New Year's Eve in Japan is traditionally a time to be with family. A time for visiting temples, clearing out the old and bringing in the prosperous and new and sending joyous wishes to family and friends.

One of the important things that is traditionally done during December is the making and posting of Nengajou. Nengajou are New Year cards. Much like the Western tradition of sending Christmas cards, New Year postcards are sent to family, friends and colleagues to share well wishes for the new year.

Each year families, couples and individuals design or purchase a new style of card. The design usually includes the New Year Chinese Zodiac animal. In 2008 it is the year of the rat (we prefer mouse because it is much cuter!) Right now the department stores, craft stores and stationers are dedicating huge spaces to postcard making materials. The ever popular rubber stamps are ideal for adding a personal yet conventional touch to handmade postcards. Naturally this year shelves are stocked with a wide array of rat stamps from the cute and fluffy to traditional and sketchy. As usual Snoopy gets his fair share of shelf space along side some other cute Disney characters.

Many families print family portraits onto the backs of cards to send to loved ones, especially if there is a new baby or small children in the family.

The most commonly used type of postcard is a prepaid white card with red lottery numbers stamped on the address side. This shares warm wishes and a possible small fortune. These can only be sent domestically and if posted before a given date are guaranteed to bee delivered on January 1. As you can imagine this makes for a whole lot of sorting and delivering towards the end of December and on January 1. The busiest time of the year for Japan Post requires that employ extra staff for the onslaught of nengajou.

This year we have many thanks and wishes to send to a great deal of people here in Japan so have opted for the prepaid lottery postcards. Masao and I wrote messages on the back of each one and stamped them with a funky gold rat.

Happy New Year card making. This is a tradition that could easily be adopted wherever you are. Making the cards has been a lot of fun. Adding your own personal style with a wish for a happy and bright future is uplifting to say the least.