Japan

Land terms to learn: 4 main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu) → regions (prefecture groups) → 47 prefectures

Google car black-and-white (rarely black / with antenna) + low-cam: camera set low - bigger blur below, road looks wide, low perspective

Switzerland: In Switzerland the car itself is blurred; landscape/language obviously differ.

Sri Lanka: Sinhala script + tropical island → Sri Lanka.

Drives on the left

Hong Kong: Traditional characters + English + dense high-rises → HK.

South Korea: Right-hand traffic + Hangul (circles/ovals in script) → Korea.

Taiwan: Right-hand traffic + traditional characters + scooter armies → Taiwan.

Writing mixes kanji (Chinese-borrowed) + hiragana (simple, loopy - loops don't exist in Chinese) + katakana (geometric, for loan words/ads)

China: Any hiragana loops (の, し, つ) → Japan. Mainland China is tripod-only coverage.

Taiwan: Hiragana/katakana → Japan; Taiwan drives right.

Hong Kong: Hiragana → Japan; HK adds English everywhere.

Frequent kanji in place names + endings: 県 prefecture, 市 city, 区 ward, 町 town; cardinal directions 北 N, 南 S, 東 E, 西 W - learnable, speeds up finding cities

Architecture very distinct & varied: traditional country houses, regional designs, modern cities, reinforced coastal buildings

Round concrete poles with screw-like extensions; carry electrical plates, guy-wires, reflectors → key region-guessing assets

Pole reflectors: short, don't touch the ground - yellow vertical/diagonal or white stripes

Taiwan: Reflector touching the ground → Taiwan.

South Korea: Thick diagonals + Hangul → Korea.

Plates short white with green text; yellow/black = Kei cars (light automobiles)

Road lines: white outer + dashed white middle (most common) / solid yellow middle / yellow+white middle - never yellow outer lines

Simple white bollards with circular reflector(s) on top (sometimes black or with extensions; may carry city/prefecture kanji)

Simple white guardrails standard

Prefecture roads = hexagonal shields (prefecture kanji under the number; same number exists in several prefectures → find the prefecture first)

Common infra: unique inverted-triangle stop sign, school pedestrian crossing sign, traffic mirrors everywhere

Retaining walls - excellent Japan clue in information-poor rural mountains

Area codes increase to the south (codes ending in 0, esp. 0120, are non-regional)

Per-region pole plates, regional reflector pads, prefecture road diamonds, prefecture signpost stickers, regional guy-wires - the five core pole/sign metas (maps)

Pole attachments by region: Chugoku = orange arrow above top plate; Shikoku = orange-black bands + small 90° attachments; Kansai = ~120° attachments (or angled-down)

Transformer metas by region

Grey insulator-like blocks (wires fed through) → Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku (very rarely Hokkaido)

Pole tops: 4 thick bars + circle → Chubu; filled 'tent' → Hokuriku; 4 thin bars → Chugoku; tuning fork w/ long top bar → Kanto; short top bar → Chubu; thin wire → Kansai

Bollard metas by prefecture/region

Guardrail metas: green bands → Oita/Miyazaki (all Kyushu); yellow guardrails → Yamaguchi; chevron-like stickers → Hokkaido; red-yellow end stickers → Chugoku except Yamaguchi (rarely Niigata)

Vertical traffic lights → Hokkaido + northwestern coast (horizontal everywhere else)

Kerosene 'Claymore' tanks + hot-water/propane tanks → more common the further north (abundant Hokkaido) & in high mountains; esp. rural towns

Shosetsu snow-melting roads (tiny circles in the pavement spraying warm water) → mainly northwest coastal prefectures

Red-tiled roofs → Chugoku (esp. Hiroshima & Shimane); roofs get flatter/sloped further north (snow) + side ladders; Okinawa = white concrete flat-roof buildings

Giant butterbur ('cabbage') → abundant in Hokkaido + northern prefectures (smaller leaves further south)

Crop metas: green tea in hedged rows + frost fans → Shizuoka (36%) & Kagoshima (34%); rice → north of Tokyo (Tohoku 27%, Chubu 21%, Kanto 15%, Hokkaido 7%); sugarcane → S-Kyushu islands + Okinawa

Vegetation metas: Japanese white birch → Chubu & Hokkaido (some Tohoku; beech has grey spotted bark); bamboo → more south; Chinese silver grass → Kyushu (+Niigata/Yamagata/Akita)

Very mountainous country - the recognisable flat exceptions: Nobi & Kanto plains

Snow shoulder arrows hang over roads (almost exclusive here)

Black signs with two yellow circles (also stacked or with arrows)

Cycling routes: white outer + blue inner line (mostly coastal; rare exceptions elsewhere)

Very limited winter/snow coverage - don't guess Hokkaido without certainty; mapped regions most likely

Shisa guardian lions + house plaques with specific characters; red-soil fields on Miyakojima & Ishigaki

Manhole covers with a 5-petal flower + small circles around

Cyrillic on signs in these two northern Hokkaido cities

Poles painted as birch trees

Mount Fuji - tallest, gradual incline, snowy summit, visible from far → direction+distance = strong region guess

Huge number of trekkers/tripods across many prefectures (see Plonk It's dedicated resource)