Best Free Souvenir from Japan: How to Collect Eki Stamps
Best Free Souvenir from Japan: How to Collect Eki Stamps
Looking for a fun, free and fantastic souvenir to collect from Japan? You definitely should start an Eki stamps collection! It’s like a real life scavenger hunt, or a physical game of Pokemon Go. You got to catch em all! But of course instead of Pokemon, you are collecting unique stamps all around the country!
What are Eki stamps?
Eki stamps (translated to “station stamps”) are free rubber stamps used as a kind of tourist souvenir around Japan. Originally, they were only found at train stations (hence “station stamp”) but now you can get them nearly everywhere that could be considered tourist attractions. You will of course find them in the larger cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto, but believe it or not they now have some in smaller villages, and even on hiking trails!!
They always represent something unique to the area like a temple or historical monuments and symbols. For example the area of Takasaki have a daruma included in their stamps as it’s the birthplace of this Japanese lucky charm. While, at Tokyo tower the tower is part of the stamp and
Let’s go over everything you will need to know about how to get started collecting them.
Eki Stamp Notebooks & Supplies
How to Ask Staff for an Eki Stamp
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Eki Stamp Notebooks & Supplies
There are official eki stamp notebooks you can buy once you’re in Japan!
Kinokuniya, a BIG Japanese bookstore, should have them in the travel section. They cost about ¥825 or about $5.60 USD each, and there’s a few different covers depending on what kind of stamps you’re collecting. For instance, they have covers for each train company, plus one for highway service stations.
Otherwise, blank-paged notebook is good. We got ours from the Traveler’s Factory station store (plus they have 20 stamps here to get you started!). Try to get something with slightly thicker pages so the ink doesn’t bleed through to the other side of the page.
You can pick any book from the stationery store for this activity but our final tip is to make sure the book is wide enough for some of the larger stamps! Most regular round station stamps seem to be about 3 inches wide, but I’ve gotten some closer to 5 inches. If you’re using a passport sized notebook, the larger stamps won’t fit. So it might be a good idea to carry some scrap paper around so you can stamp that as a backup.
Typical Eki stamp locations
Common Places to find Eki Stamps
As I’m sure you can imagine, train stations are some of the best places to start your hunt for the Eki stamps. While, not all the train lines have them, in Tokyo all the JR lines & Odakyu lines have stamps. However, anywhere in the cities that could be considered a tourist destination is also a great bet! Then there can be some places that might surprise you. Ryokans, Onsens or even in a waterfall park like the 7-waterfall trail can have stamps!
Here’s where I’ve gotten souvenir stamps before while on my visit to Japan:
- Train stations
- Special tourist trains have their own stamps on board
- Subway stations (some, not all)
- Monorail stations
- Bus stations, plus highway rest stops when on intercity bus trips
- Museums, castles, and most tourist places in general
- Stationery stores
- Parks and historical sites
- Tourist Centers
Where are the stamps located?
As I mentioned, finding the stamps themselves can be a bit like a scavenger hunt. The stamps are usually placed on a table near the gate (where you tap your train card/ tickets)! Just open your notebook and start stamping around!
Not every station has them out front though so sometimes if you don’t see the stamp right away it’s best to ask a staff member if they have them behind the counter.
How to Ask Staff for an Eki Stamp
Don’t speak Japanese? No problem! I’ve gotten by just with these two phrases:
Eki stampu ari-mas-ka? which means “Is there a station stamp?”
Eki stampu doko-des-ka? which means “Where is the station stamp?”
If you are still panicking, please do not stress yourself out. Often I just held up my notebook and said “eki stampu?” in a hopeful tone of voice. Almost 9 times out of 10 they knew exactly what we were looking for.
Japanese Eki Stamp Resources
Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive English-language list of all souvenir stamps and their locations, BUT Japanese collectors have done a great job compiling info online.
Here’s the best resources I’ve found so far:
- https://stamp.funakiya.com/en/ is the easiest-to-use website, with a comprehensive listing of stamps in train stations and beyond. Here’s the tourist spots in Japan with stamps, for instance!
- http://eki-stamp.com (English translated version) which also has a discussion board (all in Japanese).
- http://stamp.otimusya.com/index.php (English translated version) which has good images of the stamps themselves and the locations, but I find it a bit difficult to use the website.
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Trip: June 2024
Copyright Notice: All material on this travel blog site is the sole property of Travel Munchers. This includes blog posts, pages, design and all photos (whether watermarked or not). Any use of materials from this site without express written consent will be considered copyright infringement.
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