I don't understand why people use north, south, east and west when giving directions. I'm not a compass...
When I was in Japan in particular, I encountered that a lot too ><
The street sings in this city will say NAN OR BEI on the corner indicating which direction is which (Nan is south, Bei is north) bbut I have no idea what the words for east and west are and this only works if you are at an intersection. However, the last Chinese city I lived in, I do not reacall there being directions on the street signs.
I got lost all the time in Tokyo to the point where I just got off at random train stations and started walking till I found something that interested me. Shinjuku station are what nightmares are made of.