Mark Does Japan: The collection

1 February 2026 Filed in: Travel

The blog sucks to try to read in order since it is shown newest post first and the permanent link ids don’t increase in a simple sequence so here’s a list of links to the posts, but first an approximate map of my trip (most of it on trains except for two day tours in a taxi). I effectively flew into Asahikawa in Hokkaido (it was a domestic flight from Haneda), and flew out of Haneda.

A map of Japan showing the major railway lines. Over this map I have marked my journey.

My route for the trip in orange and hotel stops in cyan.

Day 1 & 2: Travel to Asahikawa
Day 3: Lazy post flight day in Asahikawa
Day 4: Taxi tour around Biei region
Day 5: Day trip to Cape Soya
Day 6: Transfer to Sapporo and University of Hokkaido Gingko Avenue
Day 7: Hill of Buddha and Mt. Moiwa Ropeway
Day 8: Hokkaido Museum and the Sapporo Beer Museum
Day 9: Transfer to Otaru and orientation
Day 10: Otaru Art Base museums
Day 11: Day trip to Kutchan
Day 12: Final museum in Otaru and transfer to Hakodate via Kutchan
Day 13: Goryokaku Fort and the train ticket machine
Day 14: Hiking Mount Hakodate
Day 15: Transfer to Hirosaki, via the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of the Lighthouse
Day 16: Second taxi tour, Lake Juniko – Takayama Inari Shrine – Tsuru no Mai Bridge
Day 17: Hirosaki Castle and Park (with an Apple Fair) and the Apple Orchard Railway to Owani
Day 18: Hirosaki, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Kongozan Saisho-in, and Hirosaki Neputa-no-Yakata Museum
Day 19: Transfer to Shin-Aomori and the UNESCO World Heritage Sannai Maruyama Site
Day 20: Transfer to Aomori, Nebuta Museum WA RASSE, and then onto Oirase Gorge
Day 21: Hike the length of the Oirase Gorge with some additional photos
Day 22: Rainy day in the Oirase Gorge
Day 23: Trains to Matsumoto
Day 24: Matsumoto: Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, and the Matsumoto City Museum of Art
Day 25: Matsumoto Castle
Day 26: Transfer to Kanazawa via the Kurobe Gorge
Day 27: Lazy day in Kanazawa, National Crafts Museum, preferctural Museum of History, and Kaga-Honda Museum
Day 28: Kanazawa, Samurai district, the Omicho Market, Kanazawa Castle Park and Kenroku-en
Day 29: Kanazawa, Geiko day, visit the three districts and have a tour & performance at a teahouse
Day 30: Transfer to Himeji
Day 31: Day trip to Ashya for a visit to the Yodoko Guest House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Day 32: Himeji Castle
Day 33: Transfer to Takamatsu via Naoshima
Day 34: Takamatsu, Ritsurin Garden
Day 35: Transfer to Hiroshima via Okayama and Koraku-en
Day 36: Miyajima
Day 37: Transfer to Iwakuni, Kintaikyo Bridge
Day 38: Day trip on the Nishikigawa Seiryū Line (no stop at Seiryu Miharashi Station sadly)
Day 39: Transfer to Nagasaki, Mt Inasa
Day 40: Nagasaki, Peace Park, Urakami Cathedral, Dejima, Oura Cathedral, and Glover Garden
Day 41: Transfer to Hakata, Fukuoka Art Museum
Day 42: Day trip to Kagoshima and Sakurajima
Day 43: Hakata, Kushida Shrine, Contemporary Art Museum, Shofukuji before N700S to Tokyo
Day 44: Lunch with a friend in Ginza
Day 45: Day trip to Enoshima and Kamakura using Shonan monorail
Day 46: Tokyo autumn leaves in Ueno Park and Imperial Palace East National Gardens and observatory in Shinjuku
Day 47: Depart for home via an afternoon in Hong Kong

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Mark Does Japan: Eki Stamps

3 January 2026 Filed in: Travel

If you are travelling on trains in Japan then collecting eki (station) stamps can give you a fun reminder of the trip. Finding the stamp location can be a challenge in some stations, especially if there are crowds and you are in a hurry, and sometimes the ink needs some TLC too but that’s also part of the challenge. Mostly the stamps are near the ticket office but sometimes they are “hidden” inside the gates so you need to scan for them before going through the gates in both directions. Some tourist attractions also have them, and gardens seem to have a trail of them.
In Japan you can buy eki stamp books to stamp but I made my own, Vistaprint can make a notebook with unlined pages.

Initially I was going to try to add the stamps for each single journey on the one page but that seemed over the top when my first day on the rails was a trip from Asahikawa to Cape Soya and back so just the day’s stamps were sufficient. Then I was concerned about the quality of the stamp, should I do a test stamp to check the ink? I decided that what the ink produced was enough (there was a story in the sad ink pads too). It would have been good to collect more but some stations didn’t have them (I asked in a couple of staffed stations where the staff weren’t busy) and in others (Hello Tokyo) I just couldn’t find it. Here is a scan of my collection:

Asahikawa and Wakkanai

Asahikawa and Sapporo

Sapporo Tourist Information Office

I couldn’t find the stamp in the Sapporo station so I asked at the Tourist Information Centre in the station and they told me it was inside the gates in the middle of the station (unlike Asihakawa where it was outside next to a column near the gates) but they had some too so these are theirs.