First off let me mention that on Day 1 my gifter messaged me saying how excited s/he was to be matched to me, and said I had an awesome taste in music. Well, consider me pumped! The feeling of being told right away that someone is looking forward to the exchange feels both reassuring and plain awesome. Inspired me to the same to my giftee - so thanks unknown redditor, you truly started this exchange out in the best possible way :)

So this saturday my GF emptied the mail box and handed me a package slip. Since I hadn't ordered anything myself that could only mean one thing - YAAAAAAAAAY, Ghibli exchange gift! Turns out the post office closed five minutes before I got that slip... and so began the waiting game.

Cue Monday, post office is open, I go out to pick it up. When the lady at the post office hands me the package and I see the shape and the country of origin - yup straight from Japan! The shape of the package? My favorite shape in the world when picking up stuff from the post office. A somewhat flat, square package. The package had "second hand vinyl" written. Holy shit, is this real?!

I'm a huge vinyl collector and music fan, and I'd mentioned in my initial description that if at all possible it'd be cool to have a Ghibli soundtrack on vinyl. I did, however, state that I did not expect this as I'm aware most of these albums are fairly pricey. So clearly reading the writing on the package this was a huge, positive surprise.

I hurried home and opened up the package aaaand. Bubble-frickin'-wrap, YISS! Hours of fun and amusement and... wait... there's something in there! The beautiful black round shape of a vinyl record. Holy mother of Miyazaki.. this is too good to be true!

It's "Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind" as a narrated drama on vinyl!!! This is pretty damn awesome in itself, but it only got better from here on.

The packaging is amazing. Incredibly beautiful! I can't describe it, just look at the pictures! The OBI strip is intact and I like that in Japanese records (and CDs), it adds a certain charm to it, although I have no idea why they're there.

It's a beautiful gatefold cover and on the inside are several images from the animated film (which is incredible beautiful as well - but what Ghibli film isn't?).

On the inside is two pieces of artwork, one is a picture of Nausicaä's voice actor, Sumi Shimamoto, and the other has a different picture of Nausicaä on each side. Really gorgeous.

There's also a sheet of what I think is a description of the story, but it's in Japanese so I'm not sure. It also features the staff credits for this release. This sheet is the only thing that shows that this is a second hand album, due to a few stains. But otherwise this record is incredible well taken care of.

I like records like this, cause it's not "just" an album with music and a story, it's an entire package filled with artwork from the world. It's an entire experience, because it really allows you to imagine the world of Nausicaä based on the images contained within. And even though I have seen the movie, it's been a while since I last saw it, which actually makes the listening experience that much more exciting.

Dear gifter, you made me very excited from the beginning. And you just delivered something way more amazing and beautiful than I could've ever possibly imagined for this exchange. Thank you so very, very much - you're a great person and I hope your giftee realized this, too, and have given (or will give) you something similarly awesome, cause you deserve it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)