Online map of Japan in English....

http://diddlefinger.com/m/chibaken/chibashi/

Pretty useful. It works like google maps but it has Japan all in English. If you keep zooming in you can see names of individual train stations.

 

Nice as it does have all the english names, but if you understand a tiny amount of Japanese then something like http://www.mapfan.com is ultimately more useful. I use this to plan my cycling routes.

 

Yeah, but if you're searching for apartments or houses in places that you're not familiar with in Japan, the English and train station listing is pretty cool...

By the way, I'm searching for apartments or houses in places that I'm not familiar with in Japan.

 

i'm just about leaving now for my monthly hard-off cycling tour

 

Cool where are you going? I am planning to go to Saitama tommorow.

 

I just came back from Hard Off today. Picked up some very nice Saturn titles including some pretty hard to find stuff such as Play Boy Karaoke Vol.1 Shame it wasn't Vol.2 because I need that for mt collection. Still, I did manage to get 4 games that I never owned. :thumbsup: 1077 Saturn games and counting.

Yakumo

 

Going back to the online map thing, I can't see what difference there is between that map website and er Google maps (finds all the station names in English).

Google maps also has the street view feature for Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Sendai, Hakodate, Sapparo. As well as some of the smaller major towns around these including Nara.

Still if you can use a Japanese entry system then other websites do offer more flexibility and more importantly better visual cues when reading the map, as google maps don't seem to show where parks are apart from the name...

Right 40km cycle today should visit at least 3 hard off stores.

 

Not to play "battle of the maps" but...heh. Google doesn't give the neighborhood names in English, just Japanese. If you zoom in with the other map it will show all of the different areas in both English and Kanji.

 

When Diddlefinger first was around it was a great help, sadly Google maps has caught up as the map you showed uses google as a base you might notice that the neighboods are in English as well. Where it might be useful (ie in the sticks) it still has the same information that google maps uses. It does highlight stations a little more clearer, but as google maps does find every station anyway it's use is probably a little limited.

Here are the same maps, see if you can find any difference...


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=chiba,+japan&ie=UTF8&ll=35.612058,140.113921&spn=0.016956,0.035319&z=15&iwloc=addr
http://diddlefinger.com/?ll=35.611674,140.110788&z=15&t=m

Google maps can find places and areas in Japan too.

 

The bottom link seems to have more places listed in English than the Google one. So I'd probably go with that if I was in need of an English map. The Google one does look nicer as far as the English lables go. The bottom link looks like the English names have just been pasted on. However a map is for guiding no looks.

Yakumo

 

Thanks! As my Japanese is quite limited at the moment and I have had a few encounters where I cursed google maps, this is exactly what I needed to help me navigate a bit easier (until I learn more Japanese). This is great for finding those little streets.

 

I highly suggest everyone learn (or at least familiarize themselves with) Japan's excuse for an addressing system. When I'm looking for something, I generally get in the right area and look at the numbers on the signs. When I'm officially going in circles, I ask someone. Works pretty much every time.

 

I have done that, but I rather learn the route myself than asking for directions (which I have done far too much the last few weeks). Plus, this helps you find the ''area'' . Also, since I don't know enough kanji as it is it makes reading the signs a little difficult, so with this I can plan my trips more accurately.


And I think the whole ''no streetnames'' system is bollocks, it just doesn't fucking work.

 

Could you imagine naming all of those streets? There are simply too many of them. The system works if you understand it.

 

Well, in my country ''all of those streets'' have names?

And it will probably work if you fully understand it, but for now I think it is kinda flawed.

 

You're asking me? Not sure, what's your country?

Does your city have nearly as many in the same amount of space? Do they curve or are they straight? Agreed that Kyoto is laid out quite well, but even rural parts of the country still feature those curvey (and awfully small) roads.

There are things far more flawed which should be fixed. For starters: insulation in houses.

 

The Japanese do name the major streets and there are route numbers on the major roads too. I cycle everywhere and I manage to find everything without getting lost too much. I don't think I have ever ask a policeman for an address yet.

If you have a PC and even if you just have a Japanese address you should be able to find everything using just google maps! The IME pad is your friend for entering complex Kanji that you can't pronounce.

The fact you are in Kyoto means you have Street view, which means you should be able to find the intersections at least of where you must go down, I used it when finding a doctors in Tokyo and it was a breeze, "hmm when I see a Freshness burger turn right then look for this building". Although Mapfan gave me a much better map then Google maps did.

 

It was rhetorical, and Amsterdam (I originate from the Netherlands) doesn't have a grand building scheme so everything is bend and crooked and curved. We have the most ridiculous names, but every tiny street has it's own name.

I hadn't really thought about using street view, nice one Jamtex:dance: . However, I manage to get around atleast the center without pulling out my big map all the time, thank god for the nice weather last week that allowed me to just walk around all day . Stupid rain atm though :crying: .

 

And now w/ technology (internet in your hands) it's even easier. Before I fucking broke my phone, I wouldn't even print a map out. Just found the URL on google, bookmarked it on my phone, and left.

 

As I have been to places where mobile phone access has been patchy at best even in small town areas (Gunma is a lovely prefecture for getting zero bars on your phone), I rather use a nice printed map any day, I normally carry a map of the prefecture(s) I am travel through, just in case, I also have a compass which helps me travel in the right direction.