I just discovered that the year in the the date of Japanese postmarks is the number of years into the current era. With the ascension of the new emperor last year, Japan is now in the Reiwa era. The date format is year, month, day so the first "2" in the date stamp means 2020 on the Georgian calendar.
4 comments:
hey jeff, what do you suggest? should I send the request to the base address or the ship's address? like I have only one shot at this, so which has more probability of getting a reply from?
I wouldn't send to either. This is a bulletin from Japan Post from last October announcing the postmarks for Shirase and Showa:
https://www.post.japanpost.jp/notification/pressrelease/2022/03_tokyo/1021_01_01.pdf
It tells you to send your requests (separately) to a Japan Post address in Ginza (Tokyo). Probably needs to be there closer to the date of ship departure. Google translate isn't perfect. At first I interpreted it to mean covers would be postmarked in Tokyo but one of the notes in the bulletin suggests covers would not be returned until after the ship left Antarctica, scheduled for April 2023.
It says the ship departure with the 64th expedition crew onboard was scheduled to leave for the Antarctic on 11 November 2022. So that gives you a rough idea of when it will be leave again in 2023.
woah! I tried translating most of it via google, seems pretty complicated compared to the rest....
+ I did read in two places, "DELIVERY LIMITED TO JAPAN".....
It's a tough read and of course they describe every little detail of how to go about preparing envelopes so there's lot of text to parse through. I believe the notes about delivery being limited to Japan are in reference to a link they provide to a table of postage rates which only shows domestic postage rates.
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