During our Japan orientation short-course we heard stories of folks getting lost, asking for help and getting personally guided to the right place by a helpful local bystander. And in many cases, these folks went way above and beyond what anyone in the U.S. might expect. It's part of the Japanese culture to look after one another - quite refreshing to say the least!
While preparing for my trip to Japan, I ended up providing advice to a friend on what type of GPS unit he should buy to help him navigate while shooting photos in the southwest U.S. He asked me if I intended to take my GPS unit to Japan to help me navigate during my travels. Honestly, I hadn't even considered it.
I checked out what info was available and ended up buying an SD card with maps of all Japan from a third-party vendor for use on my Garmin hand-held unit.
It cost me around $100 and I was leery about how well it might work, if at all. Upon arrival in Japan I fired up the GPS unit with the SD chip onboard. It had a brief "We're not in Kansas anymore" moment, but once it got past that, it worked perfectly, connecting with all available satellites and tracking our route as we roamed across rural and urban landscape.
Generally, I turn the GPS on when we get off the train/subway and leave it on, during which time it leaves a "bread crumb trail" of where we have travelled from our original location. This track really comes in handy for determining where we might be at a point in time and what direction we need to head to get back to where we started.
In addition to roads, streets, major landmarks, etc. the software also has a complete topographical map database for all of Japan This was particularly useful when we travelled to mountainous Miyajima Island, west of Hiroshima on Thursday, 5/20.
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