I spent a year building a live map of Tokyo: every train, bus and plane moving in real time. It launched on the App Store today
Solo dev here. Tokyo has the best transit system in the world and the hardest one to picture in your head: dozens of operators, hundreds of lines, and most service alerts published only in Japanese. I wanted one screen that shows the whole thing actually moving, so I spent the past year building it. It went live today. Mods: remove if not allowed, no hard feelings.
It's called Tokyo Glance. What it does:
The live map: every supported train, bus, even planes landing at Haneda, moving in real time. Tap any train and follow it stop by stop. Departure boards and live cameras for stations, plus a Home Screen widget with the next departures from your station. Service alerts translated into English. This is the one that saves trips: when a line stops, the announcement is usually Japanese-only. Rain radar and earthquake alerts on the same map, because both will happen during your trip. A time machine: scrub to any moment and watch the network run. Curious what the last-train scramble looks like at 00:30? Scrub there. Honest fine print: iPhone only. The core app is free; the deeper stuff (lock screen train following, the time machine) is a subscription, cheaper yearly. And it's not a route planner: Google Maps still wins for "how do I get from A to B". This is for knowing what's happening around you right now.
One tip that's true even if you never install anything: last trains leave earlier than most visitors expect, many lines wind down between 00:00 and 00:30, and weekday and weekend timetables differ. Check the night before, not at the platform.
If you're visiting soon, tell me what confused you most about Tokyo transit. That list is literally my roadmap. I'll be in the comments all day.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6782602634
On Android? The website has most of it free in the browser, including first and last trains for every station and line: https://tokyoglance.com