Japanese students send postcards written on leaves - successfully!

Saw this fun article on my newsfeed this morning and had to share it with the Postcrossing world!

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I’ve heard of this in a few other Asian countries, but I can imagine that it would absolutely work in Japan!

I’m also intrigued by the mention of this Japan Post Service called “Future Mail - haven’t been able to find anything more about it yet though. Thanks for sharing this!

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Thank you for sharing! So lovely!

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Thank you for sharing this with us!

My favorite quote from the article:
“Maho Omura, a first-year student in the group, came across the leaf of Ilex latifolia, also known as tarayou. Letters written on tarayou leaves go as far back as the Heian period [794-1185] and are believed to be the first postcards in Japan.”

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How wonderful :heart_eyes:

I can imagine Germany’s postal service delivering them but charging extra money :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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In a way, Japan Post do charge extra.
This leaf postcard cost 120 yen to send (domestic postcard rate is 63 yen).
120yen is for "Nonstandard size postal item, less than 50 grams (yeah, much lighter than 50g :laughing:

It makes sense. Japanese word for Postcard is Hagaki = 葉書き (leaf writing).

They have a tarayou tree (a.k.a. Postal Tree) right at the entrance of Tokyo Central Post Office.
Here is a alredy-discontinued Gotochi card from Tokyo Central Post Office.

I was amazed the postage stamp stayed on the leaf.

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I once received a leaf from the USA and loved it! :grin:

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What a beautiful thing! :heart_eyes:

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It’s similar to the Post-A-Nut program by a Hawaiian post office.
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/54734

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It would be doubly cool if you were to receive a tree leaf letter that was sent from the post office that’s atop Mount Fuji.

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