Thursday, May 21, 2009

Amaharashi, Japan

Thursdays....I love Thursdays...coz my Fridays are free...well, i do have a bunch of things to do tomorrow, and some work-related, but its far from tense as it is the other 4 days....I dont know, the more i see the end of the school year, the more i yearn for it...i feel exhausted and i can also feel this impatience inside me growing...i have it whenever something lasts long and the end is coming near, but its still NOT there...well the part between 'not there yet' and 'finally over' is the hardest one for me...coz you can see the end of the tunnel, its within your reach, but still you miss a number of steps to get there :)

Here is an official card from Japan......called, Amaharashi Seaside Quasi-national park.....Quasi???? Quasi??!!! Is 'quasi' here used in its actual sense? If yes, then what kind of a national park is a quasi one? And what does one National Park have to do to deserve the 'quasi' title? I stumbled upon several definitions while trying to 'unpuzzle' myself. And this is what i found out:
National Parks are prominent natural landscapes (including seascapes) that are sufficiently representative of the landscapes of Japan.National Parks come within the scope of the Natural Park system. Natural parks consist of National Parks as well as Quasi-National Parks and Prefectural Natural Parks.
The differences among them are as followed:



1. National Parks: 
- Designating party - Minister of the Environment
- Requirements for designation - Must constitute a landscape that is representative of Japan relative to the places with the same type of landscape as well as constitute a prominent natural landscape that can be introduced to the world with pride.
- Governing law - Natural Parks Law
Party responsible for administrative management - Ministry of the Environment

2. Quasi-National Parks:
- Designating party -Minister of the Environment
- Requirements for designation - Must constitute a prominent major natural landscape comparable to the landscape found in Natural Parks.
- Governing law - Natural Parks Law
- Party responsible for administrative management - Prefectural governments

3. Prefectural Natural Parks: 
- Designating party - Prefectural governors
- Requirements for designation - Must constitute a prominent natural landscape that is representative of landscapes at a prefectural level.
- Governing law - Prefectural ordinances
- Party responsible for administrative management -Prefectural governments

Ok, im not really familiar with the government systems in Japan, but i can say that i do have it all a bit clearer...i dont know their exact criteria in determining whats National and whats Quasi-national, but at least i can grasp it better now.

Ok, the stamps were put in an awkward position/relation to each other, so thats why the image looks like this...my address is at the speech-bubble you can take a peek at :) It has happened with some other Japanese cards as well...
How are you supposed to find stamps-info, if the stamps section at the Japanese post office web site is in Japanese only, there is no year printed on the stamp...well, i wouldnt be surprised if those Japanese characters tell the year actually, but how am i supposed to figure it out?
I tried several places, but none really user-friendly (unless you have 24 hours available not to do anything) So in case someone can give me more info about these particular stamps, please, leave a message. You know of an efficient and very informative web-site regarding Japanese stamps? Do let me know as well :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Japanese characters on these stamps just say 日本郵便 (Japan Post).

From what I could gather from the Japan Post website, which isn't very well-organized even in Japanese, both of these are "normal stamps". The 20yen one is the Japanese honeybee (Apis cerana japonica) and the 50yen one is a Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata). There isn't any issue information given.

I love your blog and I can try to help you track down info on any other Japanese stamps you have. :) I'm American but I speak/read Japanese.

Anonymous said...

The Japanese characters on these stamps just say 日本郵便 (Japan Post).

From what I could gather from the Japan Post website, which isn't very well-organized even in Japanese, both of these are "normal stamps". The 20yen one is the Japanese honeybee (Apis cerana japonica) and the 50yen one is a Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata). There isn't any issue information given.

I love your blog and I can try to help you track down info on any other Japanese stamps you have. :) I'm American but I speak/read Japanese.

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