Help for not getting lost in Japan
 

After reading a few guidebooks I learned that getting lost in Tokyo seems to be common. It's probably common knowledge here that the addresses (or lack thereof) might be confusing. Being already geographically challenged (for which I am already mocked by most of my friends), I was wondering what my options would be for my upcoming trip to Tokyo, Hakone, Osaka and Kyoto. I am used to walking around until I finally find my destination, but this time I will be traveling with my mother and she is now using with a cane, so I would like to help her walk only the necessary.
- upgrading my old Nuvi to a newer model and purchasing a Japan map
- iPhone/iPad offline maps, since data plans can be very pricey (I just got a 4S since my vintage 3G died and also got the iPad2, so still learning how to best use them for my trip)

Unfortunately, I don't speak Japanese. My mother speaks some Japanese but cannot read Kanji, One of the travel guides actually suggested that we ask several Japanese for directions and take the one the majority suggests, as even them have trouble finding locations they are not familiar with.
Would there be any advantage in getting a GPS? Any particular recommendation from someone that used one or any apps that were helpful? Many thanks in advance.

I'm old-fashioned enough to like maps.

The Tokyo City Atlas has not been updated since 2004, but I've found that to be problematic mostly for commercial structures (banks that merge and get new names, for example). The major tourist sites are still in the same places under the same names as before, and there's a new rail line out to Tsukuba, but you're unlikely to need it.

Somehow, the compilers have managed to squeeze both English and Japanese labels onto the pages, which makes it useful for asking directions.

Enlarged maps of the most popular areas even number the subway exits so that you know where to go if you want to end up on the route to a particular destination.

There is a similar, less comprehensive atlas for Kyoto and Osaka, but there are also very good Periplus maps available for each of those cities, with maps on the reverse side showing the surrounding areas.

Hakone is no problem. Just follow everyone else, but if you don't want to do that, I'd be willing to bet that you can pick up a map of the area with your Hakone Free Pass.

Where will you be staying? Most hotels will have maps onhand to provide you, and should also be able to provide you with detailed directions to pretty much anywhere that you will need to go.

Amazingly, there is a newer bilingual Tokyo City Atlas and it is not published by Kodansha! It's published by an outfit called Tokyo Chizu Publishing Co., Ltd. I can't find the publication date, but it's definitely significantly newer than 2004 since it shows the Fukutoshin line on its subway map.

It is pocket book size, and I find it better than Kodansha's book in almost every way except the index, which is sorted first by ku -- leading to long index searches if you don't know the right ku for something (which still often applies to me after many visits). But it's still my preferred choice. Cost in Japan is Y1,995.

Great! I'll look for it when I go there later this spring!

ON EDIT: I found it on the Amazon Japan website, which was a challenge, because the publisher has changed its name to My Navi.

Anyway, they publish bilingual atlases of both Tokyo and Kyoto.

That's a better name than "Cheesy Publishing," however!

Maps are good. Google maps have some English I think.

You can ask directions and people are pretty willing to help, but Tokyoites have a navigational IQ of about 15. When asking directions, I was once told "Follow this road and then take a left at the corner where the sake shop used to be."

Look for the nearest koban (police box) and ask directions there. That's what Japanese friends advised and it worked quite well for me for the most part, except for the time (not in Tokyo) when I was standing right in front of the hotel I was trying to find but didn't realize it because the English name it had on its website was notably absent on the hotel itself.

The advantage of a bilingual map is that you can ask passersby to point to the place on the map where you are currently located. That's a good start.

The kôban police keep lists of phone numbers for each residence or business in their district. Their English tends to be rudimentary, but they can usually understand a place name or store name written in block letters.

Another option is to rent a myfi and use googlemaps - which I did on my last trip. The battery life is about 4 hours so you have to turn it on and off as necessary, but it's helpful in that it gets you internet too.
Or you can also use an app called mymaps to cache map tiles when you have wifi available, and use them to navigate while you're walking around, since all the phone needs to determine your position on the (cached) map are the signals from the surrounding cell towers. The advantage there is that mymaps also allows you to access your googlemaps, so if you set up your points of interest ahead of time it can be very useful.
One thing I have always done that seems crazy but is really useful, since my kanji is atrocious, is have the picture of the front door of my destination available on my phone - these can easily be downloaded from sites like tabelog and such for restaurants, or jalan for hotels - so I know what to look for when I'm in the vicinity. If you don't read kanji you could easily be standing in front of your destination and not know it.
Japan is by far my favorite place to visit. Have fun!

PS Here's a link to my now slightly outdated Tokyo map with a lot of "front door photos": http://g.co/maps/xj983

You could get a data SIM discussed in another thread.

If you are looking for something "free", FON is pretty ubiquitous (I know because they have a deal with Softbank and my Iphone is frequently trying to logon). So you could join up with them and it works globally. FON is crowdsourced wifi. Softbank is supposed to give you a FON router when you sign up with a data plan, but they didn't with me.

Thank you for all the responses. I usually bring a map and get the ones from the hotels, but it's almost embarrassing to say, I still manage to get lost and can't find where I am on the map. I know, pretty bad for someone who loves to travel, but it's not on my gene:(

So, I'm trying to take advantage of technology to make things a little easier this time. Thanks for the tips on atlas and asking policemen as well.


snaporaz, there are two MyMaps apps and one MyMaps Pro, do you recall which one you used?
I am looking forward for this trip and hope to have lots of fun, particularly if I don't spend too much time trying to find the places we're trying to get to;)

The other problem is that nobody wants to say they have no idea, so they will often try to put on a show of helping you and lead you off in a totally random direction.

I've had the kodansha atlas for more than 10 years and for finding an address, seeing where you want to go etc it's brilliant.

On the ground and walking around I have offmaps on the iPhone. You'll need to load the maps before you leave home but even with data roaming turned off the 4S will get a GPS fix in a matter of seconds and you can use that to see exactly where you are even if you are using a map/atlas to do the actual navigation (the atlas pages are much bigger than an iPhone screen)

On my trip in January, I rented an iPhone4 with unlimited data and used Google Maps when I wasn't relying on maps from hotels. It was the same price as a MiFi, and I used it for general smartphone stuff as well. It was certainly more convenient that previous trips, but it meant less interaction with locals, even if their directions were less than helpful.