Japan Week - 1

Some weeks ago, I had my particular Japan Week thanks to mail...

Do you know the Gotochi cards?

Gotochi cards are designed and released by the Japanese Postal System, and each one of them represents a place in Japan - hence the name 'gotochi', which means 'local'. They showcase Japanese symbols (which might be local dishes, costumes, monuments, landscapes, etc.) on a national and regional level, in a brightly coloured and fun cartoon.

Gotochi cards have a couple of unique features that make them special. First of all, they are not perfect rectangles, but in fact take on the shape of their picture. Also, each card not only has a cartoon picture on it, but also the name of the place that is depicted in the image. Every prefecture has multiple cards, which might be one of the reasons that collecting them has taken off and became such a popular hobby! (Taken from the Postcrossing blog).

I had seen many, many, many of these cards on the net. But I had not received any of them until the twin of this one landed in my mailbox. It arrived from Japan... after a short layover in Heleen's mailbox (the Netherlands). It was beautifully stamped on the back:

Transparent Envelopes

Sent to Chi (Taiwan)

Yes, I have been using a lot of CD cases as transparent envelopes. There is a lot of fun with them and some origami. And still a lot of them waiting to be used!

Send to Alan (the UK) 

Send to Sheila (the UK)

What Is an Island?

Postcard sent to Anna (Poland) for  her project Every Island in the World. Please, check it: I am totally in love with this project.

This is my very first pop-up card, made with repurposed materials (box of cereals and magazine), a little origami boat, stickers and tape. See more beautiful pictures in Anna's post.

Origami Heron

Postcard sent to Piper (the USA), as my contribution to the January's challenge of Mail a Smile. The theme was Birds, so I also put two birds on the envelope.

I have just (re)discovered Paper Saturdays, and I decided to link this post.

Yellow Boat

Sent to Raphael'L (the USA).

3D letter sent as thank you to Raphael'L's contributions to the VQR Postal Project. The envelope (another little yellow boat on the back!) was made of a magazine for children. You can see here that the little boat is really able to sail.

I added a little origami kit: