When first I examined my new Tokyo City Map, Third Edition, I thought, "Well darn, how did I buy a map that doesn't have the street names?" It took me a while to realize that I had not chosen a dud, the streets just don't have names.

(See accompanying article on the subject)

Apparently it would be too costly to change the system so they are sticking with it. I love that such a major urban center has an almost folksy method of navigating.

Sapporo and Kyoto have different systems altogether. Kyoto is even more rudimentary than Tokyo. They start by naming the intersection of 2 streets (they do have names) and then indicating if the address is north, south, east or west of it. This means the building can have more than one address, depending on which intersection is chosen. Pity the postal service!