Here you can see the unmistakable ‘noses’ of a couple of Japanese Shinkansen Super Express trains, although you might know these better as ‘Bullet Trains’. Their nickname is well deserved however, as they regularly run at speeds of 300 kilometres (185 miles) per hour… and they actually plan to increase that speed to 360 km/h!

Woah, that’s a whole heap faster than Scotrail ever gets

Can anyone find one of the Doctor Yellow trains which they use for testing the tracks? They shouldn’t be that difficult to spot (being that they’re bright yellow) but there’s only ever been 5 of them, and they generally only run at night…

There’s loads of really interesting stuff about this incredible feat of engineering over at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Flo, and me

I think this is downtown Tokyo. It almost looks like an isometric view because of the angle that the photo was taken at. You often can’t tell the height of buildings when looking at them on Maps but this view illustrates just how tall these buildings really are.

Thanks: Eric & Andros.

This is Hachiko Square, the famous “busy pedestrians” road junction in Tokyo where everyone is waiting patiently to cross the road and then surging over. On Google Maps it is the cross roads with the wide white stripes going around the square and one across the middle. It’s been in loads of films but most recently Lost In Translation, where Bill Murray and (the lovely) Scarlett Johanssen wandered around it.

Thanks Francois Jordaan.

Here is a great shot of Miyakejima Satsuma-Iwojima Island off the coast of Japan. It is volcanic in origin and the big volcano is Mount Oyama. This has erupted several times in recent history. A lava flow in 1940 killed 11 people, and other eruptions occurred in 1962 and 1983. In 2000, Mount Oyama began another series of eruptions and the island had to be evacuated. The residents were only allowed to return permanently in February, 2005! (I suck)

Thanks seamus & Tomoya (for the corrections).

Completing the set of Disney Parks is the Tokyo Disney Resort. The resort is split into two main sections, Tokyo Disneyland Park, with the usual magic mountain, etc. and Tokyo DisneySea Park which is based around various themed ‘ports’. One such port is “American Waterfront” which features the S.S.Columbia, a boat that has nowhere to go.

To the west, along the water front, is the Official Hotels and to the north east is the Ikspiari Shopping Centre (with large type).

Thanks: Rich Pav, Adam Crownoble, Greg Askins, Adam Wanderman, Andy, Jim Gerard, Kain, Dave, Johan, Joe, Josh Stevens, bird & Fero GUNIC