New Years Postcard Lottery

New Years is Japan’s biggest holiday.  The holiday has many traditions in Japan.
One of the traditions is sending 年賀状 (New Years postcards).

One the back of Japanese New Years postcards, in the lower right-hand corner, is a six-digit number.
Every year in late January, the Japan Post Office has a New Years Postcard Lottery.

Yesterday was this years drawing.

The winning numbers for the 2010 年賀状 (New Years Postcard) lottery:

★ First Place (TV, computer, travel, digital camera or an office set)
– 975424

★ Second Place (Wii, digital camera, DVD player, TV)
– 259668,
– 446722, or
– 630838

★ Third Place (brand name merchandise)
– any number with the last four digits as 0977

★ Fourth Place (postage stamps)
– any number with the last two digits as either 00 or 52

★ “C” Prize (JTB ¥5,000 gift certificate)
– any number with the last five digits as 27520

There is also a Summer postcard lottery in Japan.
And I wrote a post about the New Years Postcard Lottery last year.

Did you get 年賀状 (Japanese New Years postcards) this year?
Do any of you cards have a winning lottery number?
I have three winning cards…all for postage stamps.

World’s largest Pokemon collection

A 21-year old English woman named Lisa Courtney has recently been entered into the Guiness Book Of World Records for the “World’s Largest Pokemon Collection”.

「ポケモン」 (Pokemon) is a Japanese abbreviation for 「ポケットモンスター」 (Pocket Monster).
It’s a Japanese franchise of characters used in cartoons, movies, comics, games and toys.

Lisa Courtney said that she was severally bullied in school due to a physical handicap and she began collecting Pokemon toys since she was about eight years old to cope with the bullying.

In the thirteen years that she has been collecting, she has acquired over 13,000 Pokemon items…which qualified her for the world record.

Lisa Courtney and her huge Pokemon collection

She has even been to Japan a few times and bought some “only-in-Japan” Pokemon items. She said that she plans to come to Japan for another visit sometime this year.

I think 13,000 toys is too much personally…but it’s her hobby and it helped her feel better from being bullied (which, by the way, is unbelievable that a child would get bullied because of a handicap!).

When she visits Japan this year, she should order the “Kids Pokemon pizza” from Dominos Pizza in Japan.