What makes this site different and more accessible than most in Japan

These days, many Westerners - not the least the younger generation - are interested in Japan and Japanese culture. Many have traveled here, seen the famous places, and are hungry for more. They want to experience life on the countryside. But outside the large cities, information is not readily available in English, and even on the Net it is hard to find.

Genuine Japan can be found in the rural areas, but what can you find, and where? Tajimi Tourism Association has started a virtual reality project to make the city easily accessible to English speakers, wherever they may be.

The difference between plain old 2D web pages and VR is that you can actually feel what it is like to be in Tajimi. It's easy and extremely cheap to get started. For pennies, you can try-Japan-before-you-fly.

Here you will find the necessary information to get started quickly.

In VR, you are immersed in the media, whether it is a virtual construct, a film, or a photograph.

How it works

We are preparing VR content shot with special cameras that can capture video and still images in 360 degrees horizontally, and 180 degrees vertically. 

To view the spherical image in VR, you need to "step inside" it, buy viewing it through special lenses in a pair of VR goggles. We use various methods to present the VR scenes to you. Try the experience at the bottom of this page. You should be able to view it on your mobile phone, as well as your computer screen, but to immerse yourself in the images and "step into Tajimi" you need a pair of VR goggles.
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 STEP 1 (OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED)

Get those goggles. For pennies they will allow you to try-Japan-before-you-fly! "Awesome" is an over-used word, but in this case it fits the bill.

Goggles are really cheap these days. If you go to Amazon and search for "cardboard google headset vr", for example, you will find a wide range of cheap models, from about US $7 and up. You need no special app or software to view most of the VR on this site. Just use your browser on your phone to view (the newer and faster phone, the better, both iOS and Android phones work). ​
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step 2 - open a vr-page on this site. tap the three dots

​ Most of our VR experiences live on the roundme.com platform, so you will see three dots in the top right corner. If you have goggles, tap the three dots to access the VR menu.
Note: You need to use a compatible browser - Samsung Internet for Android or Safari for iOS. Chrome, Facebook etc. does not work.
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STEP 3 - TAP "VR-MODE"

​Tap the VR mode menu item.

STEP 4 - rotate the phone into landscape position

Self-explanatory, we think :-)

STEP 5 - in vr mode, insert your phone into your goggles

 Your screen now splits in two, one for each eye. Simply place your phone inside the goggles and view the immersive scene all around you. You are now in Tajimi, virtually, since your brain will think your body is actually here!

Step 6 - teleport to another VR space

In many of the VR spaces we provide, you can teleport yourself to another one just by using your gaze. Find a marker like the one in the above image and gaze at it for a few moments. The next space loads and the scene changes. Some scenes have sound for an even more immersive experience. You can tap on the screen to turn the sound on and off.

Try vr here

Test VR!

(Opens in new window)

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but if i don't have goggles?

You can still view the scenes and switch between them without goggles, in a non-immersive way. Try turning around to see the whole scene. On a computer, use the mouse to drag and "look around" the image, mouse wheel to zoom, and left-click to teleport.