For those that lived there... is it true?

Question

I have heard before, and am aware that much of the older japan is a windy bunch of roads that are unlabled and unnamed. Is this true of all of japan?
Where I lived in Hokkaido it is set out all in grid system and you can buy mapbooks that have VERY detailed maps, all the way down to the outline of the house and gararge/carport and even has the names printed on them. Are the other parts of Japan like that? Or just the newer areas... I would be interested to know
They are not free, you have to buy them. We always had them, and most business have them. Its handy for looking for someone because all you need to know is the area and family name. If you know the fathers name, you can find the house perfectly.

Answer 1

Yea. Basically street has no name, especially residential area.
Japan take "banchi" system, not "street".
http://www.blogd.com/archives/001151.html

I know the map you mention. One famous map company is selling the map for business use.
I remember the first bulky order of this map was made by the waterworks department of one city government.(Maybe 40-50 years ago.)
They had to check all the water pipes under the ground, and visit whole residences and buildings in the city according to the new environmental law. It must helped them a lot.
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k228/_files/j_chizu01map.jpg

But today,it is a bit insecure. Today the map company have to follow the "Personal information protection law". You can ask them to delete your family name from the map.

Answer 2

I think that everyone is still out on that question. First of all, that is a very tall tale, and if that sea had opened those chariots and the people walking would not have been able to cross on the very soft muddy bottom. That alone speaks tons that the story is not true. Besides, the Egyptians where known for keeping records and there has never been anything found in Egyptian history that mentions the Hebrews being enslaved there. This makes Moses seem more and more as just yet another tall tale. BTW, it could not have been the Red Sea, that has been changed years ago. It was actually the Reed Sea, a smaller body of water. Perhaps that will change also in a year or 2. That book which you bought has just printed lies. It is obviously put out by some religious organization just trying to help prop up the weakening christian religion. If they claim they found tracks at the bottom of the Red Sea, then you know that is a lie, because the Red Sea was not the sea that the Hebrews spoke about, it was the Reed Sea.

Answer 3

there are books that you can buy that will greatly help you with finding your way around, the books get pretty detailed, at least down to the block level of where you are trying to find. I am not completely down on how the numbering system works but the way I understand it, for example an address in Tokyo would be 4-29-7 machiya, arakawa-ku Tokyo

its in the Machiya neighborhood of Arakawa ward, In Tokyo then one of the numbers is the area, another the block, and then the building, I think its in that order even. The atlas books will give you the layouts of each and every block (if its a good book) and with that information, and a few moment's looking you will find it easily from there.

Answer 4

Yes, there are extremely detailed maps available for all of Japan. Real estate agents always have them of their own territory, and they are what the koban or convience stores base their advice on. But it is tough to find your own way around an unfamiliar area of urban Japan. Morioka is one city that I know of that was intentionally laid out to befuddle potential attackers. Getting from town to town is usually no problem though. I've been told that the reason expressways have English signs is in case the US military has to use them in a crisis. If you go to a "new" part of Tokyo like Odaiba, it's easy to get around.

Answer 5

Speaking for the area where we live, which isn't particularly old, the roads ARE all winding and twisted, and they're mostly NOT named!! It's just divided into areas, within the local postcode. I've seen pretty detailed maps though - although we haven't bought one ourselves - we usually look at maps you get online, they get very close-up and detailed (provided you don't want an English language version...!)

(Incidentally, we can find our block of flats on Google Earth, and see the whole area! Not that this has anything to do with the QUESTION...!!)

Answer 6

It seems that way in Tokyo at times. Kyoto however at least the central city is laid out on a grid pattern like the Tang Capital. I find it easy to walk around without getting lost whereas streets in Tokyo have a strange way of going off to nowhere near where you want to go.

Tokyo grew up faster than the city planners thought it would - I'm referring to the Edo era. While the streets were laid out for the established groups of lords, samurai, and merchants , many of the common people built anywhere and whole neighborhoods sprung up hapazardly.

A number fires kept altering Tokyo/Edo over the years. In 1923 much of Tokyo was leveled by the great earthquake and in 1945 it was firebombed by the Americans. It was along the Yamanote line that things started to pick up while the middle section was a wasteland for sometime.

Answer 7

Maps, perhaps. Steet signs with the name of the street on it - often, no! Buildings with their number displayed, again often no! And I am talking about tokyo/yokohama.

I have gotten into a taxi on more than one occassion, provided the correct business address and the taxi driver couldn't find the place! I have heard others that have had the same experience. This NEVER happened to me in the States. Not even ONCE in 30 years of living there!

In America, the directions a person gives you often go like this:

take 1st street until you reach 2nd avenue, then turn left on 2nd avenue and follow it until you reach Beach St. Then turn left on Beach St. and the place is 3040 W. Beach St. ......Everyone can find this! It's logical.

Okay, now here's japan -

go down this street until you see the Sunkus convenience store, you will see 2 streets to your left, you want to take the 1st left and then look for a small street to your right. Go down there for a ways and you will see a department store on your left. It is behind the department store on the second floor of the second grey building..............Huh?!

A map based on family names?! What is this, the 1850's?!

Answer 8

I may have seen one of these maps with family names on them before but not quite sure if it's the same because the one I saw was more like a map of a small neighborhood. Not a city.
It basically showed each house with the family name and showed names of the local business and phone numbers.
And also you couldn't buy the map, it was given by the local community member at the time you moved into the neighborhood. I assumed they update it eveytime someone moves out/in.

I've never really understood the maps in Tokyo. Too many numbers and weird symbols.