The sending of nengajo or New Year’s cards to friends and family is a popular tradition in Japan. This year, Japan Post and One Piece have teamed up to let fans “join the crew” and create a series of custom cards. The One Piece Nengajo site has a character generator which allows you to create an animated version of yourself that can be placed in a variety of pre-made cards featuring the Straw Hat Pirates.

Although, it doesn’t seem possible to order prints outside of Japan, the site is still a lot of fun, and you can still enjoy digitally becoming a part of your favorite pirate crew.

If you’d like to give this a try, follow the steps below:

(1) Click on the One Piece Nengajo link. The large red button at the bottom will take you to the character creator.

(2) From there you can choose either male or female using the red buttons below. Each gender features a sample character.

(3) The four buttons on this screen will all perform different functions. The top red button, takes you to a character creator which let’s you select different attributes. The green button will let you take a photo (first option) or upload a photo from your picture library (second option). If you’re feeling adventurous, you can let Luffy or Ivankov create a character for you by selecting their pictures.

(4) If you choose to create your own character, you can select different facial features, hairstyles and accessories. These different attributes can be further customized using the menu located on the lower right . Select OK and on the next screen select the red button to sample different backgrounds.

(5) There are ten different backgrounds to choose from and four possible clothing options for each background. The year of the rooster outfit with Chopper is especially adorable. Select OK again and select the red button after the page reloads.

(6) If you’re not in Japan, you wont be able to order the actual cards but you can share via Twitter or Facebook using the icons at the bottom of the page.

What do you think of the One Piece Nengajo site? Did you create any images? Let us know what you think, and share your creations in the comments below!