouchi-Juku in Fukushima.  I was actually there this week! The village is nestled near the top of a mountain and due to the remoteness was allowed to remain as it was for centuries.  All the buildings have thatched roofs and it is an interesting, if touristy place to visit.  There is an actual museum set up there, the Ouchi-Juku Pavilion. This is a rebuilt inn that shows what life was like for visitors and workers alike in olden days.  I'm not sure which building it would be on the card, but I'm sure it is in there somewhere!

I enjoyed visiting Ouchi-Juku, but was a little saddened that almost every building sold souvenirs.  It was also very cold while we were there, and even snowed a little that day.

Another view of the town is below, from a postcard that I sent today!

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at these "museums" as much as I have.  Please visit the other members of the Weekend Linky Party and see what great cards they feature.