Before a trip, I try and do my homework! We went to Japan in January last year, and somewhere I had read that there is a great hobby in Japan called "Stamp Collecting"! It's not your usual type of stamp collecting, or philately, but collecting ink stamp impressions found in places including museums, castles, temples and shrines and even railway stations! It was suggested that one should take a little notebook with suitable paper to absorb the ink - handmade paper, surprisingly isn't to be recommended as it may not be smooth enough so won't give an clear, even print! If you're about to go to Japan and want to do this, it may well be worth experimenting beforehand with paper and an ink pad to be well prepared. Some of the ink pads are obviously well used so results are not always perfect!However, all good stationery departments have lovely notebooks suitable for this purpose. One of our favourite shops was LOFT, a department store we came across in Tokyo, Kyoto, Matsumoto and Kanazawa!! The first ink stamp point I found was in Ueno station where we went on our first evening to validate our Japanese rail passes.
(Ueno station, Tokyo - above)
Some are located in obvious places such as the entrance to a garden, as in the case of this one from the Koyosumi gardens, Tokyo, (right).
Most have Japanese kanji but some in larger tourist areas also have English script such as the one shown below left from Nara.
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