Originally Posted by
beep88
1. pocket Wifi provided by airbnb hosts are usually the crappiest kind, say from WiMax. No coverage underground, or outside major cities.
2. recalling the days when there was no mobile data (or prohibitively expensive), I printed driving routes and location maps off mapping sites at home - google maps didn't exist back then. Surprisingly it worked.
Even these days, I print off 8X11 maps of my hotels to show to taxi drivers. Taxi drivers often need reading glasses if it's a tiny screen. Or do you really want to pass the phone/tablet around to them? They wear white gloves so have pretty poor grips.
That is still what I do.
When I'm in Japan (or any other country with a non-Latin writing system), I print out the local language map on the hotel's website and show it to the cab driver or carry it with me from the nearest subway/train stop in case I need to ask someone on the street. I include the phone number, so that the driver or the passerby can phone my destination for clarification.
If you visit a private home in Japan, the residents will often come to the nearest station to meet you and lead you through a tangle of narrow streets to their house.