Monday, January 05, 2009

Japanese Google Maps Round-Up

Japanese Castle Explorer

If you are planning a trip to Japan, this is one map you should definitely check out. The Japanese Castle Explorer is a beautiful looking map that shows the locations of Japan's most famous (and plenty of lesser known) castles.

The map includes a number of well thought out and handy features. For example each castle, comes with a 'best view' button, which when pressed zooms the map in to the best satelitte view of the castle. The map also comes with a 'random castle' button, a 'region' button (which shows the castles in Japan's different regions) and links to more detailed information on each castle.

So even if you aren't planning a trip to Japan you should definitely make a virtual visit via this map.

Hitotoki

The word Hitotoki is a Japanese noun comprised of two components: hito or “one” and toki or “time,” and is often translated as “a moment.” In common usage, it can be used to describe any brief, singular stretch of time. The Hitotoki maps try to map some of these singular moments in time.

Think Twitter Map with more insightful and better written Tweets.

Hitotoki has been featured on Google Maps Mania before. However since then it has expanded and now offers not just a Tokyo map but maps of New York, London, Paris, Shanhai and Sofia.

Tokyo Map

This interactive Google Map of Tokyo contains over 450 points of interest in the city including airports, temples, hotels, parks and gardens.

The map includes summary information, pictures and links to more detailed information for most of the points of interests. The different categories for the map markers can be selected from the 'legend'. It is therefore possible to view any combination of map markers.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Japanese Castle Explorer has moved (and massively updated with more content & now with a database backend.)

http://www.japanese-castle-explorer.com/

Keir Clarke said...

@kyushudan - I love those map markers.