It feels a bit strange to make a travel report on a country I live in, but I think this will be of interest to those either planning to visit Japan in the future, and/or those who want to send cards to be cancelled by certain post offices. As many are aware, Japan may be the GOAT when it comes to scenic cancels, as there are well over 10,000 available around the country. For the past few months I have been slowly (but steadily) working on a Google map of all the scenic cancels, seen here. Note: the first layer has the most recent/updated cancels from the Japan Post website, and I’ve mostly built up the Kansai area (where I live) cancels that are the older, more established ones (third layer). The Kyoto area alone (city+prefecture) took me about 8 hours to finish, so this is a long, ongoing process as I am working on it one region at a time (I’m about 20% finished).
In any event, I am interested not only in collecting scenic cancels, but especially in getting those that match the Gotochi cards that are available for all 47 prefectures. On the map that I’ve created, these matched fukei-in and Gotochi cards are indicated by stars. The Gotochi cards of course reflect what is the most well-known about a certain prefecture, but I’m finding the combination of Gotochi+fukei-in as a new way of exploring interesting places to visit. So without further ado, here is what I did:
The Kansai region is made up of 7 prefectures: Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Shiga, Hyogo, Wakayama, and Mie. I think the first three are the most well-known to foreign tourists, the other 4 are not. I recently did a road trip around Mie and Wakayama, 2 prefectures that make up the bulk of the Kii Peninsula (along with Nara). Note: I did not visit every pin on the map, even though I had hoped to.
Mie is most well-known for Ise Shrine, the most important shrine in the country (but NOT a World Heritage Site, due to the fact that it is reconstructed every 20 years), and Wakayama is known for the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage (connected to the Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage in Spain - if you do both you can get a certificate that makes you a dual pilgrim) - the sites here are World Heritage. The most famous part of the Kumano Kodo is Koya-san, a mountain that once had over 2000 Buddhist temples, and still marks the beginning (or the end) of the pilgrimage. There are a number of Gotochi cards and fukei-in scenic cancels that I was able to obtain while road-tripping around the peninsula, and they include:
Meota-Iwa, the “wedded rocks”. This is in Futami, a coastal area of Ise.
The Ama divers (female pearl divers) of Toba, further down the coast from Ise.
There are a number of cancels that feature these divers, but I was only able to get one as I only had time to visit one post office before day’s end. I also got this cancel on the “Pearl” Gotochi card.
The Oniga-jo (demon castle) and fireworks of Kumano.
Not exactly the right view, but the real view of this card was unaccessible due to damage from a recent typhoon.
Shrine maidens walking the Kumano Kodo trail.
I love the fukei-in for this, and the post office that has it is a tiny little branch office on a tiny one-car road in the middle of nowhere. They encouraged me to hand cancel the stamps myself, but I sort of regret it, since they are all smudged as I don’t have a good technique of getting a nice, clean cancel.
The tiny post office where I got this cancel:
There are other scenic cancels that are in this area that I wasn’t able to get, either due to lack of time, or because I couldn’t find the Gotochi card needed in any of the local post offices.
These include: Iga-ryu Ninja with Ueno Castle (Mie), banko ware (Mie), Matsusaka beef (Mie), Ise Shrimp (Mie), Koyasan Danjo Garan (Koya-san, Wakayama), and Whale (Wakayama - a bit of a controversial one). The last two were not possible for me due to the lack of cards in the post offices, even though I had time to visit specific post offices for the scenic cancels.
In addition to this, I was able to visit some other postal-related sites.
In Mie, there’s a road called the “Skyline Road” that winds through the mountains between Ise and Toba. At the peak, in addition to the amazing coastal views, is a post office box and a broomstick, to allow you to fulfill your “Kiki’s Delivery Service” fantasies. I took a number of photos for the young people there, but as I could barely jump off the ground with my bad knees and back I have no good photos of myself. Unfortunately I got there right a 5 p.m. when the gift shop had just closed, so I couldn’t buy any postcards from this place and/or get the cancel for this postbox.
The iconic mailbox
As mentioned above, Wakayama is famous for the Kumano Kodo and one of the most important shrines there is Kumano Hongu Taisha. The official World Heritage center is directly across the street from it, and sells nice postcards of the shrine. Not only is it the head shrine for all Kumano shrines in the country, it also features its own unique postbox, which is topped with a crow (the crow is a symbol of the shrine). Almost all shrines and temples in Japan have small wooden plaques called “ema” which features an image particular to the temple/shrine on one side, and allows worshippers/visitors to write wishes on the blank side. This may be the only shrine in the country that allows you to buy a special ema that features a postbox, and then allows you to mail that ema as a postcard anywhere you want. Of course I mailed one to myself (and got it within 2 days), but I also sent one as an official Postcrossing postcard as well. I sure hope it makes it!
Crow mailbox
Kumano Hongu Taisha ema postcard
Posting the ema postcard
Another interesting location was the underwater postbox located in Susami, Wakayama, just south of Shirahama, which is famous for its beaches (but I didn’t have time to go there). While in Susami I was able to write a number of postcards to be posted in the underwater postbox. The cards have the postage pre-paid, and the place where you buy them have markers that you can use to write and decorate the cards (they are pretty basic). The diver there told me he would post them on that morning’s dive (a Friday), and that the postbox would be emptied the following Tuesday. I received the one I mailed to myself about a week after writing it.
Retired underwater mailbox
Underwater postcards ready to be mailed
Not far from Susami is the “Postal Bridge”, a bridge that is connected to the early days of the postal service in Japan, and it features a number of stone postboxes at the start of the bridge. I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it, but it was kind of on the way back home so I had a quick stop there.
Postal Bridge (Yubin-Bashi) Monument
Other side of the bridge
I ended my trip in Wakayama with a nice train ride down to Kishi, the rail station known for having a cat station master. This line was going to shut down, but the popularity of the cat station master (known as Tama) not only revived the line, but earned enough money to rebuild the station in cat form, with cafe and gift shop that features the cat (after Tama passed away, her role was taken over by Nitama (Tama the Second), who was resting peacefully in her spot the entire time I was there. There are plenty of Tama (and successors) goods there - postcards, washi tape, cookies, etc. It was a fun way to end the trip as I have always wanted to visit this station and see the cat (and send some postcards from there as well).
Tama Train
Nitama on her perch
) at the bus stop with me. 