COVER N. 408-  JAPAN

Postmark: First day of Issue 07.02.2024

Posted on the 7th February; Received on the 15th February 2024

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It has been a while since I last received mail from the land of the rising sun, so ありがとう a lot, Hisao.

Spring is indeed coming and just like Japan Post, I think this is one of the great occasions worthy of celebration every year. Spring, the beginning of a new cycle, the rebirth of nature, of colours, of days, of light... Spring, the gentlest and kindest of all seasons... and  I absolutely adore it! 

Japan Post chose to honour Spring with two sets of 5 stamps each, both issued on 07FEB2024.

The stamps on one of the sets  have a face value of  63 Yen, while the stamps comprised in the other set (two of which can be seen on this cover) have a face value of 84 Yen. 

As befits the event being celebrated , the arrival of Spring, the stamps are illustrated with the season's most obvious symbol: flowers, and quite fittingly,  with flowers that occur in Japan.

Thus, the stamp on the right is dedicated to the Flaccid anemone (Anemonastrum flaccidum), designated Nirinsou in Japanese, a member of the Ranunculaceae family, while that on the left depicts the Primrose (Primula vulgaris), a member of the Primulaceae family.

The very neat First day of Issue Postmark is illustrated with some of the plants contained in both sets of stamps and the two first characters on the base legend mean Tokyo (that's how far I could go ...) 😀

The regular day mark, on the left lower corner of the envelope, confirms Tokyo as the origin of the letter.