In Japan, even sewage plates can become travel memories. Since 2016, the Manhole Cards have invited residents and visitors to take an interest in these ordinary elements of the urban landscape, often decorated with patterns representing the symbols of a city, region or community. Free and distributed in specific locations, they are an original way to discover Japan differently: to get a map, you usually have to travel, find the right distribution point and sometimes slightly change its route.
What is a Manhole Card?
A Manhole Card, known in Japan, is a collection card dedicated to a decorated sewer plate. The programme is led by the GKP, a Japanese initiative dedicated to upgrading and raising awareness around sanitation networks.
The idea may seem surprising, but it fits perfectly with a particularity of Japan: everyday infrastructure is often thought with real aesthetic attention. Colourful sewage plates can represent a popular character, an animal, a flower, a monument, a local event or a symbol particularly associated with a municipality.
The maps thus allow us to transform a curiosity seen in the street into a real object of collection. The principle is also linked to local tourism: to get a map, you have to go to the city or neighbourhood concerned, which encourages visitors to discover places sometimes far from the traditional tourist routes.
The program started with a few dozen cards in 2016 and has grown considerably since then. The Japanese Ministry of Territories, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism indicated several hundred participating communities a few years after its launch.
Why are the Manhole Cards interesting for travellers?
The first reason is obviously their graphic aspect. Some cards are particularly successful and keep a very different memory of a magnet, a postcard or a keychain.
But their interest is not limited to design. Each card usually tells something about the territory where it is distributed.
An animal can refer to local wildlife, a flower to the vegetation of the area, a character to a popular work or a monument to a tourist site. The motif of the plaque thus allows to discover a small part of the local identity.
It is also an excellent way to get out of the usual routes. A city that we would have simply crossed can suddenly become an interesting stage because a map is available there.
For collectors, therefore, the pleasure comes as much from the search as from the card itself: to identify a map, to locate its distribution point, to organize the move and finally to recover it.
Where do we find the Manhole Cards?
This is probably the most important point to understand before starting a collection:the map is not usually distributed to the exact location of the represented sewage plate.
The place of distribution is chosen by the participating community. It can be a tourist office, a municipal building, a museum, a local infrastructure establishment, an information centre or other public facilities.
The plate shown on the map can therefore be several hundred meters away, or much further from the point where you retrieve the map.
There is therefore a need to distinguish between two informations:
- place of distribution, where you get the Manhole Card;
- Location of the plate, which you can search for to photograph the pattern in its real environment.
This distinction is essential for organizing an effective map hunt.
How to find the Manhole Cards?
The best method is to prepare your search before leaving.
Each card has its own distribution point and conditions. Some cards are available daily, while others depend on the opening hours of an establishment. Closing days may also vary.
This is precisely where an interactive map dedicated to Manhole Cards becomes particularly useful.
Rather than looking for each map separately, you can view the different points on a map of Japan, spot the maps on your itinerary and quickly identify those that are accessible from your steps.
To prepare a trip, it is ideal to do so in three steps: identify the maps close to your itinerary, check the location and distribution times, and then arrange the visit of the plaque itself if you also want to photograph it.
This approach avoids a frequent trap: make a long detour only for a map whose point of distribution is closed on the day of your passage.
A treasure hunt to integrate into your itinerary
The Manhole Cards work particularly well when integrated into an already planned trip.
Are you going to Osaka? Look at what maps are around your visited neighborhoods. Are you going through Kyoto, Nagoya, Hiroshima or Sapporo? Check the maps available near your steps. Are you driving? Some maps can be an excellent reason to take a break in a small town.
This approach gradually transforms a collection into a true travel diary.
One map can correspond to a day in Tokyo, another to a trip to a nearby city and a third to a completely unexpected stage. During the stay, the maps become a geographical trace of your journey in Japan.
For a first trip, however, it is best not to try to collect everything. The number of cards is large enough for a complete collection to require many moves. The most interesting is often to select the maps that actually match your itinerary.
Do we have to pay to get a Manhole Card?
One of the great advantages of the concept is that the Manhole Cards are usually distributed free of charge.
The official principle traditionally provides for the distribution of one card per person and per point of distribution. The Japanese Ministry of Territories, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism recalls that the maps are obtained free of charge by going to the indicated place of distribution.
This obviously does not mean that the collection is totally free. The real cost comes from travel: transport, possible entry into a tourist site or time spent reaching a remote place.
