So, the address of the hotel won't help because the taxi driver had never been there before? That does not make sense. Isn't that what addresses are for? If that is the case, that is something unique for Japan.

I forgot the name of the taxi app I used. It was not Uber. It was something from Japan, may be Japantaxi, not 100% sure. Are you saying there are Uber rides in Japan now?

I don't know what kind of conversation went on and what area that driver usually covers.

Ginza is rare area that have avenues based on their address from 1 chome to 8 chome having 4 chome intersection with Wako Clock Tower.

The UberTaxi is connected to taxi companies. The Tokyo MK taxi came when we asked for one in Tsukiji Market.

I rarely take taxis but once, in Kyoto, from one hotel to another since I had my suitcase I took one. I had a map all in Japanese - very detailed - from the small hotel where I was going - the taxi driver held it upside down.....;-)

Taxi drivers will take you to the location in broader sense. When it's non local driver, the arrival and reach may or may not be the best. Taxi business permission covers fairly large, often 50 - 60 km range. Normal business drive is 15 - 20 km range at most. Reaching the destination is one thing, it's another to know where the car entrance is, for example.

That reminds me that I heard that a taxi driver didn't know how to get to Hoshinoya Tokyo from Tokyo Station, I think. Not anybody might have asked that driver for that super expensive hotel I guess. It is in the midst of business buildings and the signs don't stand out so if you don't know you might not know how to get to the parking entrance.

My experience of hotel address was Sydney Intercontinental. It has address of Macquarie Street for historical reason. Its actual entrance is in the corner of Phillip Street and Bridge Street. Taxi entrance is in Phillip Street. Sydney locals know this when I posted in Sydney forum later. My local friends also knew this when I asked them later, too.

Some of the store addresses in Tokyo can be challenging. My own experience with that was I tried to find the two Pokemon stores my kids wanted to visit. Both the one near Tokyo Station and the one in Shibuya are on upper floors in multi stories buildings.

In those situations, I would be happy to be driven to anywhere near those buildings, and figure out the rest myself.

But it does sound like sometimes the taxi drivers do not recognize an address, or cannot comprehend English. The app I tried in Japan two years ago actually have a map function which shows where I was, and let me drop a pin at where I want to go on that map. That should have eliminated the issues of the language barrier, the driver does not recognize the address, or a building has two entrances, etc. All the driver needed to do is drive to the location of the pin.

May be if they can improve the app to sent the driver a GPS coordination of the destination, then they just have to follow the turn by turn GPS instruction. Or perhaps Tesla can program their taxi to drive themselves.

That obviously would only work if the drivers respond to the App reservations, which they did not.

Nihombashi might have a lot of one way streets too. If you showed it at Nihombashi Takashimaya Shinkan, maybe the driver didn't have trouble, If I were you, I would get onnza Line from Shimbashi Station and go to Nihombashi and follow the signs to the place.

As others have mentioned it is fairly easy as long as you have the destination or information for the destination. I had to take a taxi after staying out at a bar past the last train, so I got a cab and told them the name of my hotel (it had the location in the name) so it made it really easy.

It works for hotel cases regardless of region. Private properties, including AirBnB, depends on the location and the driver.