Ahoy the year of the Snake! We send fond greetings and best wishes for a splendid year ahead from the Olsons – Dave, Ryoko and Ichiro – of Tsuchida Cottage, Okayama, Japan.
We hope many/most of you received a lovely analog copy of the “time travelers” on their latest adventure yet, due to errant wormholes and postal labour disruptions, maybe lost addresses, or heck, maybe we’ve lost touch for a while {if that’s you, kindly update via the Postal Club form}, plus for extra fun and the ephemeral record, here is 2025’s offering.
Time Traveling: Again we meet the time travelers – are we in a 1980s suburban mall photo studio? Paris literary salon in in 1920s? Or a NorCal commune forest retreat conducting clandestine arts and crafts experiments? Possibly embarking on a cross-Siberian train slightly ahead of a revolution with books for the trip? Setting sail from Scandinavia? Every detail is a clue.
Highlights: The back features illustrations and stamps about what we got up to in 2024, ergo:
- Ichiro: Ninja camp, grasshoppers, bees + wasps & hornets, fungi hunting, and collecting flowers, leaves, seeds and rocks
- Ryoko: tea ceremony, singing (with big band!), & of course trees, plus making a earth wall with bamboo, straw and soil
- Dave: making fires, ringing up pals for kohi talk, hospital visits (scheduled & impromptu), peace vibes, and always writing
Stamps: We mailed with the “special number” stamps for folks in Japan – this is a program where stamps costs a few ¥ more but include numbers for a sorta national lottery (you might wina. car! or a trip! or maybe more stamps like i did). For internationals, most are the only-currently-available international ¥100 stamp featuring a Wisteria (which is cool cause the kanji for Ryoko’s family name of Fujita mean “field of Wisteria” while a few of you postal enthusiasts received the deluxe upgrade with a ¥110 special new year stamp. Of course, a few ¥1 kuma-chan (lil postal bear) and ¥5 snow monkeys to round-out a few decorations and some which will go within an envelope.
Local Trad: By the way, about 1.65 billion new year cards are delivered in Japan on New Year’s Day! A colossal undertaking and massive number despite the total decreasing year on year (peaked at 3.7 billion cards in 1997!) And if a family member has passed away or other calamity ensued, then you send a card a few weeks before saying “we won’t be sending new year cards this year”.
We send between 300-400 usually but ya know, stamps prices go up, people don’t reply, new friends are made… so totals change, but who is counting anyhow?
Previously: Of course, version from 2019~ 2024 are archived for your perusal – maybe you have the whole set?! In some case, including a “making of video” or other bonus commentary and unneeded yet crucial discourse for the biographers.
DIY Print: We’ve also included a print-able PDF with crop marks so you can print your own in the event postal disrptions prevent you from receiving as we very much want to be on your refrigerator or shoebox or scrapbook. Heck, there are even crop marks – you can print double-sided on cardstock and trim or print on postcard (optimized for 100mm x 148mm) paper, borderless for best results. Please let us now how it goes (you know i worked at Kinko’s so eager to see your satisfaction after-all)
Photo: Original portrait taken Dec. 2023 at Shimamura Shajo, founded in 1945 here in Okayama, heck of a year to start a business in Japan eh! They are a blast to work with, 3 generations on-site at times, and classic feeling like we are “lost in Showa” still.
Details: include a suitcase with a custom sticker of the city crest of Sarpsborg, Norway (where grandfather Olaf set sail from) and keen eyes will also notice CBC mic pin, suit from Thailand and hat from Nepal, Indiana Jones’ diary plus Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and James Joyce’s Ulysses on the stack. Oh yeah this time i got to rock the Fluevogs, whereas 2021 version twas Ryoko in the sweet kicks.
Parents: There is another version with our dear parents who put up with my (dave’s) colour coordinating scheme and a truck full of accoutrements – say hello to Junko and Takushi Fujita
Ichi’s version: Since we are all pals here, you score a limited edition Ichiro Stanley rocking in the Kei-truck card. Dig the boots and the mighty stones he checked in like the Viking Samurai he is :) – we had *many* final choice candidates to choose form this photogenic champ but this one captures so much of what he loves: helping Mom with tough jobs and rocking plaid and rolling in the kei-truck “Ume-chan”
Ryoko’s biz, KInome: of course there is a special version for her arborist, landscape design business Kinome, displayed here is the front image side, a photo taken during a tea ceremony she held to celebrate 10th anniversary of her proprietorship in 2024 – the reverse displayed address and names of course but also a message of thanks and request for support as her business refines services and possible new endeavours in the year ahead
Scraps: a few of the design bits to create the card were a crumpled piece of origami paper found outside in the gravel of Ichiro’s playzone and sorta smoothed out, the striped wallpaper-esque sheet was a wrapper of Soviet-era passport imported in a secret op – a few designy pals (hi!) will enjoy these repurposed bits.
