We found a nice 25-minute HD video by Helitech Aeroservices where they fly over central Tokyo, showing places like the bay areas near Odaiba, Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower, skyscrapers of Shinjuku and Shibuya, the Imperial Palace, the olympic park, Ueno Park and Tokyo Sky Tree.

Even if you live here, it’s hard to imagine the size of such a megalopolis. There are tons of places where you’ll never go, simply because there’s no need. One or two-hour long train rides from one part to another are something quite normal. Despite the massive concrete jungle of Tokyo, the streets are remarkably clean and traffic is well-managed for pedestrians, bicycles, cars and public transportation. Tokyo has plenty of greenery, especially parks, some of them being so dense and natural looking it makes you think you found yourself somewhere in the forest far away from a big city.

According to the results from the recent World City Survey by TripAdvisor which surveyed 75,000 people to rank 40 key tourist cities in the world, Tokyo ranks the highest in categories for the cleanest streets, friendliest taxi drivers, best taxi services, best public transport and the safest city.

The 180-second commercial from 2011 — which you can watch below — was produced by JR (Japan Railways) to announce the new bullet train line and to show moral support to people in Tohoku. It was filmed on locations in Kyushu where more than 10,000 people showed up along the railroad to offer their support. The rainbow colors you see in the video represent solidarity and connection — the “rainbow bridge” — a characteristic of Japanese people which is especially apparent during times of national disasters.

Photo: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201203190005

When Tokyo Sky Tree opens to public on May 22, you won’t have to ask which station to get off at to see the world’s tallest tower.

This weekend, the former Narihirabashi Station on Tobu Isesaki Line was renamed Tokyo Sky Tree Station. To prepare for a surge in visitors in the coming weeks, the closest station to the city’s newest tourist attracting will now be under major renovation work for about a month.

You decide! Japanese airline ANA has a “Cool Campaign” from February 17th to March 31st with aim to promote tourism in Japan.

They put up a website targeted to foreigners that introduces many old and current Japanese trends through video clips and articles. You get to vote on each featured item whether it’s “cool” or “not so cool”.

By filling out the entry form on the website, you can also win a pair of round-trip tickets to Japan. Hurry!

Movie watching time! Today we are featuring a collection of five pretty awesome Japan time lapse videos that were shared by users on YouTube.

1. Tokyo time lapse (by SamuelCockedey.com):

2. Tokyo time lapse in rush hour (by dige62)

3. Osaka time lapse (by roadragebunny):

4. Japan in autumn (by SamuelCockedey.com):

5. Another Tokyo time lapse (by SamuelCockedey.com):

Just off the coast of Yonaguni Jima, part of the Japanese Ryukyu archipelago, a mysterious underwater formation was discovered in 1986. The submerged stone sculptures resemble stepped pyramids that could have been built by humans.

A marine geologist Masaaki Kimura who has been diving at the site for more than 15 years strongly believes — and is even increasingly more convinced — that these structures are part of a 5000-year-old city that might have been sunk by a massive tsunami, similar to the one that flooded Japan in 1771.

On the contrary, most Japanese and foreign experts who have been researching the site claim that that the formations are neither a sunken city, nor the work of aliens, but a geological phenomenon as a result of the breaking of sandstones, especially in this area with lots of tectonic activity.

Well, what is true and what’s not, only the fish can tell.

JR East has recently announced that its newest shinkansen bullet train of the E5 series will start running in Japan on March 5th.

Last spring, when we took a closer look at the train, the name was still unknown but now we know that the aerodynamic monster will be nicknamed Hayabusa (meaning ‘falcon’ in English).

The brochure (scanned PDF available here) shows some very nice pictures of the prestigious interior and includes the official timetable.

The train, which will operate on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, will transport you between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori in the north of Japan — a distance of about 670 km or 416 miles — in 3 hours and 10 minutes. The main stops will be in the cities of Omiya, Sendai, Hachinohe and Morioka.

Fares will be competitive with highway tolls which you would have to pay when traveling the same distance by car. For example, a one-way ticket between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori will cost 16,370 yen (roughly 146 EUR or $199).

For the official Hayabusa shinkansen web site, click here.

