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How to read a Japanese Address

I am looking at the addresses of different hotels that I am interested in. Help me understand:

5-25-3
Kaigandori, Naka-ku,
Yokohama City
Kanagawa Prefecture
231-0020

This is from one of the hotel websites.

I am confused with the first two lines.

I understand Yokohama City and Kanagawa Prefecture

Is 231-0020 the zip code?

Posted by
9383 posts

Put the name of the hotel in Google Maps. You should be able to accurately find the location.

Posted by
2740 posts

Thank you both for the information.

Carol, it is 3 1/2 months till I go, I am getting there and I am very excited.

Posted by
2740 posts

I had watched a few youtube videos and someone said that in Japan, the streets do not have names. Maybe I heard wrong.

Posted by
5356 posts

streets do not have names. Maybe I heard wrong.

They all have names. The names are often not on street signs or sides of buildings where you can see them.

Posted by
2740 posts

Thank you TexasMom

So is this the name of the street and the number where the building is located

5-25-3
Kaigandori, Naka-ku,

I like to google streets and view what the street looks like and what is around the hotel or other place where I might be staying /going.

Posted by
61 posts

There's good information in the earlier responses. The Wikipedia article takes awhile to digest but is very informative. "Dori" is one of the Japanese words for a street, so your question refers to a street that happens to be one with a name, "Kaigan," in a specific "ku," which is a ward, or kind of a smaller section of a large city. Just entering the address you asked about in Google maps takes you straight to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Yokohama. The three digit/four digit combination at the end is a postal code, similar to US zip codes. The 5-25-3 is not exactly a street address. It is a progressively more specific location in the subsections of a city, ending with a block number and a building number. In older parts of cities, the street numbers were assigned in chronological order, and vestiges of that system continue. That's one of the many reasons that you'll see a lot of maps - in subway stations, on the sides of buildings, at major intersections, etc. Gradually you'll find yourself closer and closer to your destination, and the process is not as difficult as my description makes it sound.

Posted by
2740 posts

Hello happytravel

It seems so complicated from home but maybe once over there, it will be simpler or at least get simpler.

And maybe I am not going to need addresses when in Yokohama. Just point the way