Renting a car and using the Japanese GPS

Part of our adventure in Japan is to drive along the "Romantic Road" in mid May (16-19 May)  :)

You can see the route and the highlights/places of interest along the way. The full route is only open from April 28 (day before the Emperor's birthday) as the snow in the Alps is over 10 metres.

Japan's Romantic Road

Over 4 days we will travel almost the whole of the 350kms route, from Ueda City near Nagano to Nikko, where we will deliver the car back to the Nikko Nissan office and pay a one way drive penalty.

We have been told that only a Japanese GPS is available in the car. This is a bit of concern, but the rental service agency (ToCoo!) sent us a manual in English that shows that you can use the phone number of your destinations (in our case Candytuft B&B near Karuizawa, Shima-onsen and Oigami-onsen) or a "Map Code".

Japanese GPS - English manual

Only in Japan would you expect such intense detail. They have divided the country up into a 30 metre by 30 metre grid and so every point of interest has a 9 digit code. Unfortunately the website DENSO (a Toyota subsidiary) has to find these mapcodes, does not have a very good English translation.

Japanese GPS Map Codes

So we'll have to rely on our Japanese friends and/or the Japan-guide.com Forum to get the Map Codes for the other places of interest:

Unno Juku (an historic post office on Route 18);
kaikoen Park (Komoro City);
Shinraku-ji ( 1000 y.o. temple at the foot of the volcano);
Onioshibashi (viewing point to see Mt Asama - active volvcano);
Fukiware Falls;
Luke Chzenji.


Counting down the days :)