With Christmas Taking Centre Stage,

a quick post for New Year which is just around the corner, 

 in Japan the postal service prints New Year’s postcards known as nengajo, nothing special so far, until you look closely, almost hidden there are tiny details, they’re so small that it’s easy enough to miss, it is a popular product with 30 million cards being printed every year, take a look at the card on the right, it looks like there are tiny flower petals on it

 but closer inspection revels that each petal is actually a shrimp, why a shrimp? because of their long antennae and curved body (like the curved back of an elderly person) shrimp are symbols of longevity and are commonly served as part of osechi ryori, Japan’s festive New Year’s feast,

but some of the details are a little larger, like this one, this year stamp designer Ayaka Hoshino was chosen to design the stamp, she also designed the stamp 12 years ago, in 2003 the sheep was depicted knitting a ball of yarn, 12 years later the knitting project was complete,

and for next year? in 2004 one of Japan’s famous snow monkeys was depicted soaking in a hot spring, as 2016 is just around the corner and that same monkey has a surprise, it has a baby monkey and a baby monkey bath, the reason the same animal is used every 12 years is the Japanese use of the 12 animals of the Zodiac, the design team at Japan Post comprises 7 individuals, who are responsible for designing all of Japan’s new stamps, each year there are about 40 new stamps released, the sheep is the 2nd most popular zodiac animal, the most popular animal is the rabbit and the least popular is the snake, no surprises with the last one then, also worthy of note is that in Japan the sending of New Years cards far outnumber Christmas cards that are sent.