before the advent of readily available pocked wifi and rental of devices at the airport, i had the 2nd edition of this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156...R240SYZD4692RR

I still keep it and mark it up with things i find on my trips to Japan.

Once you get the system, it works very very well. I never got lost once. I did have to get some help when you needed to find the exact building from an address or i ended up walking around a while to find it, but it was not too bad.

[BTW, if you want to arrange a volunteer guide for your trip in Tokyo, they can show you around for free. just contact one of the groups in Tokyo. Full list here.

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/arrange/tr...teerGuides.php ]

I use my tablet with google maps and a mobile wifi.

I watch the blue dot on google maps follow me around.

Especially when I cut and paste addresses in google maps, I can just watch the blue dot and it gets me there every time.

I found having gps on my phone very handy for finding specific places (e.g. a specific restaurant or hotel to meet friends, certain stores I wanted to visit, certain cultural locations. However, I rarely used it when I was just wandering - in those instances I picked a 'landmark' I knew (say, the imperial palace, a department store, a particular high rise tower) and used that to orient myself - I knew if I walked compass direction it would be towards [insert other land mark] the other way would be towards [another land mark].

I do have a relatively decent inbuilt compass, knowing generally which ways are north and south, and can almost always retrace my steps. I managed fine wandering around the Shibuya, Akihabara, Roppongi, Shinbashi and Ginza areas without a map.

This idea that someone will approach you and help you with directions is nonsense -- at least in Tokyo. Like 0.1% of the population can string together an English sentence (after 6 years of schooling) even if they have more passive knowledge than they will admit.

The old school navigation is that each neighborhood has a map on a sign board and you used them to navigate. You also have them in train stations obviously. That's what I used when I visited in 2004, but if you go to a residential area they will not have any Romaji. At least in my neighborhood they look neglected relics with even some graffiti that was not cleaned up.

Actually, three times over three years I was approached by people in Japanese who were look for directions. I actually managed to guide them every time.

If the OP is American then join the 21st century, get a basic Android smart phone (maybe a Nexus 5) and get a $50 a month T-Mobile account that gives you unlimited global data. It will be a godsend in Tokyo and double your enjoyment.

If you rent a smart phone it will probably cost you $15-$20 a day in Japan.

Another thing, which is important for driving, and the Navi will tell you to turn there, are intersection names. At major intersections, invariably traffic lights, there is a name identifying the intersection, which is often the neighborhood. Google maps shows them but they are not in romaji. Google maps for Japan has come a long way since 2011 with a lot more romaji but not yet for the intersections. The intersections themselves are marked in romaji. The signs are rectangular, white, with blue lettering.

[QUOTE=gnaget;24118766]This idea that someone will approach you and help you with directions is nonsense -- at least in Tokyo. Like 0.1% of the population can string together an English sentence (after 6 years of schooling) even if they have more passive knowledge than they will admit.
[QUOTE]

True, you do have to ask, but people are almost always willing to help. When Japanese people are lost, they approach a police box (kôban) or go into a shop and ask. As an English-speaker, you will have best luck with younger people, who tend to retain their high school English better than older people.

On one trip in about 2012, I was trying to find a client's office using the 2004 edition of the Tokyo City Atlas. (Alas, this excellent and portable book has not revised since then, but it may be useful for you, since none of the major tourist sites have been moved or destroyed since then. It not only shows the block and neighborhood numbers but also manages to label everything in both English and Japanese.). When I ducked into a coffee shop for help, the young women behind the counter conferred for a moment, and then one of them explained that, due to a number of bank mergers in the past couple of years, all the banks shown on the map had new names.

If the person you ask for help doesn't understand your spoken English, write down the name of your destination in block letters. Japanese high school English emphasizes reading rather than speaking, so nearly everyone can make sense of printed English.

gnaget, it seems like google maps improves monthly for japan...i was shocked to see places lobsterdog recommended that were not on google when i was looking a month before my trip only to get home and find, voila, within the multiple levels of tokyo station in google, there is was....

If I didn't have so little time before my trip, I would probably have ordered this atlas.

I bet you can buy it in Japan, along with several other maps and atlases. Go to the Kinokuniya store near Shinjuku Station. Exit via the New South Exit and follow the instructions for getting to Takashimaya Times Square and Tokyu Hands. Kinokuniya is the last store in the row, which overlooks several parallel railroad tracks.

This link contains a map. Kinokuniya has a whole floor of books in languages other than Japanese, mostly English, and an extensive selection of travel guidebooks.

http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/c/store/.../shopinfo.html

Like mkjr, my old Kodansha Tokyo City Atlas served me well over the years. The new version from 2012 (3rd ed.) is available on Amazon as well. The only electronics I use are my cameras and my laptop, which I connect to the hotel wi-fi to check and send e-mail and work on photos. My phone gets turned off when I board the plane in the states and stays off until I return home. Smart phone, GPS, meh!

I have always been helpful to you ! :p

You don't look very Japanese!!! :D

That said, you are darn helpful.

I've had several unsolicited offers of help. I guess I look vulnerable.

yES
 

Apparently, it's just you and me, but I had so many offers of help it almost became annoying. Must look particularly clueless :)

From your quite knowledgeable stance in the forum, I would presume you live in Japan, thus presume you'd have had many more opportunities for locals to offer you help - this as opposed to my trips to Japan - which while being quite a bit more frequent than the average, would pale in comparison to a gaijin truly living there.

Would like to see the look on your face though that garners unsolicited offers. :D

[QUOTE=ksandness;24118968]Well, the previous kabuki theatre at Ginza 1-chome and the Ueno Park Sofitel were destroyed, but were they major tourist attractions? Not necessarily...

On the flip side, I can't recall how the Roppongi Hilld/Mori Tower area looked before they were constructed, so I'll have to consult the web.