Thursday Postcard Hunt | Edo

The Kiyomizu Hall and Shinobazu Pond at Ueno, from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). 

Sent by Noriko (Japan).

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Thursday Postcard Hunt
April theme: SPRING

• Week 1 - Spring Flowers
• Week 2 - (Song)Birds
• Week 3 - Easter-y Things
• Week 4 - Gardens

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Is Still Sakura Time Somewhere?

Postcrossing postcard sent by Hiroko (Japan).

Collage on envelope sent by Laura (the UK).

Japanese Labels

Do you agree that the cutest mailing labels come from Japan?

Bye, Year of the Dragon!

Canada

France

Germany

Japan

Netherlands

United Kingdom

United Nations

United States of America

Merry Christmas!

By Omomo Yosuke

Sent by Eri (Japan).

Thursday Postcard Hunt | Japanese Tower

This Gotochi card features the temple of Aizu Sazaedo in the prefecture of Fukushima (Japan). It is a 16,5 m high, three-storied, hexagonal Buddisht pagoda.  Built in 1796 it is one of the oldest wooden structures of its kind, but perhaps most notable for its unique double helix-shaped stairway: entering inside and turning to the right-hand side, you'll follow a singular, spiral path that takes you right up to the top and back down again without ever encountering anybody going in the opposite direction.

I got this directly from Japan, inside an envelope with beautiful stamps.

(If you feel curious, you can see all the Gotochi cards here).

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Thursday Postcard Hunt
July theme: WAYMARKERS

• Week 1 - Maps
• Week 2 - Lighthouses
• Week 3 - Cathedrals
• Week 4 - Towers

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Sunday Stamp | Eastern Tales

Yadori Gi
1000th anniversary of The Tale of Genji
Japan, 2008

Morality Tales: Yangxu Refuses Gifts
Honesty and Uprighteness
China, 2018

Tang monk makes vows, Journey to the West

China, 2015

For today's Sunday Stamps, the theme being Eastern Hemisphere.

Sunday Stamps | Easter

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Chocolates, bunnies/rabbits, flowers, eggs, churches... 

Among the eggs, a couple of decorated ones from Ukraine. Among the flowers: Passionflower and Pasqueflower will do to wish Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

Bye, Year of the Rabbit!

Fancy a Beer?

I got this postcard through the Postcrossing site. The front shows a Japanese beer named Kirin, so I added it to my Beer album of postcards. 

Apart from the front picture, the back of the postcard is what fascinates me. Such a beautiful collage including tape, rubber stamps, a cutting, wonderful handwriting… One of the Postcrossing gems I get from time to time!

There is even a silvery fish on the shaped stamp!

Sunday Stamps | Patterns

Some stamps showing beautiful Patterns for today's Sunday Stamps:

These two stamps from 2011 belong to same series: Morris and Company. Feel free to ignore the dreadful cancellation on the second one.

The original company of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was founded in 1861, and quickly established a reputation for fashionable interior design and manufacture of fine furniture and decorations. Its Pre-Raphaelite founders were artist and designer William Morris, together with partners Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the architect Philip Webb, artist Ford Madox Brown, his associate Peter Paul Marshall and Charles Faulkner.

Text taken from this site, where you can see the whole set. 

This stamp, designed by Marzanna Dąbrowska, seems to be a very usual one. It belongs to the 2013 Economic and Priority Stamps. The designs are eye-catching, do not you think so?

Gifts of the Forest is the name of the set this stamp belongs to, issued in 2018. I have got only this one, but, again, I found a picture of the sheet on the net:

  

Not easy stamps to get, due to their high face rates. I am not sure I have seen (let alone get) a lot of $2 and $5 stamps. And it seems there is a $10 one, too. According to the information on the USPS site, "the designs become more complex as the denominations rise".

Sunday Stamps | Beautiful Butterflies from Different Countries

Butterflies and Dragonflies are the topic of Sunday Stamps. I found some beauties among the recently received mail

Aporia crataegi
Cyprus, 2020

Anthocharis cardamines
Czech Republic, 2021

Pieris rapae

Japan, 1980

Charaxes jasius
Spain, 2011

Hypaurotis crysalus
USA, 2021