Hokkaido GPS Mapcodes

[ausi ski bum 1]

I have a GPS in the vehicle I am hiring in January however it only speaks japanese, I doubt this will be a major problem as when it speaks I will at least know it wants me to do something, i suspect after a few days I will start to understand it anyway.

 

What I do want is a list of GPS Mapcodes for Hokkaido that way once I enter the code the GPS will do its job.

 

I have found one excellet site on the net but its all in Japanese, anyone know where I can find or buy the codes I am after .

 

Thanks

[thursday 1]

when it speaks, it only says turn left, turn right, or you suck at driving, kill yourslef before you kill somebody.

[ausi ski bum 1]

Not sure what your talking about Thursday, driving is not the issue, I do drive 65000km a year. The Mapcodes are a nine digit number you enter for key sites, for example Lake Toya is 321 518 596. You enter the number into your GPS and it then directs you to that site, its very clever.

[me jane 0]

Do you mean you want to use your own GPS rather that the car navi system? I've never seen a car navigation system that uses mapcodes here (but then I haven't looked).

Thursday is right, when Japanese car navigation systems speak all they do is tell you to go left or right or to slow down because there is a curve or traffic jam ahead. You don't need to understand it because you can figure out all the info by looking at the screen.

When you pick up the car, get the rental staff to show you how to program destinations by phone numbers (and how to erase them) and the navi will tell you how to get to the place at that phone number. Just find out a the phone numbers of the places you want to go (or a nearby resaturant if it's a lake or mountain) before you set off.

[Domokun_72dpi 0]

I think that's all Ausi_Ski_bum needed.

 

Over here, You have different voices, and the instructions would be like: "At the next intersection, Turn left"

I want to get one that sounds like Darth vader.

 

Those mapcodes sound pretty sweet Ausi...

 

BTW, hope you offset your carbon emissions Ausi

[me jane 0]

There are different voices here too. Different regional dialects, school girls and stuff. Some have an English voice option but the translations are so cryptic I find the Japanese easier.

[thursday 1]

ASB, I was on about my driving, not yours sorry.

 

With the hire car I used, I only needed the establishment's phone number and it showed me the route.

[indosnm 0]

You can use heaps of different criteria for searches.

Parks, hotels, ski resorts etc.

Don't count on small places having their numbers all the time though.

[bobby12 0]

You can input destinations using the phone number, company name etc. Its rare that you cant find the place you want. But you need basic japanese. Mine (Toyota standard one) doesnt have mapcode input as far as i know.

[ausi ski bum 1]

The phone number method sounds good, I got a book on Hokkaido from the Japanese Tourist Information Centre and Australia Square and every picture had these 9 digit Mapcodes on them and at the begining of the book it explaines what they were, I havent used a GPS before but thought these were an excellent idea and thise was the first tourist brochure I had seen so well presented with them.