Avoiding Getting Lost in Tokyo
 

I am heading to Tokyo in less than 2 weeks. It will be my first time in Japan.

I like to explore new cities on foot, so I purchased a street map of Tokyo (Borch), but I am very confused. Most of the streets appear to have no names. Only the major avenues do.
I searched for some info online, and I read that blocks in Tokyo have numbers; streets do not.

The problem is that my map does not even show the numbers of the blocks! It would have been helpful to have this information handy, as it would serve as a rough guide for where I am if I get lost.

I guess my questions are:

(A) Can I find my way around Tokyo by sticking to the major avenues that have names?

(B) Do these major avenues have street signs that are written in Roman characters, or are they in Japanese?

You'll miss a lot if you only stick to streets with names. And a map without block numbers is pretty much useless in Tokyo.

Do you have a smartphone? Rent a mobile WiFi hotspot (there's a separate thread on that) and use the GPS to find your way around.

Unfortunately, I don't have a SmartPhone. It would have been helpful to have a real-time map, such as Google Maps.

There are lots of ways to rent a smartphone in Japan- you can pick it up at the airport or at your hotel. Here is a service I used: http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/index.html

Smartphone rental is a good way to go for real time maps. If you must have a paper map, this one has block numbers and old major attractions should still be correct on there. http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-City-Atl.../dp/1568364458

Having said that, even with a smartphone with data connection, and visiting every few years, I consider getting lost only once to count as a victory. Usually heading down an incorrect subway exit or perhaps on the wrong train. It isn't a usually problem as you can generally get off the train, go to the other platform, and backtrack for free.

Just take your time and print out the hotel map in Japanese and English so you can always make it "home" if the batteries die. If you are trying to visit a particular restaurant, check the route via Google Street View and also be sure to look up. Restaurants aren't always on the ground floor.

Should you get utterly lost, "Koban" is a police box and in most neighborhoods. They can help with directions.

Thanks for the helpful tips.
If I rent a Smartphone in Tokyo, will the controls be in Japanese or English?

Thanks, will check it out.

By the way, do store owners at the airport speak some English? I'm wondering how I would even make this transaction if I can't communicate with them.

Most mobile shop clerks at Narita and Haneda do speak some English and offer online reservations in English so you could just show them a printout of your reservation. Android can be set to English language, even if it is a Japanese phone meant for the domestic market.

A tip on Google Maps - plot out your main attraction points and star them in Google Maps ahead of time, from your home computer. Then on the Android/iPhone, sign into the same Google account you used with Google Maps. You'll see the starred locations appear on the smartphone's Google Maps app, too. I find this a lot easier than trying to input it in Japanese or the English translation while on the go. Copy in Japanese, paste to https://www.google.com/maps (my language default is English) also works.

When I first came to Japan we didn't have fancy smartphones or googlemaps.

You should be able to find most major sites, train stations have huge maps of the areas near the exits. Police boxes (kobans) also have maps of the areas posted on the side of them as well.

If you really need to get somewhere specific, I recommend printing out the address and the name of the place in Japanese rather than a Romanized version, so you can show it to a regular person on the street if you get really lost. I wouldn't worry too much about the numbering system in Tokyo (I sure don't pay attention to it much and I live there!) Just study the maps ahead of time, navigate using streetsmarts and using main landmarks (train stations, sightseeing spots) as your point of reference.

Thanks. All the shortcuts I can take will be greatly beneficial to me, as my time is relatively limited.

Could I also navigate using the labeled main streets as a reference point? It seems easier that way when using my paper map.

My experience
 

If you are obviously American/non Japanese, if you stand on a street corner looking confused even for a minute or two, someone will come up to you in excellent English and offer to help you.

Seriously, I wouldn't worry--especially in major cities.

Even better is to have printed out your destination in Japanese on a little piece of paper and show it to someone.

We found people so helpful, it almost got annoying :) In a good way.

Never mind the smartphone, especially if you're not used to having one.

There are several English-language maps and atlases of Tokyo that are not available outside Japan but are readily available in bookstores in Tokyo.

Actually, this one, available from Amazon, looks good:

http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Walks-Wo...der_B00ATLB0DG

It contains neighborhood maps and narrative descriptions of the sights.

Don't worry too much about the lack of street names or addresses. In real life, people navigate by landmarks. They go to the nearest train or subway station and work from there. Advertisements for businesses typically contain an inset map showing how to get there from the nearest transit stop. Anyone who lives in Japan for any length of time becomes skilled at drawing maps.

