Monday, August 08, 2005

Where the streets have no names

I was just thinking about my address and I realized something that I hadn't noticed before. Most of the streets in Kyoto have no names. Of course the large streets do, 3rd St, 4th St, Kitaoji. But as soon as you turn off of those roads into the neighborhoods, you enter a land where the streets do not have names.

How do people have addresses then? The Prefecture is divided into Cities. The Cities are divided into Wards. The Wards are divided into Areas. The Areas are divided into Towns, and your house has a number. Sometimes in the downtown areas where there are more roads with names, the placement of your house could be described like in Ohio: on road A, just a little past road X.

All of this, however, makes driving directions a little difficult. When I tell people how to get to my house it involves lots of landmarks and counting of intersections. Of course, this is also why most vehicles in Japan have Navigation programs.

In any case, don't ask me how to get to my house. My number one landmark just went out of business.

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