Experiences – Life – Inspiration 🇨🇭🇯🇵

Today and tomorrow, my wife and I are on a small road trip—a short getaway that started off calm and scenic but quickly turned into one of those “this will make a great story later” kinds of days.

We spent the morning and early afternoon driving from Gifu to Kyoto. The traffic was smooth, the skies were kind, and we visited two beautiful temples: Kokedera (The Moss Temple) and Chion-in. Both places were peaceful and full of that old Kyoto charm that always makes me feel like I’m walking through history.

After our temple visits, we continued on to Osaka to meet up with local friends. That’s when things took a bit of a turn—thanks to our usually reliable co-pilot: Google Maps.

Somewhere between Kyoto and Osaka, Google Maps started acting up. It stopped giving us directions at crucial junctions—completely silent when I needed it most. Next thing we knew, we had unintentionally taken an express toll road heading all the way to Nara. After passing through a long tunnel and popping out on the Nara side, I realized we were way off course.

Frustrating? Yes. But it also made me pause and laugh (eventually). I realized just how dependent I’d become on GPS navigation. It’s easy to forget we once navigated using street signs, logic, and gut instinct.

With a little help from that dormant part of my brain, we managed to get ourselves back on track. I relied on basic directional sense and a bit of deduction, and slowly but surely, we started making our way toward Osaka again.

But even back in the city, Google Maps still refused to cooperate. No directions. No updates. Just silence. And let me tell you—driving into Osaka for the first time without working navigation is not for the faint of heart.

Four-lane roads, confusing intersections, traffic pressure building around you—it felt like a mini survival test. Trying to find our hotel and a parking lot without directions in a city like this was genuinely daunting. The city layout just didn’t make sense to me when looking at it from the Google Maps screen, with its strange curves, elevated roads, and dense clusters of traffic lanes.

Eventually, and thankfully, we made it. We’re now at our hotel in Osaka, catching our breath before heading out for dinner with some local friends. It’s funny how I didn’t have to look far for a blog post idea today—the day wrote the story itself.

Just another slice of life here in Japan. One where technology fails, instincts return, and unexpected detours turn into memories.

Have you ever been misled by your GPS?

Let me know in the comments—I’d love to hear your wildest detour story.