Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide

It's hard to top what others have said, since my thoughts are praised exactly. This book is indespensable for your journeys around Tokyo. It features larger maps for the more popular areas like Shinjuku, Tokyo, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, etc. and smaller maps for the surrounding "ku". I have looked around, and it seems this is the only book that is detailed, up to date, and best of all, *Bilingual*! This alone could be the most important key element while navigated through complicated Kanji names. I'll explain why this is neccesary. I am in Tokyo now in a small area called "Kameari", where the large, detailed maps at the tarin and bus stops dont have the names in English. Although major stops and final destinations are in English, if you're travelling to anything other than the last stop, you're going to have a huge problem buying tickets unless you have a photograhpic memory or can actually read Kanji! This book is a godsend; not everyone understands English if you need help! If all else fails, just point! My only minor gripe is that on only a few of the stations, it mentions certain exits (like South Exit and West Exit, but failing to mention "North Exit"), and certain department stores. There is an "Ito-Yokado" Department store in both Aoto, Kameari, and Ayase, but the map only lists the nearest Department Store as in Ayase! This is minor, but a little troubling at times, especially in the HUGE stations. Finally, even the Japanese need to look at the map of where they want to go sometimes. Again I mention the "only in Kanji" maps at the Station. This book has detailed information on where the train and subway routes are. Using this book, I was able to find a solid route back to my apartment before the Station Attendants could! Coincidentally, I'm still finding new routes to take with different lines one actually saved me 160yen per trip! The Japanese have a very complex train system, but also very well done...if you know the ropes. This book is the threads that make up those ropes. -Doctor Cain

This is THE most useful item to pack, when going to Tokyo. Subway maps, JR maps, street maps that make sense: all of it arranged in a "just slightly larger than pocket size" format. That this book is written in both English characters and kana is a plus as well; should you get lost, find your nearest police box [or nice Japanese person], break out this handy book, and give the "Please help me, for I am lost and frantic and foreign" look, and lo-you will be unlost quickly.Long-term residents should consider this book as well: no other book has as much information in such a handy format. I had numerous residents expressing an interest in acquiring my book; if I'd had the money, I would have bought everyone I was with a copy of this as a present. Really-I can't say enough good things about this book and it's usefullness; this one book allowed me to wander confidently around Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Akihabara, Ueno, Jingu-mae, Tokyo station and the Imperial Gardens, and more. If you are going to Tokyo, please make sure you bring this book with you: this book gives you the freedom to wander and not get too lost.

Tokyo will be complex city more than your exception. The popularity is more than 10million. And the downtown is divided to 23 special city(23KU). The railway run here and there, the line is too complex for Japanese even. Though I have lived more than 20 years in Tokyo, I have problems when ride to train.Especially, in the center of down town(inner Ymanote line), metro more than 20 lines run, more complex.For that, foreigners will need maps etc. Certainly the railway is too complex, on the other hands, if you use the railway very well, you will use your time efficiently. There are few people that use car when they commute. In Tokyo railway is developed so that there are not the space we can walk.And if you go to jorney to Tokyo, I recommend Asakusa etc not Sinjuku, Ikebukuro. Asakusa is the town that we feel the history of unique Japanese.Off course if you want to feel the new fashion not Japanese history, will be good to Harajuku or Sibuya in addition to Ikebukuro or Sinjuku.And, if you have the extra time, should go to the place except of Tokyo, that is, Kyoto etc. Kyoto etc will be the place that you feel truth Japanese history and beauty than Tokyo.Thank you for reading poor writing.

I visited Tokyo for 4 weeks, and thought I could probably get some use out of this atlas. Probably wouldn't have picked it up if I were going for just a week.However, it turned out that I desperately needed it my first day! My husband & I visited Shinjuku and were trying to find Isetan, the major department store, in time for opening so we could see the opening ritual (all the employees bow and greet you). We didn't bring this atlas and were instead working from the map in the Lonely Planet Tokyo Condensed. Big mistake! The Lonely Planet maps were dead wrong. They didn't show subway exit numbers (there are about 40 exits out of Shinjuku - to get where you want to go, you should probably know which want to use). We wandered for an hour and got on each other's nerves and then finally stumbled across Isetan by sheer luck.If we had had this map with us, we would have known exactly which subway exit to use and how to get there, and would have been in time for the opening ceremonies!Tokyo is hard to get around. If you're going to visit it, even for a week, make your life much easier, and get this atlas. Spend your time seeing what you want to see, instead of stumbling around lost and frustrated!I am proud to say, btw, with this map, I haven't gotten lost once in Tokyo - something that has impressed my Japanese friends!

Tokyo is a strong candidate for the most confusing and poorly planned city on the planet, and it doesn't help any that the addresses look like this:    3-26-16 Harajuku, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo To those of us who are used to a street name and a building number, they might as well have left this in Kanji for all the good it does us. In fact, all of the expatriate Americans I met had the same advice: just go by the landmarks since the addresses were just too complicated--in other words, they never figured out how to use them. After 4 months of accepting this advice and not being able to find many places I wanted to go, I dared to ask just how this crazy system works. What I found was that it's not that complicated at all, but you need to have a book like this one. The way it works is this: the address indicates the ward of the city (Shibuya-ku), the area in Shibuya-ku (Harajuku), the sub-area of Harajuku (the first number: 3), the block number of Harajuku-3 (the second number: 26), and the building number on that block (the third number: 16). There are two ways of figuring out where this is:1) Read the signs on lampposts that indicate which block you are on. Unfortunately these can be terribly hard to find, are sometimes missing, require that you can read Kanji, don't indicate how close you are, and don't give you any idea about which direction you should head. 2) Look in this book and find the block you need on the map. Easy easy easy. Additional benefits: - Locations are frequently given by the name of a building, which doesn't help much if you don't know where that building is. That's when the index of building names and addresses comes in extremely handy. - Since Tokyo subway stations are absolutely MASSIVE, the maps make it easier to find out which subway entrance you should use, since you can look at the underground detail of the station to find the entrance nearest your platform. Conversely, it can help you choose which station to get off at, by looking at which platform will get you closer to your destination. -It's bilingual throughout, so you can use it to find an English translation of a Japanese address, or you can put an address you know in English back into Japanese to someone if you need to ask directions.