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09-23-2010, 12:36 PM
Umm seems time to make changes and make it easier. what about visitors who need to find friends etc? It must be extremly difficult.
I wonder who set up the present system of addresses> sounds a real nightmare to me. 
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09-23-2010, 04:11 PM
As a movie fan, I really feel unsatisfied with the fact that Japanese movies does not have english subtitles when it is showed in cinemas.. I find it quite hard to understand sometimes although I've been studying here for almost 3 years..
Don't do drugs!  
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09-23-2010, 04:15 PM
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Didn't mean to sound harsh, but....
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09-23-2010, 05:38 PM
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09-23-2010, 06:14 PM
In regard to the Japanese address system... Which I kind of prefer - I`ll explain why at the end.
Roads here do not have to be made by the government. Anyone can make or remove a road (if the road is on their property, and if it is not a registered government road). This means that companies and individuals will make their own access roads, and eliminate them for development purposes. Naming the smaller roads would really be pointless as they appear and disappear fairly regularly... However, national and prefectural government maintained roads are numbered - but even in those cases the addresses have nothing to do with the roads as the roads are free to move, be rerouted, etc, according to traffic needs. House numbers are the mess that they are because of the increasingly smaller blocking off of properties. Let`s say we started with 1 house on a large chunk of land. It`s #1 - the next house on the next chunk of property next to it is #2, and so on. The town develops and they split the land in two but leave the original houses... There are no numbers between 1 and 2, so they either number 2-1, or stick 3 between. Then those plots are split again, so you get another layer. After splitting up a formerly huge plot into 20 to 50 blocks gradually, it gets to be a bit of a mess juggling the numbers. However... You can always find the AREA where the building is. If someone hands me a street based address, the best I can do is scour a map looking for the street. I have NO idea where in town it is. In a big city, it could be anywhere. If the road is long and has a jump in numbers (pretty common), while I may be able to find the road I`ll have to pretty much travel the entire length to find the address. With a Japanese address, I know right away what part of town it is. Look closer at that part of town, and I know pretty much immediately what area. Look closer, and it`s easy to tell which neighborhood, and then which block. Even small towns are split off into sections so you can at least easily find the immediate vicinity of the address. There is none of the "Wait, there is another Blahblah street with the even numbers between 1500 and 3500 on the complete other side of town?! And here I`ve been searching for an hour to find 2000!" (Has happened to me several times in the US.) You can also easily ask people and they will get you closer and closer to your destination. Ask someone "Which way to Blahblah street?" - and if they aren`t familiar with the street name you`re completely out of luck... But everyone knows the neighboring areas. If you`re in, say, section A that is split into 1, 2, 3, and 4 - if you ask someone in A-1 which way to A-3, they`ll pretty much always be able to tell you how to get there. And once in A-3, you can pretty easily get directions to A-3-b, and so on. I`ve never felt lost in Japan without a map, but I`ve been miserably lost in the US without one when trying to hunt for the way to get to a specific street.
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09-23-2010, 10:43 PM
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Gee what a surprise that is!  Personally I never drive anywhere unless I have a map of the area. Sure an address here will get you close to the vicinity of where you want to be but even if you have a map will not give you an exact location. At least with a street name and number if you have a map (and know how to use it) there is very little chance of ever not finding the exaxct location you are after with ease.
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09-24-2010, 01:38 AM
While you listed some decent reasons to like the Japanese system, Nyorroin, I still think it's a bit of a hastle. I do know that it gets easier to understand the longer you've been somewhere and the more Japanese you know... but GoNative is right, you can ask a native person where something is and they'll often have no clue (just like asking someone for directions to a minor street in a neighborhood in the US will lead to blank stares). Also, while some towns are small, some can be huge! There are some towns that even have like pan handles... but they don't end there, they just fatten up and keep going somewhere else making it that much more difficult.
