A travel guide to Tokyo as a model railway on a table, in isometric 2.5D. One yellow-green train rides the Yamanote Line, the loop that ties the city together, through a whole day: dawn in the forest of Meiji Jingu, noon on the Shibuya scramble, golden hour under Tokyo Tower, dusk up the east side and down to Asia’s first subway, night at Sensō-ji with Skytree across the river, late neon in Shinjuku, and back to where it started. The stations, their order and where things stand are real; the scale is a guide map’s. Every frame is drawn by your browser as it plays, and the score is code, cut to the same bars.
Runtime
2:20
Tempo
96 BPM · 56 bars
Picture
three.js, orthographic isometric
Light
One day, 05:30 to midnight
Frames recorded
None
Sound
Original score, synthesised in code
ChaptersONE LOOP, ONE DAY
RouteCOUNTED FROM THE CODE THAT DRAWS IT
Stations
30On the loop, in their real order. The Yamanote Line has thirty.
Trains
10Running both ways round the loop, the inner and the outer track.
Buildings
2,332Blocks of the city between the stops, windows lit by the clock.
Trees
1,320Most of them in Meiji Jingu’s forest; the rest cherry and street trees.
People
460Walking, waiting at the crossing, and in the alleys at night.
Lanterns
98Paper lanterns at the temple and in the alleys, lit after dark.
Cue sheetEVERY LINE ON SCREEN
NotesHOW IT IS MADE
A city as a model railway
The camera is orthographic: no perspective, parallel edges, the language of a miniature. The loop is drawn as a rounded ring, and every station sits on it in its real order and real direction from the centre; the places beside them keep their true bearings but are enlarged, the way a guide map does it.
One day of light
The film keeps its own clock, from 05:30 to midnight. The sun’s height and colour, the sky, the windows, the lanterns and the neon all follow that clock, so each stop is seen at the hour it is best at: the shrine at dawn, the crossing at noon, the tower at sunset, the temple and the alleys at night.
Built on the beat
Ninety-six beats a minute, two and a half seconds a bar. The crossing lights change on the bar line, the tower switches on with a chord, and the departure chime at each stop is an original phrase of the score, not a station’s real melody.
Facts you can check
Every number on screen, from the tower’s 333 metres to the thirty stations, was checked against the places’ own pages or, for the railway figures, published references. Opening hours change with the seasons, so the film gives only what stays true: that the shrine opens at sunrise, not the minute.