Top 3 Disorienting Aspects of Living in Japan (Notes from Under the Tatami Mats–10 … My Adventures in Japan)

“Where the streets have no name.”

Apart from some of the major roads in Japan, most streets in the cities and towns remain nameless. Instead, each block is given a number or two – for instance, a certain block might be called “North 3, West 5.”    

On a simple north-south-east-west gird, that would be 3 blocks north of the central east-west dividing line, and 5 blocks west of the north-south dividing line. Simple enough. 

Until you have to find a certain building somewhere in North 3, West 5. That building could be anywhere in that block.  Good luck finding it.    _{(Image source)}

Mapping chaos

To complicate matters, most Japanese cities comprise old towns and villages whose history goes back centuries. Centuries ago, nobody undertook city planning based on a convenient grid layout. 

Roads simply followed the lay of the land, the edge of the river, or the circle around a hill. Even today, those are the roads that you often travel on in Japanese cities and towns.    

Usually, there’s no grid, just a random hodgepodge of blocks, or blobs (as they appear on a map), with one number, such as Motomachi 1. So, instead of having two coordinates (as above) that give you a sense of where you want to go, you have only one number which gives you about half of a sense of where you want to go. Hardly enough, in most cases.    _{(Image source)}

Where the streets have no name

As it is, they never got around to naming the streets, and any attempt to do so today would be a foolishly major undertaking. Fair enough.   

However, when it comes to maps … don’t get me started. Really, when making maps the first rule of thumb is always, quite simply, "North is UP." But nobody told that to the Japanese. 

So, on the map that you are looking at, south might be UP, but there will be NOTHING to indicate that on the map. You have to first look around you, get your bearings, and then turn the map to match it with your surroundings. Or vice versa. Or inside out.

Often when we referred to such maps, we completely lost our way. The best thing to do would have been to throw the map away, to ensure that we did not get lost.

   Introduction to – “Notes from Under the Tatami Mats”  _{(right-click on title)}

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Links to my Other Series …

      Introduction – "Intro to Vocab-ability"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Guide – "Guide to Entries"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Index– "Index" to all Chapters and Sections   _{(right-click on title)}

      Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 1"   _{(right-click on title)}
      Lou Reed – "Anthology of Memorable Lyrics, Part 2"   _{(right-click on title)}

_{Images sourced from Google Images, unless otherwise indicated or unless my own.}