On Tue, 12 May 1998, Maercutio wrote:

Ryoga's sense of direction is not so severe that he ever wanders out of a
specific geographical area, that being Japan. He has never unintentionaly gone
farther than Okinawa in either the manga or the anime: his souvenirs that he's
always bringing for Akane are always distincly japanese. The only times he
ever left Japan was when he went to China to find Ranma, which he MEANT to do
so it doesn't count as bad direction sense, and that Moscow thing in the final
volume which I saw as fluke.

Another mistake people sometimes make: when he first appears he walks to the
Tokyo Tower wondering just where that is.  The joke is that it's one of the
most familiar places in Japan and Ryouga can't recognize it.

But to Americans who've never heard of the Tokyo Tower, they think this means
Ryouga went to France (which he did not.)