For the benefit of anyone reading this thread and has a similar question to the OP's, I'm going to post this from the point of view of someone who has traveled to Tokyo three times in the past 12 months and has a basic familiarity with the area and the transit system but does not read or speak Japanese. In my opinion, trying to navigate without the benefit of a smartphone and pocket WiFi is going to have its challenges. You may figure out the correct route to get from Point A to Point B and even the correct exit, but upon exiting a station or building, there are few landmarks that help you get your bearing and it's quite easy to get turned around or headed in the wrong direction. Some of the better restaurants and shops I have visited have been on side streets/alleys that are near impossible to find by street name alone. My wife will give me directions like "Use exit B6, head about block and look for the Dotour cafe and hang a right down the alley, followed by a left down the side street and look for the restaurant on the left about halfway down the block." You're not going to get that from a map or guidebook.

One thing that always gets me on the train and subway lines is that they, like car traffic, run in directions opposite of what a US citizen would expect. So, I will pick the right line, but get on the wrong platform and get on a train headed in the wrong direction. On the major lines, the recorded announcements are in Japanese and English, but if you get on some of the "lesser" lines, they are all in Japanese, so you need to listen carefully to the station names and read them when you pull into the station. Google Maps and other apps are helpful in pointing out which tracks in the station the line runs on and what direction train to take.

Navigating with a paper map or tourist guidebooks can be done, but with some challenges that are greatly reduced with a smartphone or handheld GPS.