Sunday, March 20, 2005

Best Friend and Worst Enemy

Basically every new car in Japan has a nifty GPS navigation device, or "nabi". This includes our rental cars. We enter the phone number of our hotel, and it tells us how to get there from the fields. At least theoretically. It worked in the car I rode in yesterday, there were diferent directions in this morning's car, and it didn't exist tonight. This is the problem - everyone watches the screen and trusts the little voice, so no one remembers landmarks or gets a map. We wandered around for 20 minutes today trying to find our way home while Nabi instructed us to drive in circles. The situation is only made worse by a driver who is afraid of turning.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I know exactly what you mean. :-)

I am also in Japan and I usually rent cars whenever my friends and I need to go somewhere. I've become so dependent on these GPS systems, now that I'm planning of buying my own car, I make it a requirement that it has a "navi" system.

I've also experienced getting lost even with the "navi" system. Like with all other computers, "Garbage In, Garbage Out".