Ipad

Suggested use of JSON, which is fine.. don't need the nesting mess of xml.

Most things can probably be stored and sorted on long&lat map coordinates. Then it is easy to find "near by" things. Will all places have a physical location?

Items needed to be stored:

name
location coordinates
location keywords (Asia, Japan, tokyo, shinjuku area)
address
url or other contact details
tags
amenities (keyword=value list, shops=yes type)
access (nearby stations, bus/walk requirements, parking?)
short description
description
rating? feedback? review?
icon image for offline
map image for offline

Suggest 'update' feedback built in, for reporting errors, deadlinks, or similar corrections. Possibly with end-dates, for the situation where you can add comment to say 'special festival week on, ending XX/YY' to automatically remove stale information.