Massive Hero...Masahiro!

When the Rakuten Golden Eagles won the pennant this year, it was primarily due to the pitching skills of Masahiro Tanaka. He had an incredible winning streak from April 2nd to Oct. 8th with 24 wins. Consequently, Japan Post has provided an Official Stamp Collection honouring his achievement. Alas, we've lost him to the Yankees so who knows what'll become of him...or of the Eagles!

I ordered one of these collections not really knowing what I'd be receiving and it came yesterday. What follows is a breakdown of the goodies within.

I got lucky number 030486!

Here are the stamps, 10 X 50￥ which I don't think is sufficient postage to send one of the giant postcards included.

A copy of his signature plus his signed hand-print. As you can see, I adapted a copy of his hand-print into a lesson on the names of the fingers.

And the aforementioned giant postcards.

If you flip those postcards, the obverse make up a 24-page jigsaw puzzle! Thus I don't really want to break up the set. Therefore, I plan to give the cards to my galfriend and keep the stamps for myself. I'll make a few copies first if anyone is interested.

I also received another awesome package in the mail yesterday, a terrific t-shirt from Fright Rags! It looks pretty damn sweet!

I'll be sure to wear it to the first Eagles game I attend...