Submitted by Zeroplate, who says: I was in Fukuoka this summer and couldn’t help but admire the icons that the subway lines used to mark each station. Some like the elephant and the ramen bowl tied clearly to local attractions. Others pointed to historical or geographical notes about the city. Still others I never figured out. Since each station in the main part of town was labeled with kanji, hiragana, Roman letters, and an icon, […]
Now this I love! One of a series of posters celebrating the more relaxed pace of life along the northeast branch lines of JR East’s network in Japan. The posters are a collaborative effort led by artist Philippe Weisbecker, who has integrated (pretty detailed!) children’s drawings into the designs. Source: JR East poster website via Taras Grescoe/Twitter
Submitted by Adam, who says: The “transit”-style elevator map of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. The tower consists of two sub-towers, with elevator “lines” ABC serving one tower, and DEFG serving the other. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo–I took this offhandedly without thinking of submitting it. Transit Maps says: This is totally awesome, Adam! Elevators that only service certain ranges of floors in large office buildings aren’t that unusual, but I’ve never […]
I’ve covered a previous version of this map before (November 2013, 4 stars), but I think this recent update is worth showing, because it’s always fun to see how a concept can evolve over time. Like the most recent version of the official map and Bernie Ng (November 2013, 3.5 stars). Andrew has come to the conclusion that placing the alphanumeric station identifiers inside each station marker is the best way to go, and it […]
Whoa. An incredibly detailed “Underground-style” map of rail in the Greater Tokyo area – it seems to show everything from ropeways, aerial cables and streetcars all the way up to Shinkansen – by Flickr user Kzaral. Transliterating the station names to English means that the diagram simply can’t be as compact as other maps where Japanese characters are used, but there’s still a good sense of rhythm and balance to the map. All labelling is horizontal, […]
Not a lot of geographical context here, although the central hub is pretty easy to discern. Does good work differentiating lines with a limited colour palette. Can anyone translate the legend at right that shows dashed/thin/thick lines? Is this an early attempt at frequency mapping? Note: Thanks to all who have told me that the lines are thick for express routes, thin for normal routes, and dashed for “special” routes. So it’s service mapping, not frequency. […]
Via: xoverit: A sightseer’s travel map of Japan showing famous landmarks, mountains, seaside resorts and hot springs 1936 Japan National Railroad (JNR) map of the Japanese Empire including Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria produced under the supervision of Prof. Sho Takahashi of the National Railroad Bureau. Suffice to say, it contains many amusing advertisements, including the one on the front cover which is for… some kind of hormone supplement lotion? This. Is. So. Beautiful. Such amazing detail […]
Simply adorable cross-stitch versions of the (2025) Singapore MRT/LRT and London Underground (sans Overground lines) transit maps. Source: Metafiktion/Instagram – link no longer active
Submitted by Rob and Roger. Rob has this to say: I’m seeing a lack of Asian transit systems, so heres a map of the Chongqing one in central China. I couldn’t find any official one, but I found this really nice one on Wikipedia, but it seems to be designed and made by 云淡风轻. Transit Maps says: This is a nice, simple, no-nonsense transit map that lays out the existing rail transit lines in Chongqing very […]
Via: comiccartography: Tokyo Wan/Contents Florent Chavouet Tokyo on Foot Lovely contents page illustration/map from Florent Chavouet’s book, Tokyo on Foot. The map is dominated by the circular Yamanote Line, with thick “train track” route lines and bright red stations. More than anything else on the page, this circle seems to define “Tokyo”. Quite lovely.