"I`ve never felt lost in Japan without a map, but I`ve been miserably lost in the US without one when trying to hunt for the way to get to a specific street." Nyororin, while I usually agree with you, this is unbelievable. I've hardly ever felt lost in America, and I pretty much always feel lost in Japan. Of course this has to do with roads that go in every direction, streets without any lighting, and other things of that ilk. In southern CA everything was square and easy to navigate (and a bit boring looking as a result). While I've gained a much better sense of direction since I've moved here, I still don't feel anywhere near as confident as when I drove in CA. I feel safer though  . I think it is interesting to note that phone numbers seem to always be in the adresses of places... I think part of the reason for that is to call and ask for mroe detailed directions once the shipping company has located the general direction (but can't find the exact place). I've had stuff shipped to a place in the mountains and the drivers got lost for quite a long time... it's just the way it goes around here. If you're not used to the area and haven't been to a certain location, the odds are you probably won't find it first try without some kind of navigation system. I'm gonna go as far as to say that a map won't even help you a lot of the time. Just like Nyororin said, the roads always change thus making maps constantly outdated. I wouldn't feel comfortable with a map that wasn't made within a year or two (published and made are two different things, remember). I've seen maps published in 06-07 that were made in 03-05 and they are completely misleading in certain areas.
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09-24-2010, 02:17 AM
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Do you really think that changing over to a street name based system would make things easier in Japan? It`s not the address system, it`s the roads and the way they are made that is the issue - not the addresses. Even if there were names for every street, and all the houses were numbered in order along them... You`d STILL be totally lost because of how many tiny streets, new streets popping up, etc, there are. It`s the way things are laid out to begin with that is the issue. Any system used is going to have trouble being clear - the system used is the most efficient for Japanese roads. Quote:
I think part of this is because I do have a fairly poor sense of direction - or rather, I am awful at remembering street names and intersections, so being told such and such intersects with such and such, etc etc, doesn`t really hang around in memory. The numbers in Japan are the only things that are a pain in my opinion, as they have no logical order. You just have to kind of hunt for them. Japanese addresses (also Chinese and Korean, as they follow the same system) tend to get a really really bad rap... But they`re quite good at getting you to where you want to be. People love to bring up how street names are so much better - but really, unless the streets are all numbered, how is there more logic in that? Some random name isn`t going to make it easier to get to where you want to go. It`s just the ordered numbers that make it easier once you`re on the right street that make things seem easier. The Japanese system is a good one - in practice it could use a lot of cleaning up, but the system itself of increasingly smaller areas is quite efficient in getting you into the right area. If you have a map, I`m pretty sure that any system will work. But wandering around without a map, and on foot (Public transportation FTW), and it`s much much easier to figure out where you are and how close you are to where you need to be with the Asian system.
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09-24-2010, 02:43 AM
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I understand that in say the US or Australia if you do not have a street directory map with you then a street name in some suburb is useless and gives no indication of where it is. Again though I never attempt to drive or go anywhere without a map. At the very least I'll print a map off the net. Here I always buy an updated Mapple for Hokkaido and Sapporo every year. My wife is rather incredible at reading street maps. Still if trying to find a friends house from an address it is nearly impossible to pinpoint the exact house unless the friends have given a description of which house is theirs. In Aus I could easily look up a street name, drive to that street and look for the number on the letterbox or front door to pinpoint the exact house. The maps there also show you which numbers can be found in which area along a street making it easy to know which part of the street to look. If you're only happy with finding the general area or block a place is located then the Japanese system is fine. But if you're wanting to specifically find a particular house or building without having to ask directions then a street name and number with a decent map is much easier. But I've yet to see you ever admit that anything the Japanese do is not as good or better than the way it's done in the west Nyororin so I doubt you'll agree with me. 
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09-24-2010, 02:52 AM
Vast majority of cities in CA are a perfect grid. All I need is a compass to get me around!
Back to Japan. Why rework the entire Address system, Just use a GPS Navi. Every cell phone will have on built in pretty soon anyway.  
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