In America, we don’t send New Year’s Cards like in Japan. It is a little different. First of all, most people don’t send anything at all. Those people who do send something usually send something for Christmas or the Holiday Season, and not for the relatively unimportant New Year.
Also people don’t send postcards (or at least I have never seen any). Usually they send a letter with an included picture or collage. My mom is one of those rare people who sends a letter. She spends a few hours typing it up. She describes the interesting things that happened during the year and has a paragraph or two for each person in the family. My wife, who is Japanese, had a interesting reaction when she first read one of these letter. She didn’t like it! She felt like the letter was just bragging or talking only about themselves… so self-absorbed! It was normal for me and I never thought about it before, but after seeing that reaction, I have to agree.
And what is more, these letters are quite long! It is a good thing that they are not common because I would not want to read more than a few of these. They are one or two pages typed! That is five to ten minutes for me to read. They are especially long when you are not interested in the content…
Recently, I think these letters are starting to disappear. Now that everyone is on Facebook, it is so easy to stay up-to-date with the details (usually too many details) of evenacquaintances you have only even met once! In Japan, New Year’s Cards are still useful to help you update your address book. But the Christmas letter, and it’s pure narcissism, has almost completely been replaced by social networks. A good thing? I don’t know…
