Originally Posted by
gnaget
p.s. O-sora, as a native, will they listen to you if you give them exact turn by turn instructions? I do it in Japanese, but figure that they don't trust me as a gaijin. Instead they will fiddle with their GPS for 5 minutes. Only once did he follow my instructions; the GPS does not necessarily give the best route.
I'm not O Sora but if I may add my 2 yen...
Most of my taxi rides are between a JR station in the western suburbs of Tokyo and my mother's house. I tell them the destination is to the north of a large danchi every local taxi driver should know. There are two or three routes they can take and some of them ask which way I want them to go. When we get close to the destination there's no way they can find the place unless I give them turn by turn instructions.
On the way to the JR station I leave them to choose the route but tell them exactly where I want to be dropped (in front of a pachinko parlor and not at the taxi rank) so I don't have to go up steps to enter the station.