Black Sea Storm

This card comes from Ukraine. A stormy Black Sea. I live on the shores of an inland sea so I have never seen anything like this. The winds here can get pretty bad. we have some terrible sand storms where you can't see for more than a few feet. I am in a valley that is below sea level. When the storms hit the mountains surrounding us disappear. My neighbors have had their roof blown off and others have had trees torn out. Thankfully we have been okay.

Rain storms are rare here in the desert, but cause flash floods when they occur. I once saw small streams outside of my house with less than 5 minutes worth of rain. I ran out to roll up my car's windows and was soaked in less than ten seconds. that might be normal for many but not for me.

Black Rock Shooter

This card was sent to me from a person from Japan who was in the JET Program. She happened to enjoy cosplaying, which is to dress up as a character. The whole series is based on a music video or so I believe. I had seen tons of merchandise and people cosplaying it, but I had no idea where it was from. It appears to be rather popular. This card is of the foil variety. Very nice.

I have not heard back from this person but I think she said she was going to come back to the states soon after sending the card. I applied for the JET program myself, but was not accepted. Must find another way of getting to Japan.

Astro Boy Card

Yes, another anime postcard. This time we have the famous Astro Boy. You would think that I would have more info on this since this series pretty much established manga and anime as we see it today. Osamu Teuka, also known as the "God of Manga" created it.

I see the artwork and am mildly reminded of Disney. Mighty Mouse and Betty Boop also come to mind. The character designs are quite varied. The men definitely look cartoon-y, while the woman looks more realistic in comparison. At least that is how I feel.

By the way, now seems like as good a time as any to say that this is not just an anime card blog. I am just uploading stuff in alphabetical order and these just happen to be next to each other. the other stuff in on its way.

A cooking anime

For a fan of anime, I seem to not know very much. I don't know what Arcobaleno is... but the food looks tasty. One of the things that I appreciate of anime is how diverse it is in content and audience. Cartoons in Japan aren't just for children. Some of their series are more adult in nature. Of course there is the stictly for adults stuff, but there is also stuff in the daily life of the average working adult that younger people might find uninteresting. I am not a drink or smoker. why do I say this? It is because when I was a few years younger and barely getting into anime I stumbled upon a series that dealt with a bar. In this bar a customer would arrive with some worry and the bartender would fix them up a drink and somehow solve their problem. The premise was okay, just not for me. At the end they featured the recipe of the "drink of the day" Definitely not for children.

Back to the card, I like food premise. I have seen a few cooking cartoon ( yes cooking), and though skeptical at first, have been surprised. A lot of times it is said that you can't learn anything from cartoons. Yakitate Ja-pan taught me so much about bread and bread making. Yumeiro Patissiere taught me about pastries and sweets, even if they are better for you there than in real life. I mean, only in a cartoon can you say "I am really hungry from working so hard. I guess I will go have some sweets" and proceed to do so. True that last part isn't really okay, especially with childhood obesity, but I guess neither is chasing after a road runner on roller skates with a rocket tied to you back.

Okay, so these are the only cooking cartoons I can think of, but since I like to bake a little, I don't see why I can't have fun and learn at the same time.

Red haired girl in sailor fuku

When I first learned of postcrossing, I thought it was a neat idea. Me being a fan of Japan, I could not wait for me to have my first exchange with Japan. Apparently when you have the whole world to choose from it becomes less likely that you will get a postcard from a certain country. Thanks goodness for swaps. I have managed to get many good cards through swaps. Japan, South Korea, and Ukraine are where most of my swaps go. As to be expected, I get quite a few anime cards (such as the one above) from Japan. I do not know who this character is, or if she from anything famous. Still, it is nice to have received it. I hope to get some more.

Thinking things through

Since I am relatively new to this whole thing, blogging I mean, I have yet to think things through. My original thoughts had been to post a postcard image and then write something about it like I did on my second post. I am not sure how well that would work out, since there are cards I have no idea what to say about. Right now I seem to be leaning towards posting the image and then writing about whatever comes to mind, after all, isn't that what a blog is about? Well, I guess I don't think that is really what a blog is about, but that is what I am going to do anyways. Another thing I am debating is as to whether I should include a picture of the cards I send as well. A "this card was sent for that card" kind of thing. Obviously I can't do it for cards already sent, but it's a thought. Well, that's enough words, images are up next.

Tokyo Skyline at Night

This card was sent to me from Japan by a very nice lady. Japan is high on my list of places to visit. I don't know if I would like to go to Tokyo though. Okay, I lie; I would like to go to Tokyo, it would just not be my first stop. I don't think I am fashionable enough to want to go to Shinjuku, or nerdy enough to want to go to Akihabara that badly. Tokyo Tower would be a must though. I recently went to Mexico City and was overwhelmed by the number of people there, me being from town with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants. I was under the wrong impression that it was the most populated city in the world. I can't imagine what my reaction would be in Tokyo, who knows when I will find out. Recently I have been having dreams of either flying to Japan or taking a bus ( from the U.S.) there. With the plane dream I got as far as boarding the plane while on the bus dream I made is to the bus station in Japan, had enough time to take a picture in the terminal and then get back on the bus. Weird dreams? Yes. A sign? Hopefully.