I need a hand-held GPS with detailed road maps for all of Japan,
including the little roads. It should have a bettery pack that lasts
for 4 hours of continuous useage or a swapable battery that lasts 2
hours. The display should be in English. I need an intuative
interface. What specific device should I buy, and who sells it for the
least amount of money?

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Clarification of Question by voiceofcheer-ga on 14 Sep 2003 17:31 PDT

least amount of money includes shipping to Naha city, Okinawa, Japan

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Clarification of Question by voiceofcheer-ga on 23 Sep 2003 06:07 PDT

This question closes September 26th, Japan time

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Clarification of Question by voiceofcheer-ga on 24 Sep 2003 22:02 PDT

I need a device that displays a street map. I don't want just
waypoints and coordinates. I'm going to a new place in Japan, and I
don't know my way around. I've seen many for cars that do what I need.
I need  to see a street map that shows where I am on it. It must be
zoomable.

try sending an email to this address in Japan. Empex is a seller of GPS equipment..
catalog@empex.co.jp

I have an "etrex" handheld GPS unit. It meets all your requirements
except the pre-installed maps of Japan, but it does have an optional
PC interface via USB, so you may be able to download the maps from a
PC to the GPS unit yourself.

omniscientbeing-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Do you know where I can download the maps?

voiceofcheer-ga'

Let's clarify exactly what want to do with your device. GPS units work
with what they refer to as "waypoints." A waypoint is a precise
geographic point that marks a spot on the planet with lattitude and
longitude coordinates. The more of these "waypoints" you feed into the
device, the more precise your measurements will be. It's not that you
download a literal "map" into the device, but rather a set of
waypoints which have been pre-measured by someone else and are known
to be correct. The more waypoints you get, the more accurate (or the
smaller the scale) your "map" will be.

So, you need to access an extensive set of waypoints for Japan, and
then either enter them yourself into a handheld GPS device, or
download them to it from a computer. It may be possible to buy a
pre-made computer program with the waypoints that you can just
download to the GPS, but for sure you can determine the waypoints your
self and hand enter them, if you don't need that many.

Let me know if something like this is what you're after, or give me
more details on exactly wha tyou need to do with the GPS device, and I
can post detailed information along these lines as an Answer--i.e.,
where to get the waypoints for entry or download, and a list of
consumer GPS devices meeting your requirements and info on where to
get them.

omniscientbeing-ga
Google Answers Researcher