Haneda Airport in Tokyo, the second busiest airport in Asia and fifth in the world, in October 2010 opened up for international flights, becoming the second international airport in Tokyo area besides Narita. Photo: かがみ～/Flickr

Robotized toilets, talking vending machines and restaurants without chairs* are just some of the wonders that a tourist will encounter upon landing on the island of the samurai.

According to the official statistics by the Japanese immigration bureau, a record of 9.44 million foreigners visited Japan in 2010, making this the highest number of visitors since the records began in 1950.

Most visitors arrived from South Korea (2.69 million), followed by mainland Chinese (1.66 million), Taiwanese (1.31 million), Americans (760,000) and Hong Kong citizens (480,000).

The increase was partly due to easing of the rules for obtaining personal tourism visa for Chinese visitors. However, from September the number of visitors from China and Hong Kong quickly decreased because of the rift between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands incident that took place that month.

The number of Japanese who traveled overseas in 2010 increased to 16.64 million, up by 1.19 million from the year before.

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Source: http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201101160165.html

*Traditional Japanese restaurants often have dining areas where guests sit on the floor (on tatami) with low tables without chairs.

View from the Yurikamome train. Photo source: http://www.vincentfollezou.com

If you are visiting Tokyo and want to see and experience something futuristic, many Tokyoites will recommend you to take a comfortable night ride on the Yurikamome Line. This train will take you on a 15 kilometer (roughly 9,3 miles) long route with excellent views along the Tokyo Bay.

Yurikamome, named after the black-headed seagull, a common denizen of Tokyo Bay and the official prefectural bird, is a fully automated, computer controlled railway system without drivers on board (AGT). It’s been running since 1995 and transports more than 160,000 passengers each day. However, it is not the first such line in Japan — this title belongs to the Port Liner in Kobe, which opened back in 1981.

The train glides through one of the most futuristic parts of the city, through a jungle of skyscrapers that are high enough to make it difficult to see the bottom or the top. The Yurikamome makes a huge 270-degree loop during travel, providing a very nice panoramic view of the city and Tokyo Bay. It also crosses the famous Rainbow Bridge and runs through the artificial island of Odaiba.

As you travel on the elevated tracks through the maze of ultra-modern high-rise, you can’t help but get the feeling — especially at night — that you just found yourself in the middle of some scene that could have come straight from Blade Runner.

For the best view from the train, seat yourself on the front seats in the first or the last car. Both ends of the train offer a great view through the large windows.

What does a ride on Yurikamome look like at night? Watch this video:

A Youtuber named cat2525jp went a step further and created a very impressive video with a mirrored effect. His cool sci-fi creation called Tokyo Sky Drive can be seen below in two versions:

Tokyo Sky Drive Version 1

Tokyo Sky Drive Version 2

A scale model of the new maglev train L0 by JR Tokai. (Source: Asahi Shimbun)

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) a few days ago unveiled its model for the new maglev train that will link Tokyo and Nagoya (later Osaka) starting around 2027 on the planned Chuo Shinkansen Line.

Maglev (short for magnetic levitation) is a type of train that levitates in a strong magnetic field and can reach extremely high speeds due to magnetic superconductors.

The manufacturing of the new trains, named “L0″ (L as in “Linear”) will start in March 2011. The 28-meter-long front car will seat 24 passengers, while the other cars will seat 68. The nose of the front car will extend 15 meters in order to aerodynamically reduce noise when passing through tunnels.

The company says the trains will be painted in a white and blue pattern to give a better impression of high speed.

The train will reach a maximum speed of 500 km/h (311 mph), enabling it to transport passengers between Tokyo (Shinagawa Station) and Nagoya in 40 minutes, and Tokyo and Osaka in 1 hour and 7 minutes.  At the present, trains can travel between Tokyo and Osaka in 2 hours and 25 minutes.

The train is planned to run in a tunnel for more than 60% of the entire line, and 40 meters underground for a total of 100 km in the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas.

Trial runs will begin in 2013 in Tsuru, Yamanashi Prefecture.

JR Tokai operates some of the safest bullet trains in the world. Throughout their 44 years of commercial train operations, they have maintained a flawless record of no passenger fatalities or injuries due to accidents such as collision or derailment. In central Japan, they operate 323 high-speed trains per day with an average delay of just 0.6 minutes.

Currently, the most well-known high-speed maglev train in commercial operation is the Shanghai Maglev Train in China, which transports people 30 km between the airport and the city in just 7 minutes and 20 seconds.