This is why an interactive map is particularly interesting: it allows you to spot cards that can be recovered without disrupting your program.
Attention to distribution times
The free card does not mean that the card is available at any time.
If distribution takes place in a museum, tourist office or municipal building, the schedule of the establishment must be respected. An exceptional closure can also interrupt distribution.
Before moving, always check the most recent information about the point of distribution.
It is also prudent not to expect recovery a few minutes before closing. In some small towns, the location of distribution can be away from the station or tourist centre.
For foreign travellers, another detail may be important: distribution information is sometimes mainly available in Japanese. A map clearly indicating the location, schedules and distribution conditions thus saves a lot of time.
What if the card is exhausted?
The Manhole Cards are sometimes very popular. Some cards can be highly sought after, especially when they represent popular characters, known franchises or particularly original patterns.
We must therefore avoid considering old information found online as a guarantee of availability.
Publishing and distribution evolve over time. The program has also been regularly enriched with new communities and designs. The Japanese ministry has announced over the course of the various editions the arrival of new maps and the gradual expansion of the programme.
For this reason, a good database should ideally indicate not only where to find a map, but also whether the information has been verified recently.
Don’t confuse the card and the plate
One of the pleasures of the collection is to look for both.
You get the card at the point of distribution first. It usually presents the drawing of the plate and information to understand its origin.
You can then go looking for the plate itself.
This second step is not always indispensable, but it makes the collection much more fun. Once in front of the decorated plate, you can compare the actual pattern with the one printed on the map and photograph the set.
This turns a simple recovery into a real little urban treasure hunt.
Plates that tell their territory
Japanese sewage plates are particularly interesting because they often use local symbols.
In a coastal city, the motif may evoke the sea or maritime activity. In a rural area, it can represent a flower, animal or local specialty. In a large city, it can refer to a monument, character or event.
Some communities also use people from popular culture. Collaborations with famous franchises have helped make the decorated plates even more visible to the general public.
These drawings are therefore not chosen at random: they participate in the cultural and tourist communication of the territory.
Manhole Cards and other Japanese collections
The Manhole Cards are part of a wider culture of the collection in Japan.
Travelers often know the Goshuin, obtained in temples and shrines, or the Goshuinchō used to preserve them. Other collections are based on travel stamps, dam maps or maps dedicated to certain sites and infrastructures.
The logic is similar: the object becomes a pretext to travel the territory.
The Manhole Cards, however, have an interesting feature. They are directly linked to urban infrastructure and thus allow to discover a very daily facet of Japan.
For travellers who love unusual details, they are an excellent gateway to another reading of Japanese cities.
How to organize a collection during a trip?
It is not necessary to build an entire journey around the Manhole Cards.
Instead, start with your main route. Once the steps are defined, use the interactive map to locate the maps available nearby.
It can be useful to create several categories: maps directly on the route, maps accessible with a small detour and maps requiring a specific displacement.
This organization maintains flexibility.
A good travel collection is not necessarily the one with the most cards. This is the one that reminds you of the places you actually visited.
The interactive map: your best tool to find them
For travellers who want to start, a dedicated interactive map greatly simplifies the preparation.
It allows you to view distribution points across Japan, search for a city or region, and identify maps close to a given stage.
The ideal is to consult the map before each day of travel rather than planning everything several months in advance. Schedules, distribution conditions or availability may change.
You can also use the map to prepare interesting detours: if two maps are in nearby cities, their recovery can become a small excursion during your trip.
Manhole Cards Collection Japan: The Android app to find cards in real time
Some tips for collectors
Keep a rigid pouch or small binder to avoid folding cards while you travel. Even if they are free, some quickly become important memories of your trip.
Also note the already recovered cards. When the collection begins to expand, designs can become difficult to distinguish and some cities have several maps.
Finally, take the time to look at the plaque represented before leaving for it. You will often discover that it contains a symbol or a detail that tells something about the city.
The Manhole Cards are ultimately less a collection of cards than an invitation to look differently at Japanese streets. Looking up at temples and skyscrapers, but also looking at the ground, we sometimes discover a small part of local history that we would otherwise have ignored.
The Manhole Cards offer an original way to travel to Japan: they are free, easy to collect and especially intimately linked to the territories that distribute them. By integrating them into your itinerary rather than trying to get them all, you can turn simple trips into small explorations. With an interactive map to locate distribution points and prepare your detours, this plate hunt becomes a real thread to discover Japan differently.
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