Bytemarks
Take in Tokyo without leaving your computer

By Burt Lum

It's a cold, rainy day in Tokyo. The buildings are huge, there are people everywhere and the traffic is a gnarly mess. For first-time visitors, this city can be daunting. It's like getting dropped in the middle of Manhattan without knowing a lick of English. If you are looking for a good rush, I can't think of a better place to challenge your senses than Tokyo.

Tokyo needs to be experienced firsthand. Be forewarned: Taxi trips are a minimum of $16.50, and the hotel I was at had meals starting at $82.50. Tokyo is not cheap. For that reason, taking a virtual tour of Tokyo makes sense.

There are several cool technologies that hold promise for the virtual experience. At the Planet 9 studios, virtual reality markup language (VRML) is used to provide a quick glimpse of an area called Shinjuku in Tokyo. From your PC go to (www.planet9.com/earth/tokyo).

I had no problems viewing the 3D landscape from Windows 98, but the VRML plug-in kept crashing my Mac. It's a harsh virtual reality that Mac users still get treated like second-class citizens.

For a Mac-friendly virtual tour, go to (www.dancy.com/vr/). Norm Dancy, who maintains this site, uses Quicktime VR extensively. With QTVR you can take pictures in a 360-degree panorama to create a seamless circular view. Just imagine standing somewhere and performing a slow spin in a circle. That is the sensation you get. Along with the city panoramas, Dancy also presents samples of real life, such as roadside bars, barber shops and restaurants.

On the surface, Tokyo can appear like any big American city. But as soon as you encounter the incredible moat surrounding the Imperial Palace grounds, you realize the city was built on centuries of tradition. For a taste of that tradition, go to www.us-japan.org/EdoMatsu/. Produced by Ken Matsushima, the site provides a historical view of what Tokyo (formerly Edo) once was and how it came to be the seat of power in Japan. ;-)

Burt Lum, cyber-citizen and self-anointed tour guide to the Internet frontier, is one click away, at burt@brouhaha.net