Happy New Year of the monkey everybody!
May the new year make all your dreams come true!
I continue to embrace Japanese traditions. The above is the nengajo New Year’s card I sent out this, or rather: last year. I cannot ascertain this, but apparently the long stroke leading to the right symbolises the tail of the monkey… It was hard to find a card that I considered serious enough, monkeys obviously inspire people’s silliness. For example, I found a nengajo showing a banana – and nothing else… A bit too much silliness for me, to be honest.
Since this year I also (had to) send nengajo to business connections (essentially my lawyer and my accountant), I asked a Japanese friend how to do them properly. Well, the right hand corner of the front has to show one of the standard phrases, and the addresses on the back (both mine and the one of the recipient) have to be written in Kanji as well… I only wrote eight cards this year, but for these reasons I laboured for more than 2 hours! I have received some nengajo today as well, and as I can see that my business connections printed their cards, I will consider this as an option for next year.