Uto memories

The three of us visited Japan recently. I stayed for the month of September, and Mami and Sachi stayed on for October as well. There is plenty that I could write about our experience, but I'll confine myself to the topic of stamps.

My sister-in-law, Rumi, had collected a number of recent Japanese stamps for me and kept them safe in an attractive container. It didn't take me too long to work out how to take off the lid.

I hadn't brought my collection with me, so I wasn't sure just which of them I already had, but many of them looked new to me. After admiring them for a while I set to work.

A nice tepid bath is always the first step. 

 

Japholic for sure

Vaclav must have an unlimited supply of stamps from Japan (from the Czech Republic!). I'm not complaining. By now I'm a confirmed Japholic.

Japanese stamps are truly artistic. I've tried to do this lot justice by photographic them in an interesting way. Just take care though. If you do a Google image search using the term Japholic I've discovered that you may get more than you bargained for!

 

Old love letters

The other day, Mami, my wife, tells me, "I think I've got some some stamps for you, from a box of old letters I've been saving".

She gives me permission to go through them and take the envelopes, either to soak off the stamps, or to save them in their entirety. How wonderful is that?

In return, I bake her these chocolate-chip cookies!

(I tell a lie - someone else presented someone else with that gift. I've just stolen the idea.)

Too kind - two of a kind

Here's Miwa-san, presenting me with a handful of mainly Japanese stamps that she carefully cut from her mail especially for me. Doumo arigato!

"Now then," says SuperMario, "What exactly do we have here?" The other week Miwa's twin sister, Misa-chan had also given me a similar number. They get letters from home at least every couple of weeks, but often the post office uses stickers instead of stamps. You have to ask the staff if you prefer stamps.

I forgot to take a picture of Misa at the time . . . but the twins are identical! I'll take a picture of the one or two stamps that I remember and merge the two sisters in this post.

Designer stamps

When an artist friend sends you some stamps you feel obliged to write it up in an artistic manner! Ryoko, to who congratulations are due, had saved up some stamps for me from letters she'd received from around the world. She joins that select group of friends and family who support me in my hobby.

Apart from the stamps and letter there was also an interesting booklet which looks at the background behind the designs of British stamps for the year 1993. Straight into my little library! And the stamps go straight into the soak.

A nice little bunch, ne?

'Forever stamp exchanger'

I did not photograph the stamps that Linda sent me from South Africa, only the envelope. My excuse is that I must have been too excited. On the day that I received her Polish, German and Japanese stamps (and one from Dominica) - a grand total of 174 - three or four other items arrived in the mail.

Included in the second envelope that Linda sent me (see also 'Mad on Madagascar') was a sheet of paper titled: Forever Stamp Exchanger. It consists of a list of addresses and comprises a type of Ponzi scheme, I guess. 

If you decide to take part, you send 50 stamps to the first uncrossed person on the list, then you cross that name out and add your own to the bottom. Following that, you send it to up to five other people that you know. 

It's potentially a good way to make new friends, it seems to me. I've sent 50 NZ stamps to Jan Erik Nybo from Norway. Let's see what happens. And if you are interested in taking part, let me know.

 

More of the same (but different)

This is the third time I've exchanged with Vaclav from the Czech Republic. Third time lucky, again. I asked for and received some more Japanese stamps from him. I wonder where he gets them all from.

Here are the stamps displayed in a 64-page Davo stock book - a recent purchase. I bought it on Trade Me from a dealer in Dunedin. It came fully stocked, so I have had to make room for my New Zealand collection. If there's room, I'll also use it to store my Japanese stamps too.
eue

eBay newbie

Wouldn't it be too expensive to use eBay based in New Zealand? And wouldn't it be cheating to post an online sale on a blog that is supposed to be about exchanging stamps with overseas collectors? Well, I make my own rules.

I've used Trade Me, a New Zealand original, but I knew about eBay too. Just had never used it. Well, there's always a first time, so I went on over, found a trader that had stamps that I wanted and bid. 

It turns out that you can combine postage, so it's a good idea to bid on a bunch of stuff all from the same person. I like it. It worked for me. On trade Me at any one time there are about 10,000 stamps auctions on offer. On eBay at any one time, there are that many Japanese stamps auctions running.

Here's my first auction win: my first 3 eBay stamps (of many). The American Football cards are gratis - anyone want them? Each stamps is separately packaged in a stiff plastic pocket. Very professional.

All in the family

The mother-in-law is now in on the act. I couldn't wish for a better one. She has saved the New Zealand stamps on the envelopes that Mami, my wife, sent the family in Japan (disks with photos of our 8-month-old daughter, Sachi), cut them out, and returned them together with a few colorful Japanese stamps too. Isn't that nice?

Even nicer, look! She has enclosed a couple of recent mini-sheets as well. How thoughtful is that? As always, by comparison I feel like quite a boer. No one does social nicety better than the Japanese.

I'm proud to include my Japanese family in the greater family of stamp collectors. A great bunch, every single one.

Collected on behalf

A plastic bag marked 'Stamps' & 'William'. Collected by a friend of the family for me. How exciting!
The contents turn out to be Japanese. Modern and mostly blue. Still on paper, clipped from envelopes . . .

