One of the challenges of getting used to my new life in Japan was the total lack of street names, which made it difficult for me to learn my way around in my new city. Except for certain major thoroughfares like National Road 17, which will take you to Tokyo, roads here lack names of any kind and are referred to abstractly, e.g. “the road between the elementary school and the convenience store.” Adapting a French model, Japan breaks their land into prefectures (ken), cities (shi), and towns (machi or cho), with the towns divided into smaller blocks like 3-chome (third block), and so on. A Japanese address looks something like “Gunma-ken Isesaki-shi Sakura-cho 2-19-15” (in Japanese, 群馬県伊勢崎市桜町２−１９−１５), but if you ever try to visit a place based on this information you’ll be driving around in circles, as the only people who can make sense of a Japanese address are postal workers. Instead, to find a given location you nearly always need a map, which is why most every printed advertisement will have a map indicating how to get to shop. Car GPS systems are also a very nice thing to have when driving in Japan.
Most ads and websites will feature simple maps to help you get to a place.
