“Look mum, there’s a boat driving down the Queen’s road in Bournemouth!”

Spoiler: Careful examination of the bridge’s shadow will explain this mystery… Still looks pretty cool though!

Thanks to ajho.

Thank you to everyone who entered our Free Book competition which ended last week. We were overwhelmed with almost 1000 unique entries and our glamorous assistant picked the following random five people to receive free signed copies of Not in the Guide Book…

• Tom Davis, PA, U.S.A
• Robert Sanchez, Salamanca, Spain
• Ian McCurdy, MI, U.S.A
• Nico Korn, Belgershain, Germany
• Andrena Harrison, Bucks, United Kingdom

Congratulations to you all, and commiserations to the many who we couldn’t give a free book to.

If you didn’t win then online book stores around the globe are still able to deliver in time for Christmas, so you can still get a copy for your Brother / Son / Nephew / Father / Uncle or even yourself at the following sites: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp or Bokus.com (Sweden).

Continuing last week’s post about inventive use of space in Japan, today’s feature is Toyosaki, a 160 hectare area built on reclaimed land.

The development is just outside Tomigusuku City, and due to its proximity to Naha Airport they’ve made use of the advertising opportunity with some very neat large type that says something along the lines of “For Rent – Project Toyosaki under development”.

More info here (with land prices, if you’re interested).

Thanks: asteinmetz

Just after yesterday’s announcement of New Google Earth version 4 betas the team have sneaked out another, as yet unannounced, imagery update.

Although it’s not clear where has or hasn’t been updated it is already clear that this is the best update EVER. Why? This update includes recent high-resolution images from Scotland’s capital city, and home of Google Sightseeing HQ, Edinburgh!

As usual the images haven’t made their way into Google Maps yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long.

Update: The imagery update now been officially announced (along with a terrain update), here’s the rundown:

• Digital Globe updates all over the globe with the most notable being large content additions in Somalia and Australia
• Updated US states: Indiana and Delaware
• Miscellaneous high res cities and counties in North America: Monterey Bay, CA; Yakima County, WA; Summerland, Canada; Greater East Wenatchee, WA; Polk County, IA; Warren County IA; and Bay County, FL
• Small high-res updates in the UK (Swansea, Edinburgh, Doncaster, Gwent) and expanded London coverage
• High-res update in Bremerhaven, Germany.
• Newer imagery for Lanzarote (Canary Islands)
• Google Earth Blog-supplied XPrizeCup flyover and the Sanford, NC airport
• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
• Foo Camp @ O’Reilly Headquarters in Sebastapol, CA

With a population of around 35 million people, Tokyo is officially the world’s most populous metropolitan area. As there’s so little space to go around, the people of Tokyo have to be a bit inventive with where they put things…

For example, here’s an Adidas branded football stadium that’s been assembled on top of a building. It was featured in the Fast and the Furious 3 (apparently… has anyone actually seen that movie?)

Meanwhile (reminding me a lot of New York’s 77 Water Street Biplane), an ‘Electronics school’ has parked a small plane on their roof. Google Earth Forum member DJJackD visited the plane (which is held down with ropes – presumably to stop someone flying off in it ), but didn’t manage to find out its origin… Can anyone out there fill in the blanks?

Thanks to Max and DJJackD & Lrae of the GEC.