Greetings From….

My letter writing has been a bit lackluster, I am even finding hard to keep up with this blog. However, recently I've restarted swapping postcards rather than write letter. This is something I have not done since Japan where I even have a dedicated IG account I @rgswap which I have starting using again.

When I was in Japan I used to swap Gotochi postcards which were Japanese prefectural postcards sold via the JPost. Gotochi postcard are only available its own prefecture in post office branches. Now I'm back home the only postcards I can swap are the Greetings From series from Postal Love.This has been quite fun to start and in many ways better that Gotochi as it’s international so there's quite a few countries to collect so far got about 20.

Each postcard has information and country such as population, famous people, favourite pastimes and also includes how many Postcrossers the country has. Fortunately I've got a nice collection of washi tape and stickers with a UK theme to go with my Greetings From United Kingdom postcards. It’s fun and nice just to make them extra bit special and it's not always reciprocated that's that's not the point. I enjoy doing it I just hope I can rise to the challenge to find other countries to try and swaps with.

I’m finding a lot of countries/people but I am finding myself getting quite into trying to find people willing to swap for non GF or that have UK already! You can see postcards I have sent and received on my IG accounts. I have considered asking people to write in the native languages to match the postcard so I can try and translate them, not sure yet.

If I were giving tips to anyone thinking about collecting them I would say don't just look at the hashtags (#gfpostcard #gfswap etc.) look at the pictures that person is tagged in to see what they're sending and receiving also check the comments on pictures.

Happy swapping!

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.