HOUSE NUMBERS & STREET SIGNS

Japan is a densely-populated country and ultra-modern… but for a foreigner trying to find their way around can be quite daunting by the LACK OF STREET SIGNS and BUILDING/HOUSE NUMBERS. The larger, main routes have plenty of signage but those small streets branching off to the sides are quite often unmarked. Heck, I’m not even sure all the streets do, in fact, have formal names. While home hunting I learned to use latitude and longitude, taken from Google maps, to guide myself. Then, after getting to zero, I had less than a 50/50 chance that the home I was looking for had an address displayed... thus no way to confirm I was at the correct place. It is beyond me as to how deliveries are made, appointments arrived at, or friends met. Oh, so very confusing!

Having found a house to rent, after signing the rental agreement, when trying to set up gas/electric we discovered that the address provided was not known by them. We further found out that the address applied to a block of homes. In fact, the address does NOT include a house number or street name. 

We had the house owner, a business, contact the gas/electric company. We went to the post office ourselves to clarify the situation. They gave us a form to fill out and told us it would not be a problem. Our address gives the town name and a “block number”. That’s it. No house number and no street number. I don’t believe the street even has a name.

Update: Since signing the lease, we have had many deliveries of purchased household items, and not a single delivery was made without the driver having to call us and ask for additional directions. 

Note, there is no house number - that is not a garage door, it is the closed window shutters

A great example: I had appointment for an MRI in downtown Yokohama. I was given the full address. Arriving in the general area l was unable to find the building. I took out my phone and entered the address in Google maps which took me on a four minutes’ walk but the building was not there.  With the appointment time drawing near I waved down a taxi. The driver entered the address in his GPS but it was not recognized. We drove in circles searching. Eventually I called the NAVMEDCENT office that arranged the appointment and handed the phone over to the taxi driver who after long discussion got us to the correct place.