Is there a preferred order for directions in a sentence?

Japanese Language Grammar
1

For example, should right-left come before up-down? Is there a more natural sounding order?
Or maybe, more generally, is there a natural sounding order for categories of adjectives the way there is in English?

2

Can you give an example of what you mean? Are you talking about something like “upper right” or “lower left”? In those cases, it would be 右上 or 左下, so the reverse of English.

But I’m not sure if that’s what you meant.

This was added after I responded initially. I’m not sure how to answer, since words like up and down aren’t adjectives (EDIT: at least not ones that can be used exactly the same way as left and right), so I’m not sure if this is just a different question.

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3

I don’t believe there is an order of adjectives like in english. Instead the more important adjective is closest to the noun.

4

They are, but only in specific applications. Like “the up escalator”. Though that’s possibly an abbreviation of “upwards” or something that’s become codified over time.

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5

The 左-右 上-下 2x2 combinations were exactly what prompted my question so thank you for the answer I was looking for!

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6

There actually is a bunch of crazy rules for this in English but as a native speaker I was never taught it. An example is that “big long wooden stick” sounds more natural than “wooden long big stick”.

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7

Also in English, North/South comes before East/West

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