Mental Maps

At some point as I was reading Memoirs of a Geisha, I noticed something about myself:

Whenever I’m reading a book, as the book progresses, I form a sort of mental map about the setting – where all the locations are in relation to each other, the route the characters walk when they go from one place to the next, etc. I suspect you kind of have to do something like this to get a good visual of fiction.

That said, here’s a rough estimate of my mental map of Geisha:

1. the Nitta Okiya (where Sayuri lives)
2. ??? I just feel like there’s an important building here, but I can’t say what it is. I guess I just figure Sayuri’s house isn’t right on the street corner.
3. Pumpkin’s Okiya (after WWII)
4. the hairdresser’s shop
5. the kimono shop
6. the artist Uchida's house – as you can see, he lives on a small patch of land completely surrounded by a moat. …except that he doesn’t in the book.
7. Dr. Crab’s office
8. the Ichiriki Teahouse
9. the brothel where Satsu works
10. the geisha school / registry office / theatre – which sounds fine, except that none of these three are in the same building in the book
11. Mameha’s apartment
12. ??? again, no clue what this is, but there was definitely a building here on my mental map
13. the sumo arena

A couple other notes:

• The green squares are various other teahouses which are either unnamed in the book, or else which I’ve forgotten the name of. (I think one of them starts with a 'K' - let's just say that's the one to the right of the brothel.)
• As you can see, the road leading up to the sumo arena turns to dirt a little ways beyond the last unnamed teahouse. …except that, once again, there’s no reason from the text to assume this is the case. My brain just decided that it's a dirt road, for some reason.

If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you’ll have no way of knowing how accurate or inaccurate this map is. I’ll be the first to tell you: it’s ludicrously wrong. I mean…it couldn’t be more wrong. Truly. Wow. Just...wow.

In my defense, Sayuri had to cross a bridge to get to the artist’s house, so I guess that’s where the idea for the moat came from. Although I think it's actually a river in the book, so...

And the fact that the registry AND the geisha school AND the theatre are in the same building - yikes. I think what happened here is that my mental map was already pretty full, so my subconscious just said, Meh - they can share a building. Why not? It's not like Sayuri is ever in two places at the same time. 

Also, I have no clue why my brain decided that the entire district is about the size of a single city block. All of these buildings should be much, much more spread out.

The moment I became conscious of the fact that I was creating this mental map, I realized it was horribly inaccurate. I was already over halfway into the book, though; there wasn’t really any going back. I think it’s a part of me now. This is, for better or worse, how I picture the Gion district in the world of Geisha.

Tell me, friends: Is this just me? Or do you do this too? And, if you do, are your maps as laughably inaccurate as mine?