Sharing some of my Japan junk journal pages, and some travel junk journal tips

I've always enjoyed documenting my travels. Even when I was a child I would fill notebooks with things that I collected on holiday - tickets, postcards, food labels and pictures cut out from tourist leaflets. Over the last few years I've sadly fallen out of the habit, but I was determined to make an effort on our holiday this summer to Japan, and I'm so glad that I did! 

Here is a look at the Japan junk journal that I put together with ephemera and notes from our trip. 

Some people like to make their own journals from scrap materials. But to make things easier I used a really simple sketchbook as the base for my travel junk journal, one from a pack of three from Hobbycraft. I removed the centre two pages so that I had enough room to add some extra bulk, and I glued everything in using a glue stick. In total my junk journal has a title page, back page, and fifteen double page spreads. 

I chose to work on my journal when I returned home rather than try and find time while I was away. I took with me a couple of plastic wallets so that I could collect things as I went along, and I did pack a small pair of scissors so that I could cut up leaflets and magazines while I was away to save on luggage space.

I'm quite a neat person, and so I have quite a tidy junk journal compared to others that I've seen online! Most of the items that I've glued in are completely flat. One exception is this paper crane which I folded as part of my Hiroshima page. Paper cranes are such a huge part of the Hiroshima memorials, and I wanted to reflect that, as well as the experience of folding my own crane for the journal. The crane and background are made from some lovely origami papers which I picked up in one of the stationery shops.

Sometimes I had a larger leaflet that I wanted to include so I added some fold out elements, like on this page from Osaka. I'm so glad that Japan still has printed tickets for many attractions, I really miss having a physical ticket to remind me of somewhere that I've been now that everything is done with QR codes!

One of my Kyoto pages features the wonderful Arashiyama Monkey Park. I also added the packaging from the fan that I bought, which barely left my hand during our visit during a heatwave, and a small folded paper fortune that I bought from a box by the side of the road. I didn't even unfold it because I was worried I wouldn't be able to put it back together, so I hope that it's a lucky one!

We spent two days at Tokyo Disneyland, which was amazing. My Disneyland pages have a little more journalling because I wanted to make some notes about the rides which are exclusive to the Tokyo parks. I found a couple of postcards that I could take from the hotel room, and I had a roll of stickers to decorate with featuring the most popular Japanese Disney characters, which I received once as a gift on a Disney cruise ship.

My page from our visit to Mount Fuji features some of the tourist souvenir stamps which are everywhere in Japan. A regret from our holiday is that I didn't bring a separate notebook to collect these stamps, although I think that I would have become obsessive about collecting them so it's probably a good thing that I didn't - we might have missed some trains while I was hunting for a station stamp!

Finally, I couldn't resist a page dedicated to cats, as they are so popular in Japan. I used the leaflet from the Cat Café that we visited, added some of the many cat stickers that I bought, and stuck in some of the little leaflets from inside the gachapon vending machines, where we spent far too much money and I was specifically hunting for cat themed items. 

I'm so glad that I invested a little bit of time and effort into putting together this travel junk journal. It's a really simple way to remember a trip and to have a home for all the little bits of paper and other ephemera that you collect when travelling.

Here are some (mostly free!) items which are perfect to collect and add to your travel junk journal:

Postcards

Tourist leaflets, maps

Stickers, washi tape, patterned papers, tissue paper

Food packaging, tea bag tags

Train tickets, attraction tickets, receipts (be aware that anything printed on thermal paper may fade)

Business cards from hotels, restaurants etc.

Napkins, straw holders, paper coasters, tray liners from fast food restaurants

Newspaper and magazine cuttings, especially if anything newsworthy happened while you were visiting

Hotel amenity packaging, key card holders, hotel postcards, writing paper and envelopes

And some things in my journal which are specific to Japan - souvenir tourist stamps (carry some sheets of blank paper with you if you don't have a dedicated notebook!), fortune papers from shrines, gachapon toy leaflets (look for machines with items local to the place that you are visiting), origami paper, newspaper cuttings