Like most major cities, Tokyo, or Edo as it was first known, was originally a series of villages linked by roads. Despite major disasters such as an earth quake in 1923 when the city was pretty much flattened, and despite the fact that the city is constantly being built and rebuilt, the planning department have not bothered to do much about the road layout. With the exception of a few roads widened in places, it remains as spidery as it was, centuries ago. It is often possible, particularly on some of the side roads, to imagine life way back then, as very little has changed.
The address system is also confusing. Only the largest streets have names and they aren't even used in addresses. Instead, Tokyo is divided into numbered wards (or ku). These ku are then again named and sub divided into numbered cho, which also have names. An address such as ours which is 7-11-2 means that we are in the 7th area (or chrome) then the 11th block in that area, and then we are the 2nd house in on the block. Got it? Good, but you would still never find it without a map. This is why most Tokyo-ites walk around, looking down at their mobile, reading a map (or maybe watching TV but thats another story). Very few people know their way around and we have learnt not to ask, as cultural politeness often encourages a response that is nowhere near correct.
Once I thought I might become a London cabbie. I love driving and I always find it relatively easy to get my bearings. A couple of years ago, I invested in a Tom Tom and had come to think of it as a second brain. Admittedly I was becoming increasingly reliant on it, mainly for arrival times, but it was far from essential. This is certainly not the case here and I have no idea how drivers even considered doing so in the days before satnav. It was done by the stars apparently, which must have been interesting on a cloudy day in a built up area like Ginza!
The satnav system uses the numbered address or the telephone number of the destination, which is often more successful. As you can see from the pictures, the maps are in Japanese and its lucky we have an English language function. Our lady is from southeast London to be precise and I have come to love her. She does get a bit stuck on place names so she hands over to her Japanese mate who pronounces the name in a shrill baby voice that Japanese ladies here often use (and I can't believe actually talk like that but they do!) The system is complex and gives precise instructions. The bar on the left shows the actual junction, often with a graphic image of what the junction will look like when you get there - brilliant when you have the choice of 4 exits, often in places you would not expect.
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