Postcrossing Blog

On September 2011, Mary Robinette Kowal decided it was time for a break. She spent the entire month offline, and asked her friends to communicate with her through letters. The results of this personal challenge were a revelation:

When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. “By the time you get this…” It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral.

How so? I find that I will often read the letters that I receive twice. Once when I get them and again as I write back. So, that makes it more lasting. It is more ephemeral because I don’t have copies of the letters that I write and I am the only one who has copies of the letters that my correspondents write. So, more ephemeral.

I know a lot of postcrossers share these feelings – this is part of the reason why Postcrossing exists!

Mary’s decided to turn February into a Month of Letters, in which she challenges herself and everyone who decides do join to write and send at least a piece of postal mail every day. Here are the rules:

Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

We can’t help but feeling postcrossers have their work cut out for them in this challenge… :) Nevertheless, we wanted to dare you all to do it! Write postcards, letters or aerogrammes or surprise a friend with an unexpected package. Maybe even pick a Facebook/Twitter friend and send them with an offline “hello!”.

Are you up to Mary’s challenge? Grab your stationery and stamps and start writing! :)

PS – Scrutiny set up a forum post for members who are doing this challenge to keep track of their progress!

The Little Mail Carriers have once again written home… from the far east! Turns out they’ve been enjoying the mild winter days of Okinawa! Read all about their adventures on this post from their host cbayha.

Greetings from sunny Okinawa, Japan! Did you know that there is a subtropical island that is part of Japan? Actually, the Prefecture of Okinawa is made up of hundreds of small islands, the largest of which is Okinawa Island. There are palm trees here, and they grow tropical fruits, like pineapple!

A long time ago, these islands were an independent nation, called the Ryukyu Kingdom. The kings and noblemen of the Ryukyu build many beautiful castles and because of this, 9 of the 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites for Japan are on Okinawa.

Our first outing was to the Katsuren Castle, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm! The castle sits way up on top of a hill, with a view of the ocean on either side. We were pretty tired after we hiked up to the top! Down at the visitor’s center they have built a model of the castle that was just the right size for us.

The people of Okinawa are very creative! They are famous for their pottery and hand blown glass. We took a trip to the southern end of Okinawa Island to visit the Ryukyu Glass Village. There we met this ferocious looking shisa. Don’t be scared – Shisa are Guardians. They protect buildings from typhoons, which threaten the island every year. Legend has it that a clay shisa, much like this one, once came to life and saved the island from a horrible storm. Now almost every building has at least one shisa (but usually a pair) guarding them and protecting them from the storms.

After watching the artisans at work, we admired the beautiful glass tile wall that is one of the main attractions. Okinawan glass is very colorful.

The glass is not the only thing that is colorful on Okinawa! The Okinawa sweet potato is bright purple on the inside! It is very nutritious and tasty and everyone’s favorite way to eat it is as cake! Sweet potato boats are the most popular present for tourists to take home with them from Okinawa. At the bakery we got to sample different varieties of sweet potato sweets, and watch how they are made.

We also met another shisa! This guy was very happy and relaxed. He was taking a break from his regular duties to eat a few sweet potato boats.

What a day we had today! Today we went on a road trip to the Northern end of the island to visit the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. This world-famous aquarium is a must-see for anyone who visits here. The aquarium has lots of hands-on exhibits for children, a sea turtle exhibit, a manatee house, a great dolphin show and one of the largest aquarium tanks in the world!

The Kuroshio sea aquarium has a capacity of 7,500 cubic meters and houses giant manta rays and whale sharks! We had lunch in the cafe along one side of the tank and watched all the big fish swim around.

After that we headed outside for the dolphin show. We were very happy, because it’s winter on Okinawa, so we didn’t think the dolphins would be out performing. But they put on a great show and we loved watching them leap in the air. If you look beyond the dolphins, across the bay, you can see an island. That is Ie Island. On Ie island they grow peanuts and flowers! They host an annual Lily Festival which is supposed to be amazing, but we are visiting at the wrong time of year.

Maybe we’ll come back some day to see all the flowers in bloom!

You did it: 10,000,000 registered postcards! Wow, that is… a lot of postcards! :)

Thank you once again for all the postcards you send, and for your continuing support to this project!