Furthermore, everyone gets lost in Tokyo. It doesn't matter if they were born and grew up there; they can still get lost. Fortunately, Tokyo is one of the world's safest cities, and if you are obviously a foreign tourist, Japanese people will tend to think of you as a guest in their "home" and treat you kindly.

If nothing else, they can give you directions to the nearest train or subway station, and once you are in the station, there will be at least one map of the system in English.

Getting lost can actually be rather fun, because you can meet interesting people and see unexpected sights.

Interesting comment. I've never had someone offer to help me, in fact, the exact opposite. I find most Japanese to be shy and unlikely to proactively offer help, but that's just my experience.

To the OP, I rely heavily on my hotel concierge to print maps and provide the necessary instructions to help me navigate to any new destinations. Once you get the hang of the public transportation system, the "chome" system and the fact that maps are really often quite helpful in Tokyo, you'll be pretty well off, even without a smartphone.

That said, investing in one pays huge dividends in Tokyo and elsewhere for navigation, among other purposes.

Getting lost in Tokyo is part of the experience. :)

As others have pointed out, there are plenty of maps in street corners and they are very useful after you realize that typically up means direction where your nose points when looking at the map rather than north. Also locals are usually very helpful but often there is a considerable language barrier. Subway and train stations are usually quite good reference points. Subway map that has English names in one side and Japanese in other side is very useful if you are totally lost and no one seems to speak English. Just point a Japanese name of a station you think is nearby and the person helping you can at least point a direction to go. It also helps in inside bigger stations if you don't find a correct platform as you can point where you want to go.

Smartphone with map is naturally helpful but one can survive without. Just reserve some extra time for getting at least little bit lost once in a while and take it as an experience.

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.

+7 (adjusted for the falling yen). I can't understand why a tourist would want to avoid getting lost in Tokyo.

Most of my favorite discoveries took place whilst "lost".

I went to Japan twice pre-smartphone (with guidebooks) and once renting an iPhone 4:

1) In Tokyo, I found people tend to help more when approached. Even if their English is poor, they will usually make some effort to help. Outside Tokyo (even in other big cities), people tend to be more proactively helpful if they can tell you are confused/lost. In more than one instance, I've had people walk me part or all the way to my destination, sometimes even going out of their way on mass transit to help! This happened to my parents last month as well, so it wasn't a fluke.

2) One thing that is cool about Google Maps Street View is that you can even "move" along many streets, click by click. So you not only see your destination, but you could potentially see your entire route. This sounds a bit crazy, but it was tremendously helpful in my last trip when I couldn't use my phone or carry a map for religious reasons and still knew exactly how to get to my destination from the hotel and what to look for on the way.

3) If you are anxious about getting lost, one thing that relaxes me in Tokyo (or any city with a well marked subway system) is that as long I can get to a station, I can find my way back to the hotel. Tokyo's is more extensive and confusing than most other systems, but if you know the subway line and station closest to your hotel, you can certainly ask at the station how to get back. This, combined with the aforementioned general safety and friendliness/helpfulness should ease your anxiety.

I may have had an unsolicited offer once; have a vague recollection.

But it is still 3-1 Japanese asking a gaijin for directions.

I spent my first 5 weeks in 2011 (well I left for maybe 10 days) without a phone, which really sucked.

Also back then Google maps did not even recognize some places unless you typed in hiragana. Any variation of romaji did not work.

p.s. It's all very good if you have been going to Japan numerous times for 20 years, but it's pretty tough for a first time visitor without a phone.

[QUOTE=BuildingMyBento;24122915]i have some photos from the lobby of the park hotel in 2007. after my trip there this past June, the one thing that struck me was how nice the road was going through the mori tower....it is a monster building.

If I had enough time, I would have made an offer to buy this atlas from you. I guess I'll have to go to B&N to look for another one.

Good tip. Thanks.

Normally, getting lost would not spook me too much, but I have limited time in Tokyo (4 nights), and a lot to cover, so efficiency is paramount.

I think renting a Smartphone is the best idea (if I don't manage to get a hold of an atlas). Where at Haneda airport can I do this, and does the store staff generally speak English?
I don't speak a word of Japanese, so I was counting on zero interaction with people in Tokyo (aside from English speaking hotel staff).

I would prefer to have this atlas in my hand on arrival. I may actually get lost on the way to purchasing it! :)

PM me and I will courier it to you....[you just need to return it back to me]

In fact, I will walk home from my office and get it now and then I can drop it in the courier for today's drop if you can get me the address.