Aaaaaah... so THAT'S where Fukui is...

Fukui's not exactly the most famous of prefectures in Japan - most Japanese people aren't even sure where it is. When faced with explaining exactly where I live I constantly run into difficulties... "Well, it's sort of north of Kyoto and on the coast... erm... it's famous for eyeglass frame manufacturing... and crabs... and nuclear power... and, errr, are you sure you haven't heard of it?"

Well, no more. It's time to put Fukui on the map. Literally. If you have a look at the bottom of the sidebar you can see a fancy new map thing I've created using the wonderful Frappr website. Go on, have a look. Cool isn't it? You can zoom in and out and everything.

Anyway, you can see the full size map by clicking here, and if you feel so inclined you can even add yourself to the map and leave a little message. It's still the beta version so a lot of the Japanese towns haven't been added in yet, but you can always send a request for them to be included, or do what I did and type in a town near to you that it recognises (eg. Sabae), then create your own Frappr page and move your "home" pin manually. Your position should then be updated on the group map.

Have a go playing around with the satellite imagery too (click on the middle white button written in katakana at the top of the map), it really shows you how the separate "cities" of Fukui, Sabae and Takefu are really just one big swathe of housing and factories cutting through the middle of the mountains.

Finally, I've created another map showing the locations of a few of the local sights, so if you've ever wondered exactly where the famous toast restaurant in Takefu actually is, now's your time to find out. You lucky beggars.