Over the course of several years I’ve been assembling an increasingly-gargantuan custom Google Map to compile the various tips and recommendations I’ve come across for framing out my recent trips to Japan. It’s gotten way too oversized for any one person to sensibly use so I’ve been distributing it around to relevant channels in the hopes others might find good use for it (you might have already come across this if you use /r/JapanTravel) and have generally received some very positive responses attesting to its usefulness. At some point after my most recent trip Local Guides started chirping feedback to me on various photos and notes I had taken on places I had been to, so it seems natural to distribute it here as well. It feels like there should be some more organic way to integrate all of this into Google Maps as a whole but I can’t really find any avenues in which to do so, so I guess I’ll just share it here?
Just some sidenotes:
-This is all heavily skewed towards my personal interests and trip-planning structure. For example with the exception of an occasional ryokan or temple stay I usually just keep to hostels, pins for accommodations largely reflect that. Likewise the density of information is largely focused around places I’ve visited/are heavily considering visiting.
-The content of the map is ever-expanding at irregular intervals, it’s much too big to leave well enough alone at this point.
-Places I’ve been to are marked in gold and occasionally include my casual thoughts. This is not exhaustive by any means - for reasons that continue to baffle me Maps appears to provide no ability to edit content by app, so whatever I’ve pinned as having visited is based on whatever I’ve been able to recollect weeks after the fact when I have regained proper access to a PC. Makes no sense to me at all but there you have it.
Given the popularity of maps like the 48 Hours series, hopefully this is of use to some of you out there planning trips of your own, and apologies if this somehow isn’t the right format for distributing something of this sort.
I have just released your post from the spam filters. I would like to apologize for your post being marked as spam. Our filters run 24/7 and they can be a little harsh at times.
I wanted to let you know that your map has been an extraordinary aid during my time here in Japan. I’ve been working here at Tokyo since August of this year and will likely remain here for a year or so. If possible, I’d like to assist you in whatever way that I can. Whether that be identifying interesting places or confirming whether or not an attraction has moved/closed, I’d be quite happy to repay the favor that you did to us all by compiling this map together.
Let me know if you’re interested and I hope to hear back from you soon.
Thank you very much, belatedly. I’m glad it’s been useful.
Updating the map has always been a rather disorganized and haphazard process so I’m not altogether sure what specifically I could request, other than to indicate pinned locations that are no longer accurate on the occasions you happen to come across them. With all the disruptions from Covid this is probably the biggest issue to try and untangle, I’ve edited pins that are no longer current when I happen to come across updates but keeping up with every restaurant and shop is going to be rather impractical.
It’s good to hear back from you. As I have visited many sites on the map, I was planning on (a) identifying which pinned location required correction/updates by each city and area/nearby station and (b) suggesting new locations worth pinning. For instance:
Kamenokodawashi Yanaka Shop: Pinned location different from actual location (Yanaka)
Nagoya
Ghibli Park: Fantastic theme park centered around Studio Ghibli. Less an amusement park as there are no rides and more an exhibition of Ghibli art and creative development. Currently features three separate exhibitions that each requires tickets under a lottery system with the remaining distributed on a first-come served basis (Aichi)
Probably best if we do this on some kind of Excel, so let me know if you’re interested in working together on this. Not sure how we can exchange contact info without doxxing ourselves to the world, but I’m sure we can figure something out.
i’ve spent so long trying to find the creator of this maps, and i finally did! thank you for this!!
like the person you replied to, i really want to help with this map! i live and work in tokyo, actually as a tour guide. i frequently share this map with my guests and they think its great as well. by nature of my job, i travel the city a lot and there are so many places i’ve visited that i think would be great additions.
i don’t know how to go about helping, whether sharing access is a thing or not (not that i’m presuming you’d necessarily share it with me), or if i could send in locations for it to be approved, but i would really really love to help you out here
my name is gray and if you want to contact me privately you can dm me on insta! @ gray.yy05
if not, i thank you one final time for this map. safe travels for the future
I’ve had some RL disruption over the last several months that have kept me out of the loop, so I missed your note when you initially posted it. Thank you for the kind words, belatedly.
I’ve mentioned it before, but really the most useful thing people could do is flag pins they come across that are no longer current - however I’m not altogether sure what the best procedure is for doing that.
