Madogawa › Data and sources
Data and sources
Last updated: 16 Oct 2026
These are the versions and dates of the data behind Madogawa's calculations. The same values are stored in the public data file (data/index.json) that the tool reads.
Data versions
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Railway data edition | N02-2025 |
| Railway data reference date | 2025-12-31 |
| Railway data downloaded | 2026-10-16 |
| Public data generated | 2026-10-16 |
| Lines covered | the Tokaido, Sanyo, Hokuriku and Tohoku Shinkansen (78 stations; figures for each line in the table below) |
| Landmarks listed | 25 |
| Line | Section | Stations | Track length | Fastest travel time (published) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokaido Shinkansen | Tokyo – Shin-Osaka | 17 | 515.5 km | 141 min (source, checked 2026-10-16) |
| Sanyo Shinkansen | Shin-Osaka – Hakata | 19 | 553.5 km | 141 min (source, checked 2026-10-16) |
| Hokuriku Shinkansen | Tokyo – Tsuruga | 24 | 579.6 km | 188 min (source, checked 2026-10-16) |
| Tohoku Shinkansen | Tokyo – Shin-Aomori | 23 | 675.7 km | 178 min (source, checked 2026-10-16) |
Sources
- Route and stations
- Processed from the National Land Numerical Information railway data, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT): download page, licensed under CC BY 4.0. The line segments are joined and resampled every 100 m.
- Elevation
- Elevation tiles (Fundamental Geospatial Data digital elevation model, DEM10B) from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI): GSI Tiles list. Used for ground height along the track, line-of-sight checks and the tunnel and viaduct estimate. The elevation tiles themselves are not redistributed.
- Base map
- GSI Tiles (pale map), loaded from GSI servers each time the map is shown.
- Mountain positions and heights
- GSI list of the main mountains of Japan (CSV, checked 2026-10-16).
- Castles, lakes and the pagoda
- Coordinates from Wikidata (CC0). For the Seto Inland Sea and the Sea of Japan we use a representative point offshore from the track, checked as sea level (0 m) on GSI elevation tiles. The height of the five-storey pagoda (about 55 m) is taken from the official website of To-ji temple, and the height of the main keep of Himeji Castle (31.5 m) from nippon.com (checked 2026-10-16).
- Travel time
- The fastest travel time for each line is taken from railway company publications or articles reporting that time. The values, sources and check dates are in the "Lines covered" table above. Published times for other services were not available, so you can enter your arrival time instead.
- Reports from the train
- Reports used for the "Seen" label come from articles about the view from this line (such as news outlets, travel media, official temple websites and personal blogs). A sentence saying the landmark can be seen is quoted and stored; a report that does not limit the direction counts once for each direction (checked 2026-10-16).
- Sunrise and sunset checks
- The sun calculation was checked against sunrise and sunset values from the Ephemeris Computation Office of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and against values from the JPL Horizons system.
- Map display
- MapLibre GL JS 6.11.2 (BSD-3-Clause) and Noto Sans glyphs for map labels (OFL-1.1). Full licence texts are at /vendor/LICENSE.
Update schedule
The public data is rebuilt when a new edition of the railway data is released, when a timetable revision changes the fastest travel time, or when reports for landmarks are added. The rebuild date appears as "Public data generated" above.