What's difficult in Japanese ?

[crunch]

Verb conjugation and counters.

[Takaryo]

Hm...grammar is a pain, but I can learn it easily. @_@

My problem is kanji. Writing it? That I can't

[KrazyKat]

So I was wondering, are place names often given in furigana, on say maps or signposts?

While I was complaining about how hard names are in Japanese I know they must be just as hard in English. We have crazy place names like edinburgh, names with different spellings Thomas, Tomas etc. Different names with same abbreviation like Sam and abbreviations with alomst nothing to do with the original names william-bill richard-dick and of course crazy English pronounciations.

Of course, that doesn't make Japanese names any less hard

[epigene]

So I was wondering, are place names often given in furigana, on say maps or signposts?

You just have to LEARN them.

You get help very often with romaji readings of place names in signs posted at railway stations, shopping districts, etc. Otherwise, you have to ask the locals. (Even TV news announcers misread names of people and places now and then.)

Having lived in the Kanto (Tokyo and surroundings) region all my life, there are place names in far-off Kyushu and Tohoku regions I cannot read correctly to this day...

Places in Hokkaido are tricky to read because they originate from Ainu language (kanji used are "ate-ji" applied for convenience, based on phonetic similarity rather than from kanji character meanings). Okinawan place & family names are also difficult because they derive from Ryukyu names.