Where I was brought up had no street number, just a road and house name. Was an utter pain having to actually describe to everyone who visited drive along the r

Where I was brought up had no street number, just a road and house name. Was an utter pain having to actually describe to everyone who visited drive along the road (not included in street directories), look for a side road, then look for a particular speed sign, then turn, oh and if you can't find it call from the phone box in the town which had a map of the roads (but not houses) nearby (20% did). Eventually got RAPID numbers which gave a grid co-ordinate and then finally rural addressing where you got a house number which started at 1/2 at one end and then incremented by 2 every 20m along the road. So much easier. However I've seen the Japanese system and that works only because there are maps everywhere telling where to find each house and every house has a nice white lettering on blue plaque in exactly the same style so it is easy to spot. Also people stick their names on letterbox/house so you can be sure. The only problem is you have to get on the right street and in roughly the right area which makes for complicated directions for the taxi driver, but for post/courier deliveries it works well. [Mind you a Japanese GPS will do addresses, but for some reason a party of foreigners seemed to cause it not to work with some drivers, no problem I brought my own GPS and can give directions!] The article doesn't say if there are maps available, if they are then fine, otherwise I'd vote for street names. Not sure if having a random house number (German) instead of a road name (my former situation) is better or worse.