A little too closely in one or two cases.

Non-collectors don't usually realize that the tiniest imperfection such as a crease or a single tooth missing ruins a stamp to all intents and purposes.

But let's not dwell on the negatives; let's get these into luke-warm water . . .

And after soaking, let the stamps dry. Sometimes underneath the stamps the postal value might be written on the envelope. I tend to save these as well as the stamps.

Never say die - part 1

There were two exchanges where I sent some stamps first and then waited for the return post. Just as I was about to write them off, both arrived in the mail on the same day. Maybe they had met up en route and gone off on a holiday together. In any case, after two months they turned up alive.

The first is from a Japanese gentleman by the tongue-twisting name of Toshikazu Yoshizato. All I know about him is that he lives in Kyoto, a city through which I have passed. His letter was on a template, so I guess that Toshi is an active collector.

I used the envelope as the header for this blog, but the stamps inside are just as nice. There were many that I did not have yet.

Long white clouds and rising sun

My wonderful sister-in-law collected some stamps for me from her workplace from colleagues, as I understand it. Rumi works at City Hall in Japan. My wife had spread the word through Mixi - a Japanese type of FaceBook - that I saved stamps, and her twin sister was the first to respond to the call. Rumi, thank you very, very much for this. I really appreciate your efforts. I look forward to meeting you and the rest of the family again after 5 years next September when we visit Japan.


There are almost 50 stamps here, selected to exclude the most common. I think what I will do is send a few packets of New Zealand stamps that Rumi's co-workers may take home to their their children or relatives that collect stamps. Perhaps we could get some more exchanges happening between the land of the long white cloud and the land of the rising sun.

Like a hacienda on fire

After initial hiccoughs concerning delayed envelopes and miss-addressed lots Luis and I are going well with our exchanges. This is the 3rd envelope that I've received from him.

For some reason, Luis has plenty of Japanese stamps to send. That makes me happy. He also has plenty of New Zealand stamps - 1500 to 1600 thanks to other collectors. He asks me what other countries I have stamps from.

I have every country (apart from rare ones). My problem is that I haven't sorted them out. That will take me years. You could call it my never-ending story. I'll get Luis to nominate a country or two, ad I'll see what I come up with.

New girlfriend

"It's a letter from my girlfriend," I joked to my wife as I brought in the mail. I'd been expecting stamps from Japan, as I'd agreed to exchange some with two people there. I had thought that both of them were male, but a pretty kitty on the cover proved me wrong about at least one.

 
Nagisa Okazoe is not obviously a woman's name. But later by email she confirmed that she was. Nagisa started collecting stamps 7 years ago. She likes those with Disney characters. As this is my 28th exchange, it would have been poetic if that was her age, but Nagisa is 22, just a year younger than my oldest daughter.

A few of the stamps she sent me featured anime characters, but I'm afraid that the ones I sent her did not. Nagisa had asked for New Zealand stamps, and as far as I know this country has never paid homage to Walt.

Spanish castle magic

Luis's excyhange from Spain is the 27th, but it is the first not to have any stamp on the envelope. There was also no letter inside, but the 60 Japanese stamps that he sent me more than made up for that.Actually, this is part two of a double-stamp-exchange. Earlier, Luis had muddled up a couple of envelopes, addressing both to me instead of one each to me and Mr. Yoon. "Just keep both of them," he wrote me. And so I did. And I also sent 120 NZ stamps in exchange.

However, I will include a few extra stamps in my next transaction with Luis, as I think that his Japanese stamps are so very fine. And he tells me that he has more . . .

Czech these out

In response to my request, for his second exchange with me (and my 26th altogether), my friend Vaclav sent me 100 Japanese stamps. He wrote for me to select those that I could use, and to send the rest back. Even though I have well over a thousand stamps from that country, 79 of Vaclav's stamps were new to me, so naturally I kept them!

I still owe Vaclav from the time before. He had most of the stamps I sent then, so this time I worked from his want list of recent New Zealand stamps (Vaclav collects NZ stamps after 1953 - the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II?). 

It's a pity that stamps are produced so quickly today. It took me ages to plough through NZ's recent decades. Really, there are too many. I personally will keep the later issues of this country, but I won't actively hunt after them. 1970 is my cut-off date.

As for Japanese stamps, though, the more the merrier. On the same day that Vacav's Japanese stamps arrived, I received another letter with more of the same!

Mr Yoon misses out

Luis Salvador Sanchez Fernandez seems to be having as much trouble trying to keep his stamps exchanges sorted as I am. He had agreed to send me 60 Japanese Prefecture stamps for 60 New Zealand, but there was a bit of a muddle. My address was accidentally added to the envelope of 60 Spanish stamps meant for a Jake Yoon.

In the follow-up email Luis apologized for that. He suggested that I return the stamps along with the NZ ones I was to send him (he posted the Japanese stamps the next day) or, if I liked them, I could keep both lots. 

(Luis must have lots of Spanish stamps to trade. Make a note of that, all Spanish stamps collectors.) 

I did like them, so I have agreed to post off 120 Kiwi stamps for him. But I had better send of a photo first. I learned that Luis already has about 500 NZ stamps.