google maps or Maps with Me?
 

I have 2 tablets-an iPad mini with Google maps, and a Dell venue with built in Gps so I can use navigation programs with downloadable maps. I will be renting a pocket wifi and will have an internet connection at all times. Would I be able to get by using Google maps to get around? Does it work using English? I have Maps with Me on the Dell, which is in English but a bit challenging to use as you have to know the county and the street and that doesn't always translate. Any thoughts? I really don't want to bring 2 tablets with me.

For what purpose? What will you use maps for? Will you be driving or using public transportation.

For general walking tourism, I have always just cut out relevant pages from a good guide book and not wasted time with electronics. Most city's tourist information offices will give good maps for the asking.

If you will be in Tokyo, you will get more use out of a good subway map than a street map. For Kyoto, the large brochure they give out at the Tourist Information Center in Kyoto Station has the best tourist map I have seen. They will also give you the "Bus Navi" map which you can also download at: http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/access/transport.html

Maps with Me works with Open Street Maps, which is completely unusable in Japan for finding addresses. So I wouldn't bother bringing that one.

I find Google Maps is a lifesaver for helping me find my way around, and I've lived in Tokyo for years. It helps you figure out which subway or train is best to take, which is not always the one you'd expect.

i agree with this and they are updating it all the time.

a location of a place i was looking for was not noted on the Tokyo station map, which had multi levels using google in june, although is there now.

we used pocket wifi and google maps on our devices all the time. it is very accurate. TOO BAD, google maps off-line does not work for Tokyo but i suspect this is because there is too much information in google maps for Tokyo.

Google Maps on my iPhone got me around Tokyo very easily. I also found the official Tokyo Metro app useful. In Kyoto Google Maps was amazing because it would also give the fare needed so I could use ticket machines, even ones without translations, to get the right tickets.

Great advice all around. I will just take my iPad mini and use Google maps along with the other apps suggested. I will be using public transportation and walking for the most part, so I will definitely avail myself of the local maps available at the tourist office.

I also found the official Tokyo Metro app useful.

It might look useful if you don't know your way around Tokyo, but it's really not. If you're going from Shibuya to Ebisu, for example, most people would take the Yamanote line for the two-minute trip, but the Tokyo Metro app only gives subway routes so it would take you on a 25-minute trip into central Tokyo and then back again.

Google maps has improved considerably in English. Back in 2011 it could not locate my neighborhood if you entered it in romaji (in any variant for the long Os.) All the directions were in Japanese. None of the motorway junctions or exits were shown in romaji, etc.

Today it has all of that and it even has bus routes out if you want to take public transport to some place out in Hachioji far from a train station.

There is a relatively new feature, namely showing the signs that you see at intersections/ traffic lights, which are important for navigation. They are only in Japanese even though they are always show in romaji.