Outgoing [May]

Wow it's not until I do these monthly round ups that I realised how much or how little I've send. I have been very crafty this last month and have have stock piled a lot of envelopes and other bits. Maybe I will have to do a separate post as they are not technically outgoing just yet. This month I have definitely been all about the #rgpostcardproject. I keep promising to do a blog post but frankly I haven't had enough photos back to make a blog post worthwhile. Maybe I just will do a post once the whole thing is done. I did send two pay it forward mails this month, only one of which has been received I hope the other arrives safely.

Incoming [May]

Still a few postcards including a some gotochi (I have written a blog post about gotochi here) coming in at the beginning of the month and a couple of letters. Quite months like these almost make me want to look for new pen pals, but not quite yet. Oh and for the first time every I got a hand delivered loveliness from Yen Fong fellow IGer and owner of www.tabiyoshop.com . This was the first time I met a pen pal in person and I just realised we didn't take a picture. Haha oh well next time. I also did a tea towel swap with Jasmine in Australia she's still looking to swap if anyone is interested.  Anyway here is this months offerings.

Gotochi Goodness

'Gotochi' ご当地 means local in Japanese and there are plenty of gotochi things to be found in Japan by prefecture or city etc. The Japanese seems to have an obsession with gotochi items. I suppose it's a sense of identity for each place and it's fun to collect the souvenirs and items for locals and visitors alike.

Gotochi or 'gotchi formu kado' are prefectural postcards issued by JP Post. It started in 2009 and a new card has been issued each year ever since. So currently each prefecture has 6 designs. They can only be bought in the prefecture from local post offices. They are highly collectables both inside and outside Japan making them very popular with postcrossers.

my gotochi collection

I started collecting last year with starting Kanagawa of course, my home prefecture. My collection has slowly grown with the help of friends and colleagues who picked them up on trips and of course other IG collectors of gotochi. I have occasionally swapped them for other non-gotochi postcards. 

Unfortunately gotochi are slightly more expensive than other Japanese postcards. And much more expensive to post compared to the average postcard. Therefore those based in Japan are wary to swap them. I've started sending them in envelopes with other collectors in Japan. I'm grateful for those swaps and happy to see my collection grow.

Outgoing [April]

Now I look over this pictures this month, I didn't send that many letters. However, I sent my fair share of postcards for my postcard project and some gotochi postcards. Though it doesn't look like it I feel I was very creative last month thought I can't remember what I did, here is this month's efforts. I suppose that this is what taking your time that looks like.