Looking for Navi in Japan

My wife and I are going to japan in a few months and will be in both Tokyo and Kyoto. I'm interested in seeing if I can make our lives easier with some sort of navigation while in both of these cities. The navi doesnt even need to be perfect. If we could get within a city block i'd be happy. I've been doing some reading but information on this is hard to come by.

Several articles I read suggested that we might be able to rent a cell phone/blackberry that had maps of japan or the ability to use the internet to navigate point to point.

Could anyone offer any information about this or other navigation methods in japan?

Many cell phones in Japan come with GPS and a navigation system for pedestrians and drivers. But rental phones for tourists tend not to be the newest models, so you will have to look around for a model that has GPS. I am not sure whether they are available, at all.

Note also that I do not think that these systems come in English.

This website:

http://diddlefinger.com/

allows you to put in Japanese street addresses (either in English or Kanji) and seems to be fairly accurate at locating the address. As long as you have access to the internet you could at least plot a course before you leave. Just an option.

Another possibility is to purchase a GPS. My son, who is in Okinawa, has a Garmin Navi 260 and has downloaded Japanese maps from this website:

http://uud.info/en/

I think the maps run 8400 yen or more depending on whether you download them or order the DVD. He has tested at the base where he is stationed at it works quite well.

It is also portable (doesn't have to be used in a car). We plan on using it when we visit Tokyo this fall.

Paul, thanks for the heads up on Diddlefinger.com, it is a new one to me. Horrible name, but very useful, especailly for train stations. I've been using MapFan for years, but they changed the layout a few years ago and it has not been the same since. Its-mo Guide is also quite good. These are good if you have the address in Japanese or have the postcode, but to have a bi-lingual website is excellent.

Thank you for the input. I gave the diddlefiger site a try using an address and an existing map I have with directions. It seemed to work pretty well once you understood how to input your information. When i was searching, the area name actually listed several Chrome choices. I found if I selected the chrome during area selection that I needed to leave it out when putting in the final building number selection even tough the example on the page suggests that you can leave it in. If the area you pick has a chome selection and you dont leave the chrome out of the number section in the final step it will break your search and send you to the wrong place. Other than this it seems like a very good resource. Too bad there isnt a way to search by phone numbers, I think thats how a lot of the japanese tyle navi systems get you places with the fewest input steps.

A word of warning with less expensive Nav Systems sold here in the US. Some of the older chip sets used in these navigational aids have a hard time gathering signal information in a city environment. That isnt to say that you cant use them but be aware you may need to move around a little to get a proper signal for them. The newer navigation units (typically more expensive) use better chipsets that are more sensitive and work better in a city.

I've actually seen the pay maps in question. I'm a little worried about picking up this product sight unseen. Its hard to tell how easy it is to use and how easy it is to search for an address while out in the field. Does anyone have further information on the maps you can buy for the Garman unit?

Hopefully you could preprogram your waypoints to places you want to see? I'm also wondering how easy it is to search for important locations, like a train station for instance.

The way I understand the way the Japanese map set works on the Navi 260 is that it really isn't all that good for on the fly locations. However, you can preprogram waypoints into it that you have set up on a PC. Hopefully that helps.

As far as Diddlefinger goes, I found it very useful as I haven't seen any other way of finding addresses in Japan. That, I presume, is why many businesses provide maps instead of addresses in their advertisements.

You can buy Nabi in English...

They are called JROAD JRN400, and you can get them at Yodobashi camera for a bit under 50,000yen.

I bought one at Akihabara at a shop there, and they threw in an better antenna, all for 48,000yen.
It is also portable, since it has a built in rechargable battery, so you can go walking with it.

The Shake!350 also has an English menu system and is less expensive than the Korean made JRoad:

http://www.grandmap.jp/shake/spec/index.html

http://www.grandmap.jp/shake/download/SHAKE_Manual_English.p...