Japanese addresses: No street names. Block numbers.

Re:Japanese addresses: No street names. Block numbers. by jawngee on Monday June 22, 2009 @01:36AM (#668292)

My wife is Japanese and we own a house in Saitama which is a little ways outside of Tokyo. I go about 3-4 times a year.

I constantly get lost, even doing something as simple as walking the dog. It's not uncommon that I'll take photos of landmarks as I walk past as sort of a digital crumb trail to get back to where I started.

What makes it worse is that block numbers are based on age and may not be relative to adjoining blocks.

I once took her mom's dog for a walk and thought I was so lost that I made a frantic cell phone call three hours later, only to find out I was one block away.

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Re:Japanese addresses: No street names. Block numbers. by kqr2 on Monday June 22, 2009 @01:40AM (#668295)

You should get a GPS. Even without a map, it can do breadcrumbs of your path which allows you to retrace your route.

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Re:Japanese addresses: No street names. Block numbers. by lallysingh on Monday June 22, 2009 @10:04AM (#668759)

Second on GPS for traveling. I spent a few weeks in the Egyptian desert last year, much of that time in the hands of drivers who spoke little English. A few days of seeing desert all around you and no idea how much longer you're going to be itching to know where you are.

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Re:Japanese addresses: No street names. Block numbers. by kingkongrevenge on Monday June 22, 2009 @09:38AM (#668712)

They get lost all the time, too. I think the #1 function of Japanese police is to give directions. There's usually a koban (small hut-like police station) outside the train station and they always have big maps out and they help people use them.

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