Rough Guide to Tokyo

This is my fourth Rough Guide book and as usual it's lived up to my expectations. The descriptions are brutally honest and there's tons of great - and accurate - recommendations both on and off the beaten path. Gave us a great overview on what to expect for our trip to Tokyo and allowed us to put together an itinerary on our own. Even more importantly it was fun and easy to read! It's really like having a local with you.

This book scores high marks for excellent maps and very extensive listings of restaurants. You could certainly take it as your only guide book if you were going to Tokyo. However, I was still quite disappointed by the descriptive text in the book. Too often, the neighborhood descriptions were very superficial and bland. Fortunately I didn't rely very much on these sections of the book. However, since so much of the book is comprised of these lengthly text passages, it felt as if the book was about twice as heavy as it needed to be.

I made four trips to Tokyo for work in 2000, and this is the only guide book that made it into my suitcase on trips 2, 3, and 4. Filled with concise reviews of all the major sights as well as restaurants and stores, this little book (I bought the pocket, mini edition) is as frank as some of the back-packer guides, but is not prejudiced against the reader who has a bit of disposable income. Some finds from this book not mentioned in most other guides to Tokyo that really made me feel like an insider: taking the Sumida gawa ferry, the underworld of Gay Tokyo in Shinjuku Ni-Chome, and heavenly CHEAP bath salts from Japanese no-name brand Muji. Truly, if you want to feel like you are an insider, and you don't want to have to read four or five of the same old, same old guides, this is the book for you!