muikabochi 208 Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 Anyone else get frustrated at the silly manga-style "maps" that lots of tourist places use here in Japan. I have just come back from a very fine day in the Akaki/Numata part of northern Gunma Prefecture and in a few places I was relying on a few maps and signs in those places. Some of them were laughably bad. Those in Japan probably know the kind - maps of an area with absolutely no scale and in lots of cases even no indication of roads and directions (!); all the attrations shown as some kind of cartoon drawing complete with lots of happy disney like animal characters playing golf/tennis/skiing and people with huge eyes hiking etc. They are just totally useless! I gave up on finding one or two places because I simply could not find them (and that had nothing to do with my Japanese abilities). I think my map reading abilities played against me. Can't understand why tourist places don't make proper maps - at least to scale. You'd think they would want people to actually find things. Link to post Share on other sites
flip360 0 Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 We need to take photos of some of the worst! Link to post Share on other sites
.co.jp 0 Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 Good maps would be too much of a common sense thing to do. Don't be silly Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 I know what you mean. They drive me nuts sometimes. Often wonder why they go with the cartoon like maps too. We need scale! Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted May 10, 2009 Share Posted May 10, 2009 nah, I had trouble no end, but the female species had no problem finding the monkey hill in Kyoto and even hiking up carrying the baby. Link to post Share on other sites
Ezorisu 0 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 The little hand-made maps of downtown restaurants and drinking establishments bother me more than the cartoon town maps. Those are usually consist of random-sized polygons with shop names drawn with more regard to "will the words fit" rather than scale or actual geographic arrangement. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted May 11, 2009 Author Share Posted May 11, 2009 One of the maps (not sure I can really call it a map) on Saturday in Gunma had 3 temples on it. They were equal distance from each other with no way of knowing the actual distance. Turns out one two were 500m from each other and the third one was a 30 minute drive away! Just ridiculous. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 hope you didn't try to walk it Google map on my I-phone has the name of the building on it and my dot moves as I walk along the street. Very gimmicky. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I love that Thursday - I have GPS in the car, but to have it on foot would be a hoot! Good maps make things so much easier. We are mobile polling this week, and I have given each of my team members a double sided A4 page with locations of ALL of thier mobile polling places on it. Each nuance is noted - entry from a rear street - parking next door is $10 a day - there is free parking 2 streets away etc etc - all marked on the maps. Way it should be! Information is power. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Just bought some good detailed road maps of Tokyo and surrounding kens. Cost a bit but I plan on doing lots of exploring in the next few months. I like looking at maps. (* not the cartoon kind!) Link to post Share on other sites
.thumb.jpg.660cb81cebfe9f644d5a9abffa2776b1.jpg)
Recommended Posts