Lonely Planet Japan

This book marks the newest printing of the Lonely Planet series of travel guides on Japan. In my experience with travel, these writers give the most thorough, useful reviews of almost anywhere that anyone would find interest in, with detailed and maps, directions, and things to look out for. A few notes, however; if you are looking for a picture book, this is NOT for you, this travel guide will contain almost completely pragmatic information such as guides and maps, with very few pictures. Also, if you are looking to actually reside in Japan, you will want to find a guide for the specific city you are looking to live in from a book series not designed for tourists, as there are many cities which are not considered "tourist's destinations" which are thus omitted from this and most other travel guide titles. A must have for a first-time tourist to Japan.

My boyfriend and I used this book exclusively while we traveled from Okinawa to Hokkaido for five weeks this past summer. It really was a lifesaver- the only guidebook you need for Japan. We had JR passes and it gives lots of tips specifically for those using JRs. Highly recommended!

Also found this book very useful (can't compare either, still give 5 as I wasn't really missing anything). It has very comprehensive listings with good descriptions of sights, hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs in, to name only the places i had been, tokyo, kyoto, osaka and even in koyasan (a little village in the mountains) - it certainly gave me more than enough to cover in 7 days. The getting around sections were extremly useful (public transport in japan can be a bit of an adventure, the book gives useful tips for example to pay the fare at the end of the journey). Another useful thing were the suggested routes at the beginning of the book. It didn't even suffer from the usual Lonely planet problem to miss out on more upscale places, the book has all the fancy hotels, restaurants, bars covered. Great buy!

I absolutely loved this book. I took the shinkansen (bullet train) all over Japan and so it was good guidance to visit all the cities I traveled to : Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Oita. I was able to find all the cheap places to stay and met cool people along the way. The folks who criticized the city maps do have a point. For example, I was trying to find a dumpling place in Kyoto recommended by LP but it was so hard to make out where it was in the map. I finally found it half hour later but it was worth it. You have to realize that most streets in Japan are not numbered like it is in the US so finding the exact store can be trying at times. In finding maps for a particular city, i would go to the local tourist office which gave detailed info. This is my first LP book and overall, i found it to be a very good reference.

I was lucky when I went to Japan because my sister had already been living there for almost two years, just the same, I wanted to do all the research. In looking at all the information on the web and reading several tour guides, LONELY PLANET really stood out. By using this book, I found things that my sister had never heard of -- some of which were right in front of her face. By the time we had spent my 10 days there, we had seen the real world of Japan as well as the tourist sites. The book was so helpful that my sister requested it stay with her. She used it extensively as did I for return trips. As another review pointed out, LP does a great job of describing individual locations (and giving you good landmarks to make the trip low stress) both in the big cities and small towns. The things which stand out for me were the hints on the public baths and hot springs, staying at Buddhist temples, tips on the crowds of school kids that hit in May, cultural events like the bunraku, etc. We've bought the updated version since that first trip and each time find some thing new and exciting. This publisher is the first one I turn to for all my travel.