Ich zitiere mal von folgendem Blog:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/...6&v=2V
For navigation I used a combination of the Mapple Touring atlas and a GPS. This is a book of maps covering the Kansai area, designed for motorcyclists but ok for cyclists. I use the paper maps for overall route planning, and the GPS for on the road navigation.
The GPS is a Garmin 60Csx, with the UpUpDown maps of Japan. (uud.info). This is the only Japanese GPS map that I could find that has Roman character place names. It still has limitations though, as Japan doesn't have street names (just numbers) and the normal Garmin navigation capabilities (ie navigate to a street address) do not work. I've had to find a number of waypoints before travelling and load them into the GPS. I used Google maps to find the location of all the cities that I planned to pass through, then extracted the info to a .gpx file using the GMapstoGPX website (
http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx). Then into the Garmin Mapsource software, then onto the GPS unit. All in all, the GPS was definitely worth bringing along. It saved my arse on a number of occasions when I could have become quite lost (eg. in the dark on Onomichi island about 15km short of Onomichi city with no street signs to be found). It was also very useful when leaving or entering a city in that it allowed me to navigate to or from the city centre without having to use the major highways - I could always see which roads would take me on a quieter, but parallel path. Battery life when using two 2500mah Nimh batteries was roughly two days worth of cycling. I had a few spare batteries but never had to use them as I was always able to charge them before they went completely flat.