It may not exist in the real world, but Minecraft players can now experience what’s it like to live in a bustling city in Japan.

Aside from surviving through harsh nights filled with deadly monsters, sandbox game Minecraft also lets players create some of the most gorgeous worlds that’ll take your breath away.

One such digital world built by a group of 50 Japanese players is Sayama City, an imaginary metropolis filled with skyscrapers, neon-lit streets, pubs, and stores typical of any large Japanese city. The group’s official Twitter account @Sayama_City regularly updates fans with construction progress.

▼ “This is a Minecraft image.”

▼ Would you want to take a stroll through this city?

The Minecraft group began working on Sayama City in November 2013, a fictional island set in the Tsugaru Strait. With various buildings and constructions modeled after real counterparts, the sprawling city would be the largest in northern Japan, supporting a population of five million people.

Creating such a huge city requires considerable effort, and each group member is responsible for constructing faithful representations of real architecture.

▼ Such as large factories…

▼ …private residences…

▼ …and even working railway systems.

▼ The end result is a clean metropolitan city teeming with activity…

▼ …busy shopping districts…

▼ …and interspersed with pockets of nature.

Sayama City is not even close to being completed, and given that the individual members all have different real life commitments, the group predicts that it’ll take another ten years of painstaking construction before it’s truly finished.

In the meantime, the project hopes to attract virtual tourists to visit the local pubs, hop onto the railway, stroll through parks, and just soak in the atmosphere of living in a modern Japanese city. And if players need to take a break from the city, a trip to a Minecraft Kyoto would do wonders, too.

Source: Twitter/@Sayama_City via Hachima Kiko, ITmedia
Featured image: Twitter/@Sayama_City