Are there any good site that offer point to point directions for places in Japan? Mapquest gives me maps, but not driving directions.

Apologies if posted in wrong forum.

If your a AAA member, you might try them. You can also try to contact the Japan Automobile Federation:

http://www.jaf.or.jp/e/index_e.htm

Or perhaps the US Embassy in Tokyo

http://usembassy.state.gov/tokyo/wwwh7125.html

They might know of a web site.
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Michael Steinberg
Editor
BizTrip
http://www.biztrip.com

[This message has been edited by businesstraveler (edited 11-15-2002).]

Additioanlly, the rent-a-car places all have maps and will expalin your route to you in great detail. It may be possible to request of Hertz or other Int?l presence car companies to provide such route planning in advance.

Mike

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My take of driving in Japan is that it can be slow and you need a very detailed map to navigate in towns and only a slightly-less detailed if in the country (judging from northern Honshu). Don't expect to average more than 25-30 mph if you;re not on a major highway.

I did find a book in a Tokyo bookstore entitled "Road Atlas: Japan 1:250,000" -- English edition for Y3000, published by a company called Shobunsha. Not online but might help you if you can find it and are planning on driving when there.

It contains the useful and amazing fact that Japanese national toll roads all use the same toll rate: Y24.6/km, which means toll is about 32 cents per mile! No wonder the toll roads outside the major cities are so empty.

A couple more things:

1) Driving in Japan is like driving anywhere else in that it is faster outside towns (except entering or leaving at rush hour) and is never fast in big cities, but noticably faster in smaller ones.

Signs on all major roads are in English characters so you can phoneticallly get through reading street signs. Signs in all places are inclusive of road numbers so one cannot easily get lost. This last depends to a large extent on one's own sense of direction however.

I have been driving here for 12 years and have found it very easy to zip around outside the perimeter of Tokyo. Inside Tokyo, well, that is a test of patience not dissimilar to crossing the Bay Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area at rush hour.

2) There is a store called Kinokuniya which is in many major cities in the USA and they ahve a wonderful selection of books usually found in Japanese bookstores. You may want to have a look at one of these for road atlas while in the US.

Mike

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One more thing: Houses and buildings are numbered as they were built, not in an orderly fashion like in the states.