cat /proc/claus | java

As some people may or may not know, one of the japanese traditions for the new year is the sending of new-year cards, or Nengajyos, as they’re called here.

What not so many people (at least not so many foreigners) know is that the card exchange also serves as a kind of lottery: Each postcard has a number, and on january 14th the post office draws prizes based on the number of postcards sold.

This year, for instance, the first prize was a choice out of 5 options: A trip to hawaii, a domestic trip to anywhere in Japan, a laptop, a home theater, or a videocamera/printer set. The second prize was a food set, and the third prize was “a comemorative stamp sheet”.

Well, I was lucky enough that one of the about 15 cards I received this year won the third prize, and went to collect it in the nearby post office. It was a little dissappointing, though, when the lady in the counter handed me said “stamp sheet”: It contained the totality of 2 (TWO!) stamps…

Well, better than nothing, I guess!

I wonder if one of the postcards I sent was awarded something better.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 12:34 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.