The Year of Horse - when Japanese postcards meet Hong Kong stamps

resulting in these maximum cards.. :-)

The first one is the best I have made this year, the postcard is a new year greeting card from Japan. It is called 年贺状, very important in Japanese culture, every one will prepare some for their relatives and friends and the postman is always busy delivering them at the first day of the new year. On 11th Jan 2014, when Hong Kong Post issued the year of horse stamps, I use one of them and the special postmark to make the maximum cards. The stamp valued HK$1.7 features a pony made of colorful floral patchwork fabric, which is a traditional Chinese handicraft art putting paper-cutting, embroidery and craftsmanship together. Many thanks to Ai from Kyoto for providing me the card!

The second one is also a 年贺状. Japanese items are always delicate, I have to say. Actually this one is a stamped and written card sent by Akiko(明子) from Kitakyushu city. The stamp is one of those dedicated for the year of horse by Japan Post and it features a calligraphy of Chinese character "Horse", very nice and impressive , also with embossing effect (so does the postcard itself). I had a difficulty when requesting the post office for a special postmark because they said there is already a postmark of Japan post on the backside so they are not able to put additional one of Hong Kong on the front side. I have nothing to say but Hong Kong Post have some strange even incomprehensible postal rules. Lucky, finally I got it with the aid of a friend who is very familiar with the staffs of post office. :D Many thanks to Akiko!

Hong Kong Post does a very good job in making money by the chance of issuing new year stamps. You can see below that they issued 4 stamps and 1 mini-sheet also very expensive silk(HK$50) and gold/silver sheets (HK$100). There have many associated  philatelic products on sales too such as different kinds of FDCs, greetings cards and packs. They does have market because people love these items. In general, all of these were sold out at the first day of issue except the expensive sheets.

At the issuing days, all post offices in Hong Kong (more than 120) offer special postmark cancellation service, they also offer other kinds of postmarks, if available. 

Sunrise in Shiretoko Cape

This postcard shows a stunning view of sunrise from Kunashir Island seen from Shiretoko Cape! Shiretoko ape(知床岬) is the tip of the Shiretoko peninsula located in the most northeastern parts of Hokkaido, Japan. Kunashiri is an island controlled by Russia while claimed by Japan. Please see the following map for the geographical locations. Shiretoko was declared as a World Natural Heritage site in 2005 by UNESCO as it " provides an outstanding example of the interaction of marine and terrestrial ecosystems as well as extraordinary ecosystem productivity, largely influenced by the formation of seasonal sea ice at the lowest latitude in the northern hemisphere".
Many thanks to my friend Sandy for sending me it when she had a trip to Shiretoko last month! :) The special pictorial postmark is remarkable which shows the Utoro onsen . I am sure Sandy had a nice there enjoying the natural hot spring water!

Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle is the largest and most visited castle in Japan, and is frequently known as "White Egret Castle" because of its brilliant white exterior and supposed resemblance to a bird taking flight. The Castle is the finest surviving example of early 17th-century Japanese castle architecture with highly developed systems of defense and ingenious protection devices and it was registered in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country. Thanks to Mikoto from Postcrossing, for the beautiful card and stamp. The stamp shows another castle in Japan called “Takada” in the cherry blossoms.

Tokyo Skytree at night

Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010 and reached its full height of 634.0 meters in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Many thanks to Choju for sending this beautiful postcard when he had a trip in Tokyo. Choju was also in the top of this tower that day, so he wrote me this postcard to share the amazing scenery with me, thank you very much! From this postcard, under the tower, you can also see the Sensō-ji at night, which is an ancient Buddhist temple and a popular tourist attraction too.