Tokyo Extras: souvenir stampers
When we were planning our second trip to Tokyo, we kept reading mentions of souvenir stampers. These are large custom stamps situated at major attractions and the suggestion was that you should give your child a notebook and get them to collect stamps during the visit. Now, call me childish, but I love stampers so we were on the lookout at all times. It turned out that most of the stampers are beautiful and intricate and well worth collecting. They usually have an image of the attraction and come complete with the date so you can be reminded of when exactly you visited. Some places even had special paper sheets that you could use the stampers on and fold into a little book. They are very popular with children and we eventually ended up battling with groups of Japanese children to get our stamps for the day.
I’ve scanned in a selection of the ones I collected so you can have a look. At the top are stampers for the gardens at Meiji Shrine and Ueno Zoo, home of Ling Ling the Giant Panda. We visited both on the same day.
Train stations even have their own stampers. These are Hamamatsucho and Nippori.
More stampers below.
Sunshine City stampers for the aquarium and observatory.
Tokyo Sea Life Park had three different stampers and a little booklet available to stamp them in.
There were heaps of stampers at the Tama Depa, most commemorating the Tamagotchi/Japan Airlines deal.
I leave you with my favourite, from the Parasite Museum. Someone really thought about this one too much!
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I love these! It’s so Japanese; in Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS, you have a little journal and collect stamps from stamp stations at the places you visit… to do this in real life would be just brilliant! :)
Molly´s last blog ..mollylaurel: I can haz tummy clock! Started rumbling at exactly 1pm. :D
Hi! Great site, but I got a question about the stamps. How did you get them? was there something (a booth???) to look out for? I mean, how did you know where to go, and who to ask to get them?
Again, great site! I’ve been here for hours. lol@me
Oh wow, another reason to get the new Zelda.
Pattie – they are not easy to find, you need to keep a sharp lookout. At museums, parks etc. they are usually at the entrance or information kiosk. At train stations, there should be a booth like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reggysan/685664308/ showing all the stations (we only found a couple through). Once you start collecting them you just have to look everywhere you go. I might learn up the Japanese for souvenir stamp before I go back :)