Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim (Post 35738253)

No, neither Google Maps nor Apple Maps nor Waze is nearly as good as the built-in navs, for a couple of reasons.

1) Lane guidance is absent in non-Japanese navs. Sometimes Waze will have some guidance, but it's a little flimsy.
2) Phone number search is mostly absent in non-Japanese navs (and works quite well in the OEM ones)
3) Critically, in-tunnel guidance is very flawed in non-OEM navs (since, obviously, no GPS connectivity). This may or may not matter for your use case; half of Tokyo is underground so it's INDISPENSABLE there unless you're familiar with the route, because the Marunouchi tunnel, for example, is about 17km long, and only has 7 exits, so if you miss yours (and remember, no nav underground, so you have NO IDEA if you're missing your exit or not), then you'll instantly regret not using the onboard one.
4) Onboard navs have a tendency to keep you to larger roads, and have colour coding (usually purple) for roads you as a foreigner should not attempt to navigate (think 4m wide road that has buses going in both directions, interpersed with electric poles and bicycles). Google will happily navigate you along the shortest route. I direct you to this thread; 'nuff said. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip...ery-badly.html

The OEM nav is usually clunky to use, far worse than Google Maps or the others, but the benefit is that the driving directions tend to be very Japan-focussed, which means TREMENDOUS amounts of hand-holding (like warning you that a curve is coming up ahead), but this may be valuable if the road is unfamiliar, because Japanese roads don't really follow any specific rules (i.e. highway exits are sometimes on the left, and sometimes on the right, so you absolutely cannot assume that it will be one or the other); and sometimes an exit might have multiple forks, some of which go into a parking lot, some go into an exit, and some just go nowhere. Also, some may be ETC-only (toll card), which is something the onboard nav will warn you about, and Google Maps won't.

One possible option if you want to try something different is Navitime. I don't know how their free mode works, they've kind of revamped the pay model so it's annoying now, but it was a good alternative that was still extremely Japan-oriented and yet ran on phones.

Originally Posted by nar0 (Post 35796615)

Yahoo Car Navigation is the best free nav for your phone in Japan, has pretty much all the OEM nav features, including somehow having the ability to know your location in tunnels and underground, but is completely free for all standard nav features (I think they charge for the more advanced Waze-like features). Only downside is it's Japanese only, there is no English at all.

Originally Posted by Ashe Black (Post 35783294)

Just rented a car from sky rent a car in Kumamoto, I had to create a Japanese account using a Japanese address and number, I used my proxy forwarding service address for this, and my Chinese name for the kanji name, though it doesn't match my English name on my documents. Will this cause any issues or are only the CC, passport, and IDP important?

Originally Posted by bocastephen (Post 35796425)

Just a FYI for those renting a Prius in Japan, there are more flavors and sizes of Prius in Japan than North America, and the entry level option is small - and I mean really really small. We were barely able to squeeze in two larger carry on rollers plus one backpack and while I’m not that tall by any stretch, I had to basically squat to get in and out of the car.

So the lower priced Prius that you might see from Toyota Rent A Car may look like a good deal, be prepared for the size.

Originally Posted by valve bouncer (Post 35800106)

Sounds like you might have got a Toyota Aqua (Prius C outside Japan). They are indeed tiny in the back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Aqua

Originally Posted by YariGuy (Post 35801530)

It has no handles for the back door?

Originally Posted by YariGuy (Post 35801530)

It has no handles for the back door?

Originally Posted by bocastephen (Post 35801337)

Actually I don’t think it was an Aqua, which I was expecting because it was the first car we drove in Japan many years ago. The car we received had a very futuristic look. Here are a couple photos:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...58830ec9f.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6ed97234c.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...79b45ff3c.jpeg

Originally Posted by uanj (Post 35802085)

Question for the group: last two rentals from Avis in Japan ended up with cars that don't connect to Apple CarPlay. Is this the norm now? The Pioneer navi system is not great for English input.

Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim (Post 35802088)

Woah that’s the newest Prius!! How was it? Small but very cool.

Originally Posted by uanj (Post 35802085)

Question for the group: last two rentals from Avis in Japan ended up with cars that don't connect to Apple CarPlay. Is this the norm now? The Pioneer navi system is not great for English input.

Originally Posted by Amil (Post 35802120)

yeah I just had a subaru rental from Nippon and was beyond disappointed with the Pioneer Navi.

Originally Posted by Outbound24 (Post 35803506)

That's disappointing to hear, I was hoping most rentals had Apple CarPlay as it's really user friendly for me personally, I didn't want have to use my phone in a cradle for navigation with Google Maps, music library and calls/texts etc