sci.lang.japan,alt.languages.japanese,fj.sci.lang.japanese,fj.life.in-japan,japan.lang.japaneseの記事<bkb6ct$kmn$1@hawaii.ykhm.cij.co.jp>で
        kato.kenji@cij.co.jpさんは書きました。
> I don't know why we use different order in Japan, but I'd guess
> there's a logic kind of similar to the order in western languages
> -- east, west (the opposite), south, north (the opposite)

I agree.

About the precedence of the south over the north,
I guess the origin was China and we just imported that.
Here's some example of the precedence.

指南車(south-pointing car)
    a compass-on-the-car.

南船北馬(boat in the south, horse in the north)
    southern people moves on a boat and
    northern people moves on top of a horse.

> Oh, and your guess about the importance of north is the other
> way round actually -- direction of the head at death is north
> because it is the most ominous direction.

I guess it is not because north is the most ominous.
北枕(north pillow) was Buddha's position at his death
and therefore thought it was good for the dead.
As for the ominous direction, it is 鬼門(demon's gate)
and the direction of 丑寅(north-east).
-- 
太田純(Junn Ohta) (株)リコー/新横浜事業所
ohta@sdg.mdd.ricoh.co.jp