What should I write?

[SSJup81]

Hello everyone. Been a while since I've been around here.

Anyway, I want to write a letter to someone, but, unfortunately, I haven't written anything to said person in about a year. I'm curious of proper letter-writing etiquette when it comes to the Japanese. This is something I am unfamiliar with. I don't want to seem rude or anything.

Can anyone help me? I pretty much want to say what I've been up to this past year, and would like to ask the same of him and of course hope that he's been doing well.

It's going to take me a while to write the letter, though, since my Japanese is still not all that great, but I'll worry about that later.

[KyleGoetz]

Take your time. Effort is the most important after a tiny bit of comprehensibility. Formal letters start off

TO-PERSONへ and end with FROM-PERSONより

Letters also frequently start with some reference to the current weather. I can look back at nearly all my quick catch-up emails with Japanese friends, and they almost all start out with some comment about the leaves changing, or it getting colder, or something like that.

Granted, many of these people are in their upper 20s or 30s, so they are a bit more adult than my college Japanese buddies, who'd probably start an email with "too bad you didn't go to that soapland with me" or whatever. :\

[SSJup81]

Thank you. That helps some. Do you know of a place with proper Japanese writing etiquette when it comes to letter writing? I do know that there are some things that's "spoken" that wouldn't look correct if writing it.

[IcewindDude]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Take your time. Effort is the most important after a tiny bit of comprehensibility. Formal letters start off

TO-PERSONへ and end with FROM-PERSONより

Letters also frequently start with some reference to the current weather. I can look back at nearly all my quick catch-up emails with Japanese friends, and they almost all start out with some comment about the leaves changing, or it getting colder, or something like that.

Granted, many of these people are in their upper 20s or 30s, so they are a bit more adult than my college Japanese buddies, who'd probably start an email with "too bad you didn't go to that soapland with me" or whatever. :\

I still laugh about the "mentioning the weather" part of letters in Japanese. I learned this about 2 years ago and have since applied to any letters I've written (actually, typed and printed...) in Japanese, but it still feels funny.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by SSJup81

Thank you. That helps some. Do you know of a place with proper Japanese writing etiquette when it comes to letter writing? I do know that there are some things that's "spoken" that wouldn't look correct if writing it.

Wikipedia is, as always, helpful: Etiquette in Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Expressions used in Japanese Letters - How to write Japanese letters