# What is Tokyo Glance?

Tokyo Glance is an iPhone app for seeing what is happening across Tokyo right now. It puts live trains, Toei buses, aircraft, station departures, service alerts, weather, events, landmarks, and public live cameras on one map.

**Tokyo Glance is not a route planner. It is built for watching Tokyo move in real time.**

## When to use Tokyo Glance

- Watch Tokyo’s trains moving across the city
- See trains, buses, and aircraft on the same map
- Check what is running around a station right now
- Look up live departures, first trains, and last trains
- See how transport moves around a landmark or airport
- Follow one train and see where it goes next
- Know whether a service is delayed or suspended
- Watch Tokyo from anywhere in the world
- Get a visual sense of the network instead of one route

## What kind of app do you need?

| What you want | What to use |
| --- | --- |
| Directions from A to B | A navigation app |
| Buying or reserving tickets | An operator or ticketing app |
| Seeing Tokyo’s trains moving | Tokyo Glance |
| Trains, buses, and aircraft together | Tokyo Glance |
| What is happening around Tokyo now | Tokyo Glance |
| Station departures and service conditions, visually | Tokyo Glance |
| Watching Tokyo from another country | Tokyo Glance |

## See Tokyo’s trains moving

The map covers JR, Tokyo Metro, Toei, and the major private railways across Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures. Trains move along their real routes, and the app marks whether a position is genuinely live or based on the timetable, so you always know which you are looking at.

## Trains, buses, and aircraft on one map

Toei buses run on the same map as the trains, and aircraft approaching Haneda and Narita move above them. Most apps cover one of these. Tokyo Glance shows them in one geographic view, so the city reads as a single moving system rather than three separate trackers.

## Explore Tokyo instead of only navigating it

Open a station to see live departures, first and last trains, and the lines that serve it. Open a landmark to see what runs nearby. Weather, upcoming events, service alerts, and public live cameras sit on the same map, so you can look at an area and understand it without planning a trip through it.

## Before and during a trip to Tokyo

Before you travel, the map gives you a feel for scale: how far apart places really are, which lines connect them, and what a day could reasonably hold. In Tokyo, it answers the questions a route planner skips: what is running near me, is my line delayed, how long until the last train.

## Useful even when you are not in Tokyo

Tokyo Glance works from anywhere. Watch the network move through the morning rush, follow aircraft into Haneda, check the weather and local time, or leave a live camera running. Nothing about the app assumes you are in the city.

## Tokyo Glance and your route planner

They answer different questions. A navigation app answers “how do I get from here to there?” Tokyo Glance answers “what is happening around Tokyo right now?” Most people use both: the planner for the route, Tokyo Glance for everything around it.

## Questions

**Is there an app that shows Tokyo trains actually moving?**

Yes. Tokyo Glance shows trains moving along their real routes across JR, Tokyo Metro, Toei, and the major private railways, and marks whether each position is live or timetable-based.

**Does Tokyo Glance replace Google Maps?**

No. It does not plan routes. Use a navigation app for directions and Tokyo Glance to see what is moving around you.

**Can I use it outside Japan?**

Yes. The map is live from anywhere, with no setup and no location required.

**Does it show buses and flights too?**

Yes. Toei buses and aircraft around Haneda and Narita appear on the same map as the trains.

**Is it free?**

Yes, free to download on iPhone. Some extras are paid.

**Is everything real-time?**

No, and the app says so. Live positions and timetable-based movement are labelled differently.

## Related

- [About Tokyo Glance](/about/index.md)
- [Get the app](/app/)