Eki Stamps

I'm a foreigner living in Japan and have become addicted to collecting eki / commemorative stamps. I am going to Kansai soon and I'm looking for advice on which places have stamps. For example, do the subway lines in Osaka have them, or only JR? Which tourist attractions in Kansai have them? Do any temples in Kyoto have them and if so, which ones? I was in Tokyo last weekend and wasted a lot of time as only the Yamanote and specific Tobu lines had them.

Is there an online group for people who collect these stamps that I can join?

Also I'm wondering about the history of eki stamps. I've been writing to tourist places I went to last year, and asking them to send the stamps to me in the mail (I've only been doing this for two months and have missed a LOT of opportunities to get them in the past, so I'm trying to collect stamps from places I've been to but didn't get). One of the stamps I received was from Urakami Station in Nagasaki, and it looks REALLY old. Is it possible that this eki stamp design dates back to before WW2? Where do the stamps go once stations get rid of them? Is there a museum somewhere? Who makes the stamps, and do they keep back-ups somewhere? And is there an English website where I can find out the date of when each stamp I've collected was made?

Hi, from what i know they are mostly JR related, however i believe there are also private trains (Ž„“Sjthat also include them.

Is it the one on the right, about halfway down the page? The blogger here says he got the one on the left in January of 1976, and the right one in June 2015.

http://hazumi.typepad.jp/kouken/2014/01/%E9%95%B7%E5%B4%8E%E6%9C%AC%E7...

Thank you, yes, it is the one on the right from 2015. I am surprised that the stamp is so recent, as the design looks very old. Do some places use old designs? So this blogger has been collecting stamps since 1970s? Wow they must have so many!

What happens to the old stamps when a station gets a new one?

They might have a box of them in the station office.

In many cases, you'll have to go to the station office anyhow, to get a stamp. I had to go there for a Metro stamp in Ikebukuro station, and a JR stamp at Ueno station.

Thanks Susan! I've asked at a lot of stations but they've been busy stations so they directed me to the main stamp in the ticket office. Once I was at a small rural station and the stationmaster showed me two different stamps that they kept in the office, so I think you're right that they keep the old ones. Will it annoy them if I ask about rare and special stamps that are not outside on a stamp desk?