How to get around Japan

Navigating your way around Japan

For anyone that has been to Japan, they will know that trying to navigate your way around is an absolute nightmare – and that’s at the best of times. Unless you know the area your going to, trying to navigate your way around can be absolutely hopeless, even in this day and age when maps have grown to be a sophisticated tool that is generally easily and widely accessible.

In the case of printed maps, one may have thought that these would have and graphically developed into a user friendly and easy to understand part of your journey, but when most of the maps generally don’t use the top of the page as north, and only few indicate which direction north actually is, you could spend a large part of your time trying to make sense of the map. Another common feature of the printed maps is the use of symbols. They are used to identify various landmarks, which is great if you knew what meant what. So as a tourist, or someone in an unfamiliar area, or sometimes even a local person, sometimes a symbol that might have been created to simplify things really has no meaning what so ever. The funny thing is, distance is also symbolised, throwing in a whole new level of complexity.

It is recommended that you get city books. They are so incredibly detailed that they include literally ever service you could need, even including every entrance and exit for each station. Every single landmark is in there, so you won’t miss a thing.

Posted in Uncategorized