kenleewrites in 日本

It’s the first of December. When was the last time you sent out a proper handwritten letter?

I used to exchange letters with friends a couple of years ago. Actually, come to think of it, all these friends were mostly girls. ^^. It started in high school. I had this “pen-pal” from another class. We would leave neatly folded letters on each other’s desk in school. All that sneaking around trying to look for an opportunity to place the letter was fun. Especially so since we were in different classes.

When I went to study in Sydney, we still exchanged letters. Although it was not as frequent. I remember going down to the post office and buying a pack of 5 aerogrammes. It was about that time I started writing to a few other friends too; didn’t know what to do with the remaining aerogrammes. This continued for a while until… it was either the rise of emails or just me getting lazy. Probably the letter. ^^.

So, writing letters slowly evolved to typing emails. Slowly because
1) Back then, the only place you can type out an email is infront of a computer connected to the internet. Those hotmail glory days.
2) I hated the *beeee puuuuuu errrrr* sound of the 56k modem.
3) Nothing beats visiting the post office with a big parcel inbetween both hands.

Technology these days let us type out emails anywhere with our keitai-s. In Japan, hop onto a train or a bus and it’s commonplace to see many people typing away on their phones. Actually, Japan is ahead of everyone else in terms of mobile email usage because they started off with using emails and not SMS on their phones. I prefer using SMS for short, subjectless messages like “just around the corner. there in 2 minutes.”. And I really appreciate how Apple displays SMSes on my iPhone; a chat window.

I do type out emails on the go too. I also enjoy the fact that my mail accounts are synced between my iPhone and my Macs; I could type out half a mail on the phone and finish and send it later on the computer, or vice versa. It has become part of my lifestyle.

I believe with consumer technology, the lifestyle element is pretty important. Find it, exploit it and you’ve got yourself a hit.

Email pen-pal? It’s too easy to turn an email exchange into an email chat; and it’s even easier to just ask for the IM username and chat away. That’s why, I don’t keep an email pen-pal. Unless it’s a snail mail exchange, I find it rather difficult to keep the feelings of anticipation and surprise high.

It’s 30 more days to the New Year. Ever since I’ve been in Japan, I’ve embraced the Japanese custom of sending out New Year Postcards. While most people mass print them from the computer or customize a rubber stamp and stamp away, I still like to handwrite my new year postcards. I don’t like to be too generic, so I do spend time thinking of what to write. Usually I tend to sneak in a short personal message too. Sending new year greetings to friends-only makes it easier. ^^. Call me old-fashioned, but there’s an element of sincerity in handwritten new year greetings which I would like to give out to my friends for the coming new year… that and a postcard with horrible handwriting. ^^.

That reminds me, I’ve got to start working on my New Year Postcard design!

When was the last time you sent out a handwritten letter?

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