New Year Stamps

I spent much of my New Year’s holiday working on stamps – soaking thousands of stamps off envelopes, and drying them, and flattening them. I haven’t yet put them into my album as I am trying to reorganize and I don’t want to move them all again in the future.

In the beginning, I just put them in an album in ascending order from 1 yen to 1000 yen. But now, having bought a catalog of all Japanese stamps ever issued, I see that I am in way over my head. I will likely follow its system: grouping by themes such as furusato, commemoratives, and so on. Then, it arranges chronologically within each theme. Fine enough, but now I have to move and shuffle about three billion stamps.

It was so simple when I was young. Maybe 30 years back, I had a giant Harris album with little Xeroxed pictures of every stamp in the world (or so it seemed). Find the country, find the picture, put a hinge on the stamp and stick it on the page. So neat and orderly!

So far I have four albums with no end in sight (and all those thousands I bought just before the new year…). I suppose that is part of the joy of it all – imposing order upon chaos. Strange connection, but it seems that is what my latest favorite TV show, Deadwood, was all about – the director was interested in how chaos is transformed into civilization. (Deadwood was one of the last Wild West towns in the US and had a brief period of near-anarchy before it was formally brought into the US.

Well, heavy themes aside, you can find in the picture my themes over the New Year holiday: postage stamp work (drying on the plates), good beer, and daidai citrus fruit to mix with shochu alcohol. Hmmm, it is getting late at night and cold in my room. Maybe it is time to heat some water and shochu….

日本語 hints:
ascending order – moving up from smaller to bigger = 昇順

in way over my head – the project is much too difficult (お手上げ！)

chronologically – in order by year = 時系列順

Xerox -- the name of a photocopier company. The word is now used as noun AND verb in English (similar to new internet-related verbs like ぐぐる or うぃきる?)

hinge – in this context, a small item which is used to stick the stamp into an album without damaging the stamp

imposing order upon chaos – tough one. “impose” is something like 果たす or 押し付ける. Chaos = 無秩序 or 混乱状態. Order = something like 秩序. So this phrase means to change chaos into an orderly situation.

anarchy – 無政府

焼酎 – This is best left as “shochu” in English, maybe together with “Japanese distilled spirits” to stress that the alcohol content is higher than the more-commonly known お酒 or sake. Using both E and J together is often best for unique Japanese foods and drinks.