-------- Original Message -------- Subject: maps of japan pt2 Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 14:11:08 +0200 From: Brendan Whyte <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] More Information on maps in Japan. The Super Mapple Street Directory of Tokyo and surrounds (mentioned yesterday) can be seen at http://www.mapple.co.jp/publ/sm.html Mapple also produce excellent hiking maps at 1:50,000 scale. These can be seen at http://www.mapple.co.jp/publ/yama.html There are about 60 sheets in the series, covering all the main hiking areas of Japan. They are printed on plasticised paper, so are water/tear-proof, and are superior to the standard topo map series because they have shaded relief, altitude tints, detial bus routes and bus stops (useful to access trialheads etc), and highlight trackswith times for ascent/descent printed on the map next to each trail segment. They also highlight the placenames (in kanji) that you will find on trial markers en route. Parking, toilets, hot springs etc are also featured. And being designed for hiking, they cover each major area in a single sheet, so no need for 4 normal topo sheets as with many areas I wanted to visit! The Nikko area, with its world heritage temples is on map 13, "Nikko". It is 50k scale with a 300k regional map in similar style on the back, which also shows the sheet lines for nearby maps in the series. Hakone area SW of Tokyo is sheet 29 Mt Fuji area is sheet 31. Each sheet comes with an illustrated trails booklet in Japanese in a cardbord folder. Price is Y800 each. An excellent bilingual map of the Tokyo region is "Bilingual Map of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area" by Shonbusha available in good bookshops across Japan. ISBN 4-398-83006-5, price Y819. This features the greater Kanto district at 500k, Tokyo metro area at 100k, Fuji at 200k, Hakone and Nikko areas at 100k and Kamakura at 25k all on a doublesided sheet. Altitude tints depict relief, prefecture and lower admin boundaries, urban areas, roads, rail (JR and private differentiated), ferries etc. All in English with smaller Kanji underneath each name, and a glosary of Japanese geographic terms. A booklet index of placenames and points of interets in English (followed by Kanji) is included. contact: Shonbusha Publications 3-1 Koji0machi Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 102-8238 JAPAN ph (03)-3556-8111 Shonbusha (who appear to be a division of Mapple), also do an excellent bilingual "Rail map of Tokyo Area". This is doublesides, with English on one side and kanji on the other (a bit strange, as both could have been fitted on the same map on one side, which would make life a bit easier). This features JR lines, bullet train lines (shinkansen), private railways, subways, monorails and all stations. It is a typical schematic map of the system from the Odawara/Hakone area in the SW to Nikko in the N. Lines are colour coded the same as on the maps on the walls at each station. Lines are named, under-construction lines shown, and connections betwen adjacent but differently-named stations shown. There is an accompanying booklet in the map folder, in Japanese only, showing individual lines and stations as straight lines. Y714, ISBN 4-398-72008-1 Shonbush'a other bilingual titles are: Road Atlas Japan Tokyo Metropolitan Atlas Bilingual Map of Japan Tourist Map of Kyoto Bilingual Map of Tokyo For Japanese railways for the whole country, the best map I could find was again Shonbusha/Mappel, but in Japanese only. ISBN 4-398-72007-3 price Y800. This map is a ocncertina foldout from a folder into which it is glued. ON one side it features schematic diagrams of all ferry routes, domestic air routes, intercity buses, schematic diagrams of city rail/metreo systems On the fornt side it features the railway systems, schematically, but fairly realistically geographically-speaking. Mountain ranges are shown, lakes and rivers, and cable cars and funiculars, besides JR and private railways, monorails, etc, agian with apparently all stations. For areas not served by rail or ferry, bus routes are shown. Finally, for Yokohama, there is a excellent tourist map, available in many language editions (Russian ,German, French, English, Chinese...] Published by Yokohama Convention and Visitors Bureau, it is available free from a number of rail stations and tourist sites. or contact the Bureau at 1st floor, Sanbo Centre, 2 Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0023, JAPAN. ph (045)-211-1202 fx (045)-221-2100/(045)-641-7485 www.welcome.city.yokohama.jp/english/tourism map on front sidede with insets, major buildings, etc, and map of greater Yokohama, reverse has details on museums, hotels and sites, prices, opening hours, contact details etc. --------------- Dr Brendan Whyte Geography Department Hebrew University of Jerusalem