Living La Vida Loca In Japan: Postcrossing

December 27, 2012 to January 2, 2013

I'm back with another bunch of lovely cards and postcards from all over the world. I have some interesting cards for you today, so let's get to them.

Remember that you can click on any or all of the cards to see them larger.

This first card comes from Rainer in Germany. He took this picture himself and had it made into a postcard. He said that he took it in autumn. It shows his neighbour village and in the background (very hard to see on my scan, sorry) some wind power stations. He says that in Germany they have a lot of them. He goes on to say that they are not as dangerous as a nuclear power plant when a tsunami or an earthquake happens.

I calmly pointed out in my thank you note that we have many of these windmills in Japan. The next city up the coast from mine has a lot of them.

Rainier did use gorgeous stamps on his card. The big stamp celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Sistine Madonna.

This next card comes from the Ukraine but shows a Russian writer. This is Nikolay Nekrasov. He was also a poet, publisher and a critic according to the sender, Olga.

She notes that where she sent the card from is snowy and cold.

Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian Writer

Thanks! One of the things that I love about Postcrossing is finding out about the people on both sides of the cards I receive.

This next card comes from the Netherlands and shows a painting by Henk Helmantel. He is a modern painter who finds his inspiration in objects around him. It is a little hard to write intelligently about him as most of the information I have had to be translated from Dutch via a web translator.

Ann sent this card to me and says that she teaches painting - oil and acrylics. She would love to do it herself, but teaching is so nice to do. I couldn't agree more!

Henk Helmantel- Wooden bowl with tomatoes, 1983

I really like this little picture. The tomatoes do look good enough to eat!

My next card isn't a postcard. It's a greeting card from Spain. It came in an envelope with a postcard, but since this card has a message and the ID number inside it, I'm posting the greeting card. I'm not too upset to get a greeting card. The sender was very friendly and I know that in some languages, the word for postcard and greeting card is the same.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Thanks Lluna!

My last card in this entry comes from a place that I have recently become interested in, Turkey. Last year, a good friend moved to Istanbul and also Istanbul was featured in the beginning of Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie.

The card itself is quite nice, however the sender affixed a typed or printed message on the back, so sadly I just don't have the same affection for it that I do when people take the time to hand-write their cards.

The sender is an architect of ships and yachts. He collects postcards, stamps and coins. He likes swimming, cycling, going to the gym, playing chess and watching cartoons and 3-D animation films.