I have weekly English lessons with a wonderful Japanese grandmother. She lives near one of the US military bases in town and took lessons for years from the wives of US military men. We have studied together about two years.
About a year ago, the subject of collecting used postage stamps came up. It turns out her husband (like many Japanese men of his generation) was an amateur collector years back. She told her grandson about my collection and he seemed interested. So I started giving her stamps to give to them each lesson. It is just my overstock, extra copies, and I give two of each stamp -- that way grandfather and grandson won't argue over who gets each stamp.
A little while back, the grandson (at grandmother's urging, no doubt) made a small gift for me -- he drew this on a hand-held fan and I quite liked it. For English-language readers, it basically says "thanks for the stamps. I especially like stamps with animals on them".
Unfortunately, most of my extras are boring pictures (for kids): boring dead people, boring buildings. But I am trying to slip in an animal or two among the buildings and portraits.