In case you are curious (and we know you are!), lucky postcard 10 million was sent by member maru_jp in Japan, and was registered today, at 16:56 by huckabiene in Germany.

The member who got closer to the correct time was Solkadot! Congratulations, you’re the winner of our 10 million contest, and you will receive a pack of 120 postcards, from MOO!

Both the sender and the receiver of the lucky 10 millionth postcard will also receive a pack of 20 postcards and a stickerbook!

We’d like to give a big thank you to MOO, who sponsored this contest and showered our participants with gifts!

And now… on to the next million, shall we?

Natan (aka nboliveira) is one of the top (and earliest) users in Brasil. He likes travelling (both in real life and through the postcards he receives) and marvelling at the collection of stamps on his local philately shop.
Here is what he had to say:

What is your name, age and location?

My name is Natanael but everybody calls me Natan. I’m 44 years old and I live in the capital of Brasil, the city of Brasília which has an unique modernist architecture designed by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. It’s a planned city inaugurated 60 years ago and an Unesco World Heritage Site for its architecture. I work at a telecom and recently started studying Law to be a lawyer in the future.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I’ve exchanged postcards since I was a child but when the internet was invented, I thought this hobby was over. In 2005 I read in the newspaper Estadão.com about the project of Paulo Magalhães from Portugal and his idea of sharing an old hobby using that new technology. I registered immediately but I didntt expect it to work out because I didn’t know that many people who would like to receive postcard this old fashioned way. Since then, six years have passed and I’m very proud to be one of veteran members of Postcrossing.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I like listening to music especially lounge, bossa nova, and songs from the 80's, watching movies at home and going out with friends. Another passion is travelling, knowing different places and, of course, buy postcards from these places. Friends who travel with me already know – if I disappear, just ask where is the nearest store of postcards is! :)

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

The post office where i usually send postcards is also a philatelic store and I like go there because I can choose stamps from their huge collection and talk a little with Aurea, a friendly postal worker who is also passionate for postcards and stamps.

I keep my postcards in boxes like this. It’s not too organized but i like it bcause I can see postcards randomly and not for specific or preferred countries.

I also like to use some of my favourites to change the picture in my mobile phone.

And I put some on the table of my living room to show to my friends and family when they come home to visit me. You may notice that these postcards are in general of famous people and historical places… it’s a sure way to hook visitors and start a conversation about Postcrossing!

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

On my favourites, you can see that I really like sunsets and nature scenes, perhaps because I was born in a city of the Amazon region in Brazil. So guess I have a strong relation with nature. About my favourites, I should say that each postcard received is special on its singular message, images and stamps. But I’ll show three of them.

First, on the left, there is one that came from France (FR-65979) and I like it because for me represents the real spirit of Postcrossing: a world that share a hobby without frontiers of cultures, religion, language, social condition or politics. The second, came from Finland (FI-1130539) with an amazing sunset that I like so much. At last, one from China (CN-27229), I like this for its spiritual significance.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

The best part is the happiness I feel when I open my mailbox. I always smile of joy :) I specially love it when i see that someone saw my favorites and sent a postcard that I like. I always try to do the same because I know that in another part of world there will be another postcrosser with a smile on his/her face because of the postcard I sent.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Receive postcards from countries like Iran, Pakistan and Brunei with isolated regimes has surprised me. On the other hand that’s good because I noticed that Postcrossing is an universal way of communication.

Today we’re announcing a different kind of contest! Some of you might have noticed we’re fast approaching the 10 million received postcards milestone. We’re quite excited about it, and to celebrate this achievement, we’re having a guessing game!

It goes like this: every member has a chance to bet on the day and time on which the postcard number 10 million will be registered. The user with the closest guess gets the prize: a coupon for 120 postcards, an awesome offer from MOO!

All you have to do is go to the 10 million postcard page, and place your bet!

Each time slot can only be chosen by one person, so the first user to pick that slot gets to keep it. You can change it at a later stage, if you want, but only from the available time slots left. We will close the bets when there are 1,500 postcards left to postcard 10,000,000. There are some more rules, which you can see on the contest page.

So what are you waiting for? Give it a go, and good luck! :)