Sunday 22 April 2018

Japan

2006 Prefecture Stamps (Shizuoka) : Kawazu Cherry Blossom (Design: Kentaro Taki)
The tree blossom is looking lovely here at the moment, the white being slightly ahead of the pink this year but both bringing joy and promise of the coming season.  To see early blooming cherry blossom then travel to the home of these stamps Shizuoka in Japan which is famous for the earliest bloom with the largest bright pink petals. Millions will travel to gaze at the 8000 cherry blossom trees celebrated in the February Cherry Blossom Festival.  The first stamp has the treat of both blossom and bird which is a Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) a bird often portrayed in Japanese art and indeed also on Japanese stamps.


After meditating peacefully surrounded by the beauty of the blossom maybe the next experience
1995: World Sports Championship
  would be to watch some judo at the World Judo Championships in  Makuhari, Chiba City, Japan.
2009: The 13th Games of the Small States of Europe (Design - Daniel Mangani)
Travel to Europe and Malta issued a set of stamps for the 2009 XIII Small States of Europe Games which was held in Cyprus. I think the judo stamp is possibly the least successful  stamp of the set with its subdued colouring, however for a polar opposite put on your shades
2009: Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012 (Design - Studio David Hillman)
for one of the many stamps GB issued in the run up to the 2012 London Olympic Games.



The Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter J - here for Japan and Judo - See It On A Postcard

6 comments:

Bob Scotney said...

I missed out on the GB judo stamps; the cherry blossom from Japan is super.

agi said...

the japanese blossoms are wonderful to see - just in time when spring finally started to 'operate' outside (though to be honest this looks even more like the summer, crazy weather...)

violet s said...

My dream would be to be in Japan for the cherry blossoms.

Ana said...

Those are some of the most beautiful cherry blossoms I've seen on stamps! <3

Mail Adventures said...

I would never had linked the blossoms with judo!
The blue stamp is beautiful, indeed.

FinnBadger said...

I like the side-by-side cherry blossom stamps.

Interesting mini-collection of Judo stamps - I like the bright contrast on the London 2012 Olympics stamp.