Are there good road maps of Kyushu.

We are planning to drive to Beppu and Yufuin. Are there any good road directories in English to help us navigate. GPS is in Japanese. Road directories are a good backup

Peter, a few years back I purchased 'JAPAN A Bilingual Atlas" ISBN4-7700-1536-4
It certainly wouldn't do to navigate with but it helps. You could always print from Google maps which goes in to minute detail. You could print out major routes showing the numbers and fine detail for those areas required.

Unfortunately Google Maps is in Japanese, also. MapFan puts out an English version of their maps on the web.

http://www.mapfan.com/en/en_m.cgi

It is a beta version, however, it does have place names and points of interest in English.

MapFan English also has a search function that will show you restaurants (usually fast food), post offices, hotels, banks, etc within 1 to 10 km from where your pointer is located. You can also search for specific train station within a prefecture.

It's not bad.

you shouldn`t need a map to drive from beppu to yufuin. get on the 11/yamanami hwy and drive west. other than the expressway, it`s the only option. signs with have romaji on them, so you shouln`t miss it.