Frequently asked questions
The questions that actually come up, answered properly. If yours is not here, write to me.
Do I need to know Japanese to play?
No. In romaji mode the station name is shown with its romanised spelling and you type that spelling on a normal keyboard. Plenty of players start with no Japanese at all and pick up readings from the repetition. Kana and kanji modes assume more, but nothing stops you from starting in romaji and moving up later.
What is the difference between the three input modes?
Romaji mode shows the romanised spelling and fills it in keystroke by keystroke. Kana mode is also typed as romaji on a physical keyboard, but the display fills in kana as you complete each mora — so you are reading kana while typing romaji. Kanji mode uses a real IME: you compose and convert exactly as you would when writing Japanese normally, and each committed segment is matched against the station's kanji name.
Why does kana mode not use an IME?
Because an IME would fight you. Type a station reading with conversion switched on and the IME will helpfully offer the kanji, which is the wrong answer in a mode that is asking for kana. Driving the kana display from romaji keystrokes sidesteps auto-conversion entirely and keeps the timing honest — every keystroke lands where you expect it to.
Which romaji spellings does the game accept?
Both the Hepburn and Kunrei families, and the common variants alongside them: shi and si, tsu and tu, chi and ti, fu and hu, ji and zi, sha and sya, shu and syu, sho and syo. The canonical spelling is the one shown on screen, but any accepted spelling advances the train. You are never penalised for having learned a different romanisation table.
How do I type the small っ and ん?
Exactly as you would normally, and the game handles the rest. A small っ doubles the consonant that follows it — 札幌 is sapporo. A ん is typed n, and its n merges into the following mora rather than standing on its own. Both are resolved before you start typing, so there is never a moment where the game is waiting to see what you do next.
I mistyped a character. Do I have to delete it?
No. A keystroke that cannot lead to any valid spelling of the current mora is simply rejected: it never appears, and you carry on typing the correct character. The mistake is counted against your accuracy, but it does not leave anything behind that you have to clean up. Backspace exists if you want to step back through morae you already completed.
Why does a loop line have one more stop than it has stations?
Because a loop run returns to where it started. The Yamanote Line has 30 stations, so a full run is 31 stops: every station once, plus your starting station again at the end. That is what makes loop runs comparable no matter which station you begin at.
On a straight line, why does my run not start at the station I picked?
Non-loop lines always run the full length of the line, terminal to terminal, whichever start you choose — the direction you pick decides which terminal you set off from. Otherwise a run from the second-to-last station would be a two-station sprint and would sit on the same leaderboard as a full traversal, which would make the board meaningless.
How are WPM and CPM calculated?
CPM is characters typed per minute, counted over the time the clock was actually running. WPM uses the standard convention of five characters to a word, so it is CPM divided by five. Accuracy is correct keystrokes as a share of total keystrokes, so rejected mistypes count against it. Timing uses the browser's high-resolution clock, and pauses are excluded.
Does pausing affect my score?
Paused time is not counted toward your time, but a run that was paused will never be recorded as a personal best. It still appears in your history — it just does not compete.
Where are my results stored?
In your browser. Results and personal bests are kept in local storage on the device you played on, so they survive a reload but do not follow you to another device or browser. Signing in with Google adds a server-side history, and the results you already had locally are adopted into the account the first time you sign in.
Do I need an account?
No. You can play everything, keep local results and submit to the leaderboard without signing in. An account exists so your history and personal bests follow you between devices, and so leaderboard entries have a stable name attached.
How does the leaderboard stop people cheating?
A run is issued a signed token when it starts, and a submission is only accepted if it presents a valid token, if the elapsed wall-clock time is consistent with the run, and if the keystroke and split data are internally consistent with the result being claimed. Submissions from players without an account also pass a bot check. None of this makes cheating impossible, but it makes casually faking a time considerably more work than actually getting fast.
My personal best disappeared after a line was updated. Why?
Each line carries a version number, and it is bumped whenever its stations or input rules change. Results only compare within the same version, because a run over a different set of stations is not the same run. Your old result is still in your history — it just no longer competes against runs on the new version.
Is this an official app from JR East, Tokyo Metro or any operator?
No. It is an unofficial fan project with no affiliation to any rail operator. Station and line names are public facts; every illustration, map, sound and piece of writing on the site is original, and no operator's artwork is used. There are no timetables or fares here — for real journeys, use the operators' own tools.
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