The first time I went to Japan was also pre-smartphone, and navigating anywhere involved a combination of going to a convenience store with a written address and getting the clerk (hopefully a young girl -- they have better language skills!) to pull out the big white books for the area, look up the address in the index, etc. If you were in the unfortunate situation of needing to navigate in a puzzling neighborhood, you'd have to make a copy of the map or draw a little diagram, and then if you got lost, you'd use the random "neighborhood maps" posted on signs on major streets (these still mostly exist).
Guidebooks would often have little tiny maps drawn in the margins that tried to get you from the nearest train station, but even that could be a nightmare, because the typical downtown Tokyo train station has a dozen or so exits, and just getting to the right exit to use the map was a navigation puzzle in its own right. I got lost for the better part of an hour on my first visit to Tokyo station!
Doing this without any language proficiency meant that getting anywhere could take hours. Fun times. It's sort of mind-blowing how much easier it is for tourists now.
Guidebooks would often have little tiny maps drawn in the margins that tried to get you from the nearest train station, but even that could be a nightmare, because the typical downtown Tokyo train station has a dozen or so exits, and just getting to the right exit to use the map was a navigation puzzle in its own right. I got lost for the better part of an hour on my first visit to Tokyo station!
Doing this without any language proficiency meant that getting anywhere could take hours. Fun times. It's sort of mind-blowing how much easier it is for tourists now.