You may have installed Google Maps on your phone. If not, you should. Not only will it help you navigate Tokyo, but it will also let you show addresses that you cannot write to taxi drivers. And it will tell you if an attraction is worth visiting - and when. But there are a few preconditions. Read on to find out more.
It is easy to get lost in Tokyo without Google Maps. Not only lost in translation, but physically disoriented. Especially as a first-time visitor, figuring out where you are and where you want to go can be both time-consuming and frustrating.
It used to be that you would have to buy a physical SIM card at the airport and connect it to your mobile phone to get a Japanese connection. Of course, some of us will remember a time even before that, when you could not buy a SIM card at all, and connecting meant locating Wi-Fi hotspots so you could send emails and make phone calls at a reasonable price instead of the exorbitant roaming fees.
Now, you just go on the internet, find an eSIM provider, and buy a virtual SIM card that lets you connect to the Japanese phone system just as if you had walked into a shop and come out with a brand-new Android or iPhone. You may want to get an option that does not only handle data, but also voice.
There are several reasons for this. One is that there are some Japanese services (the rental bicycles, for one) that require the use of a Japanese phone number to send SMS messages. Another is that in case you want to make emergency calls, it may not be supported if you have deactivated your regular voice line and only use the phone for data.
But even when using the phone for data only, especially with Wi-Fi switched on, you will find that there are services that can be incredibly helpful in finding things that you want to see—especially if you happen to be lost.
There are several navigation services competing for attention in the Japanese market. You have the usual Apple Maps (if you have an iPhone), Google Maps (available both on Android and iPhone), and the homegrown Navitime service, which offers an English-language, tourist-oriented version. Unfortunately, some of the most useful features, such as telling you which side of the street is in shade and on which side the sun is shining, are only available in Japanese (or were, at the time of writing).
And while Apple Maps are physically accurate, they lack much of the depth that Google Maps will give you. Not in terms of physical depth, but in terms of content. And on top of that, you can download the maps (although not the entire world) to your phone, which means offline navigation is possible, as well as speeding up the searches.
This is particularly useful in underground malls and large buildings (like Tokyo Station) where you have to try to navigate without knowing which floor things are on, and there are occasional places where mobile data connectivity can be spotty. Google Maps does a great job of presenting the different floors of multistory buildings and showing you what is on the floor you select.
It also does another thing better than its competitors: it tells you where the accessible entrances are. In Tokyo, there is always elevator access to the subway and train stations, and most buildings have elevators as well. But often, there is only one elevator per station, and it may be at the other end of the platform (or concourse) from where you are. You can see which entrances have elevators in Google Maps (granted, you have to zoom in quite a bit). What it does not tell you are the frustrating cases where there are a few steps up (or down) to the elevator entrance. And unless you switch to satellite mode, it does not tell you if the path recommended for walking is up a very steep slope, or whether it is completely flat. While Tokyo, on the whole, is flat, it has a number of surprisingly steep slopes that can be tough for anyone with some trouble walking or pushing a stroller.
Google Maps has more depth than its competitors because the company invests in collecting information. While all maps are based on the same provider maps, which actually have people going out and measuring the terrain, knocking on doors to ask who the inhabitants are, and using aerial photos and surveys to make the maps as physically accurate as humanly possible, they do not actually give much information about a business.
Google hires companies to call around to businesses (even small businesses) and ask about their opening times, contact details, and so on. And they encourage business owners to update their own information. This means you can trust that their information about opening hours and the like is correct. They also warn about changing opening times around public holidays, although that information may not always be as correct.
They do the same with timetables for trains and buses, which are usually retrieved from the bus or train company. Traffic information, which is included when you do a search for a public transport connection, is also very helpful to figure out whether you should take the subway instead of the train, or vice versa.
What Google Maps has, however, is a community. This is what really sets it apart. Thousands of people write reviews, some semi-professional and specialized in an area, either physical or content-wise. Many reviewers on Google Maps focus on reviewing all the restaurants in their area, or all ramen restaurants in Tokyo (a thankless task).
Here, the integration with Google Translate really helps. For someone who does not understand Japanese, the reviews in Japanese are unintelligible, no matter how many stars they hand out. While the translation function sometimes serves up translations that are more funny than accurate, they are perfectly suitable for a 50-word description of a place, motivating the number of stars that the reviewer gave it. As usual, this is useful if you want to determine whether the number of stars was given by the owner’s friends or represents genuine opinions. Generally, a place with more reviews has a more trustworthy average rating, although you have to look at the number of reviewers giving it how many stars. Attempts at gaming the system are not confined to Western countries.
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