adrosor

I am happy with the product. The maps all installed and work nicely in Mapsource and on my Garmin 60CS. I’ve never had the opportunity to purchase additional maps from Garmin but from what I gather they can do a lot more i.e. routable and more names for the smaller roads. This map outlines a lot of roads (even the small ones) but only the main ones are titled. So it works well for tracking and you could draw routes out in Mapsource and load them to your device (just no auto route or turn by turn directions). Only problem with that is you don’t really know if they are one way roads or not. The topo maps this comes with are nice. Again I don’t have a Garmin product to compare it to but they seem accurate (I have an altimeter to compare it to). I loaded both the road and topo maps for Okinawa to my handheld and they seem to mesh together nicely. The detail for mainland Japan also seems nice and even more detailed than Okinawa. I don’t live there so I haven’t had a chance to use the free version and compare. Good thing about this product is that it covers all of Japan. Nice if you would like the topo info as well. All in all I am happy with it and have not been able to find anything that even compares in English. Technically the maker could make it routable but it would be very time consuming. Initially I was doing research on how to make a map myself. I found a link to UUD from one of the mapmaking software providers out there. Rather than trying to spend the time and energy into creating something myself I decided to give UUD a try. From what I see the maker is accurately representing the product. I’ve yet to find any discrepancies between what it says on the website and what you get. The product arrived priority mail within a week of placing the order on the website. The POC is also very quick to answer any questions if you email him. I would have to say it was worth the $75. I’ll get good use out of it and won’t have to rack my brain trying to make a map myself.

I live in Okinawa and have compared a sample of uuds Okinawa map with the free one. The Okinawa map uud did definitely has more detail than the free one. I’m not sure how much accurate the detail is but will have a better idea today after I hit the road! The biggest overall difference is that the one uud is offering covers all of Japan including the southern islands and is not free. Won’t know for sure just how different they are until I get the complete product. Once I get the product loaded in Mapsource I will be able to accurately compare the two. I haven’t been looking for long (maybe a month) but from what I can see uud has the only product out there that covers all of Japan, includes roads, has topo, and is in English. If Garmin had something I would have bought it from them. After searching this forum it was abundantly clear that other people were facing the same problem. Hopefully in the future Garmin will get with it and deliver on an obvious customer need. In the mean time I hope UUD (or anyone else) capitalizes on the situation and improves on what’s out there.

GOOD NEWS!!! I found a gentleman who has made a map covering all of Japan (including Okinawa) that works with Garmin and Mapsource. He sent me a chunk of Okinawa to sample and the detail was much better than what I had before. The detail of mainland Japan looks fantastic. Only drawback is that it is not very efficient at routing. Other than that it looks fantastic. I will be getting the full version which is viewable in Mapsource soon. Will let everyone know how that goes. In the mean time check out his site yourself. http://uud.info/

Thanks Matz, Just got my Garmin yesterday and headed out on the road. The Okinawa map it came with was very skimpy. I went online and downloaded a map from the following link: http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mametaro/index-e.html The map includes central Japan and Okinawa. The Okinawa map seems to have all the main roads and even some points of interest loaded. It will have to do for now. Even with the limited map it’s still a great tool and will be fine for caching and tracking on island. Having the unit makes me homesick (Hawaii). Looks like it will do a lot more with some good maps loaded. At any rate I will keep my eyes open for a commercial English map too and may even explore the idea of making some of my own.

I just ordered a Garmin 60CS and am looking for Maps of Okinawa. Went to the English Garmin website and saw a lot of blue charts for Japan. Saw a Japanese website that I can’t read with a number of Mapsourse Maps of Japan. I’m not sure 1) how to get the maps, 2) if the maps are in English, and 3) if Okinawa is included. If anyone has any information on any of the Mapsource maps and which include Okinawa I would appreciate it (including the worldmap and what detail it has). Thanks!