Tokyo Guide – For Japan Travel app for iPhone and iPad

This app is the digital version of the latest travel guide book released in January 2018 by the City of Tokyo and the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau. Content is available in English, and completely free! We invite you to download it if you are planning to travel around Tokyo while in Japan.

▼Features of the App
- This is a completely free-to-use digital book app
- Read page-by-page, or turn your smartphone on its side to read two pages (center spread) at a time.
- Tap the screen while reading to display the “page select function” at the bottom of the screen.
This function allows you to move smoothly to the page you want.
- Once you have downloaded it, the content displayed is available for reading until March 2019.
From April 2019 onwards, the displayed content is scheduled to switch to an updated version.
- Once downloaded, it can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet, and will be available offline.
That means that you can enjoy your travel around Tokyo even if there is no internet connection.

▼Displayed Content
Tokyo, a city where tradition and innovation intersect and new styles are constantly being created, promising diverse delights. The City of Tokyo and the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau have combined forces to gather all the delights, both old and new, of each area of Tokyo, the city at the heart of Japan, and summarise them in one guidebook! The pages of the guide not only feature abundant photographs of locations like Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower, but also maps handy for any traveler. The design is simple and easy to read. Naturally, the areas, establishments and goods presented in the guide have been rigorously selected through research into what information travelers want to know right now.
The guide also presents stores that provide a halal menu without pork or alcohol, so that followers of Islam can enjoy their meals with peace of mind.

- Displays route maps which includes the subway, and other easy-to-follow maps.
- Handy information on special public transport offers restricted to foreign travelers
- Also offers useful basic information for traveling in Tokyo including aspects such as cash withdrawal, currency exchange, and how to use free Wi-Fi etc.

The differences between simple PDF data and this app are explained in the points (1), (2), (3) listed below.

(1)The info can be seen in an open-book style when a smart phone is turned sideways.
Our expected users for this app are foreign tourists visiting Tokyo.
During the service development process, with the cooperation of Tokyo government, we conducted expected users interviews.

As a result of the interviews, we found out that people want to view the app page by page and also in an open-book style. In addition, many said that they wanted both features. So we answered to the requests. (We believe that it’s impossible to operate this feature with simple PDF data).

(2)At the bottom of the front page, there are 2 buttons.
If you push the right button, you can go back to the exact page that you were viewing before closing down the app.

Just like the point (1) above, this feature is also based on our interviews with expected users. That is, during the interviews, many respondents said, “When going towards a destination, I often look at a tourist info app, close it and move around, and open it again. It will be convenient if I can go back to a previous page easily without looking for it”. We equipped the feature to answer to this user needs.

(3)The app can be also viewed offline if downloaded.

This feature is also based on our expected user interviews that we conducted with Tokyo government. We answered to the needs of foreign tourists stating “There are not many free Wi-Fi spots in Japan, which is actually inconvenient for foreign tourists. So, if possible, it will be very useful if travel info app can be viewed offline”.

We hope you will be able to make the most of these features, and enjoy the app!