For #PostboxSaturday I bring you this functional and historic beauty from the Bikan district in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan
A trading town since the Edo times with shops filled with denim, ceramics, paper, stationery and so many cafés, bars, courtyards, and laneways, this postbox stopped my heart while walking alongside this glorious canal after my wife’s singing gig with a big band orchestra
And, the historic post office in the district is turned into a tourist information center
PS So many folks flock to the “big three” famous cities in Japan and there are so many wonderful areas waiting to be explored with welcoming vibes
Ergo: Right nearby here is the stunning Ohara museum with a fantastic sampler pack of European art alongside 20th century Japanese art as well as a variety of museums dedicated to previous generations and traditions
You can see Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, even Pollock and El Greco – without any fuss, lineup, or even barrier between you and the masterpieces
Since we’re here
Walking around this historic quarter is so unbelievably adorable, where everything – from the toilets to the tourist shops – are cuter than the last, as such, I present a few more pieces of evidence, since we’re all here after all:
But importantly, make sure to drop your letters in this beautiful box
Memo: As it goes, i have hundreds of snapshots of postboxes, post offices, and “postal still life” (meaning scenes of scattered pens, papers, postcards, stationery, stamps – all spread over a table while in a session) and i use these for Postcards from Gravelly Beach podcast “episode art” and made a book from many of the artifacts.
Of late, some Instagram/Twitter folks have a #postboxsaturday campaign/project rolling so i’ve used this as encouragement to start trickling out my stash. Slowly and intermittently (because i have too many projects on the go!) with minor annotations.
Fondly, your humble diligent cheseball correspondent, dvo
