Love Live! Sunshine!! Manhole Covers in Numazu: Start at the Station

An arrival with a small surprise

A good fan trip has room for the ordinary moments between the famous locations. Leaving a station, stopping to get your bearings and recognizing a design underfoot can be one of them. Numazu’s manhole covers turn that pause into part of the visit, bringing the connection with Love Live! Sunshine!! into everyday public space.

The June addition was donated by JR Central. Its position near the south side of Numazu Station makes it a useful first stop, but use the municipal placement information for the final approach. A station has several exits and forecourts; a broad label such as ‘station area’ is not a substitute for the actual installation point.

Read the series as a set of encounters

There is no need to make the total number a target for your first visit. Choose the designs that interest you, compare their positions and leave space for the rest of the day. A cover is most enjoyable when it helps you notice a street you might otherwise pass through without looking.

Photograph the whole lid before moving closer to small details. That first image preserves the composition and makes it easier to compare designs later. Then take one view of the surroundings. It will help you remember where you found the artwork, especially when several photos show similar paving or a similar color palette.

The card counter is a separate stop

Numazu’s Love Live! Sunshine!! Manhole Card features Aqours. The municipal distribution page places the counter at Numazu Tourist Information, on the second floor of the station’s Antre building, with published distribution hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is free, in person, one per visitor; reservations and postal delivery are not offered.

Stock is a live condition, so check the city’s notice before making a special journey. The card program gives you another way to look at the design, but finding a lid does not guarantee that a counter is open or has cards. Visit the staffed location during its hours, then give the outdoor portion whatever time remains.

Look beyond the collaboration

The city also describes a different cover and card showing Mount Fuji beyond local scenery, with the hamayu flower in the foreground. It offers a useful comparison with the character series: both designs explain something about Numazu, but through different kinds of recognition.

You might begin the day searching for a favorite character and end it noticing how a city chooses to represent itself. Put the two images side by side in your travel notes. Which details belong to the story you already knew, and which introduced you to the place? That small act of comparison gives a collection more meaning than a count alone.

Keep the visit current

Use the date on a maintenance notice carefully. Numazu’s official tourism site published a temporary cover-removal notice for March 26 to April 9, 2026; that past window should not be read as a current closure. Equally, an older visitor photograph cannot guarantee today’s condition. The most useful preparation is a quick check of current city and tourism updates before you go.

Official and primary sources

Open the current source before travel. These links support the guide; they do not imply affiliation or permission to reproduce official images.

• Numazu City: JR Central collaboration installation report (Japanese)
• Numazu City: Love Live! Sunshine!! and local-design Manhole Cards (Japanese)
• Numazu official tourism: dated March–April 2026 maintenance notice (Japanese)