Navii
As a tourist driving in Japan, you have the option to rely on the car's navigation system or use apps like Google Maps. From our experience, rental car navigation systems offer quicker response times, greater accuracy, and the ability to set your preferred language, making them our preferred choice. However, the only drawback is obtaining MAPCODEs for specific locations. Planning your itinerary in advance and obtaining all necessary MAPCODEs can make your vacation seamless, but impromptu stops may lead to frustration. This is why we developed Navii—to assist us during our drives in Japan! (Note, Navii is currently in beta release.)
Navii is a Telegram-based bot designed to effortlessly convert Google Pluscodes and GPS numerical coordinates into MAPCODEs. With Navii, you can seamlessly plan your Japan vacation in Google Maps, marking all your desired locations—whether they're planned or spontaneous—and retrieve the corresponding MAPCODEs without any hassle.
Navii is provided free of charge, driven by our passion for making navigation easier. While we strive for professionalism, we acknowledge the possibility of bugs and apologize if our response times or manner fall short of expectations. To address any issues, Navii features a built-in error code submission function, and we encourage users to utilize it, enabling us to enhance Navii for the benefit of all. Navii has the added benefit of low data usage, comparable to standard chat data!
Meanwhile, we wish everyone well, have a good time in beautiful Japan and drive easy!
How to use Navii
Before you use Navii to retrieve the corresponding MAPCODE, you will need either
1. Google Pluscode of a location e.g., MP5W+C5 Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
or
2. GPS numerical coordinates of a location e.g., 35.658581002050596, 139.74545631665217
Both of which are easily available from Google Map. Google Pluscode is always listed for each place of interest in Google Map. For example, we see here the Google Map entry for Tokyo Towers and the corresponding Pluscode of MP5W+C5 Minato City, Tokyo, Japan in the red box.
Start a new chat on Telegram and search for "Japanmapcode_bot". Select Navii to begin messaging. If you are not a member of Easy Drive Japan! Channel, Navii will prompt you to register as a member. You will need to be a member of the Channel before you are able to use Navii. We will release all information regarding Navii on this channel, including any bugs and errors.
Please send the message /start and Navii should start and greet you with an introductory message. Once Navii has started, it is fairly straight forward, select the format of your location code, either Google Pluscode or GPS Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Send your location information and Navii will reply with the corresponding MAPCODE. Enter this MAPCODE into the car navigational systems and you will be good to go!
Our mission
Our mission is simple: to relish our vacations without interruptions or disputes. With numerous requests to make Navii accessible to everyone, we've opened our doors to the masses. Don't spam or flame us.
Our vision
We stand firm in our belief that every individual, irrespective of race, language, or religion, deserves a stress-free, prejudice-free, and harmonious vacation experience.
