Tokyo Guide

Rating:
Summary: Exactly the book we needed for our trip
Review: I bought this book just before our first business trip to Japan and read it cover to cover while sitting in Superior Court waiting to see if I would be called to jury duty. This book is a must for anyone who really wants to explore Tokyo and has been scared off by the stories of $300/lb steaks and $450/night hotel rooms the size of a postage stamp. We are proof that you can really do Tokyo well, at a reasonable price. We were in Tokyo on business, but had some free time, and really wanted to know something tangible about the society before going. I particularly appreciated the cultural insights into the high asthetic level which pervades life in Tokyo, the artful use of glass and light which makes a crowded city seem spacious, the high tech toilets. We followed some of the more off beat suggestions including visiting the fish market at 4 ayem (missed the tuna auction but caught the melon auction), the Sunday flea markets at shrines, the 100 yen stores, but we also visited museums and department stores and travelled on the metro and JR without problem. Only one of the addresses (traditional Craft Center) was out of date and the book did not have our hotel which is called Hotel Excellent. It should be included next time --$125/night for a perfectly fine double in the middle of the posh Ebisu district, just five blocks from a 24 hour kinko's, and across the street from the metro, JR, and great shopping and eating. We ate at a lot of the little 350 yen restaurants where Japanese have lunch and dinner, but also had some extraordinary expensive meals that were so beautifully served you didn't know whether to eat or photograph each course. Shopping suggestions and the recommended shops we tried were excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly the book we needed for our trip
Review: I bought this book just before our first business trip to Japan and read it cover to cover while sitting in Superior Court waiting to see if I would be called to jury duty. This book is a must for anyone who really wants to explore Tokyo and has been scared off by the stories of $300/lb steaks and $450/night hotel rooms the size of a postage stamp. We are proof that you can really do Tokyo well, at a reasonable price. We were in Tokyo on business, but had some free time, and really wanted to know something tangible about the society before going. I particularly appreciated the cultural insights into the high asthetic level which pervades life in Tokyo, the artful use of glass and light which makes a crowded city seem spacious, the high tech toilets. We followed some of the more off beat suggestions including visiting the fish market at 4 ayem (missed the tuna auction but caught the melon auction), the Sunday flea markets at shrines, the 100 yen stores, but we also visited museums and department stores and travelled on the metro and JR without problem. Only one of the addresses (traditional Craft Center) was out of date and the book did not have our hotel which is called Hotel Excellent. It should be included next time --$125/night for a perfectly fine double in the middle of the posh Ebisu district, just five blocks from a 24 hour kinko's, and across the street from the metro, JR, and great shopping and eating. We ate at a lot of the little 350 yen restaurants where Japanese have lunch and dinner, but also had some extraordinary expensive meals that were so beautifully served you didn't know whether to eat or photograph each course. Shopping suggestions and the recommended shops we tried were excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable guide!
Review: I went to Tokyo this year with the guide book as my only companion and found that it was one of the best things to have with me! The info that you can find in this book is still current and worth the read. If you are planning on taking a trip to Tokyo, do yourself a favor and pick this guide up.

Rating:
Summary: Do you want to go to true and core Tokyo world?
Review: Off course it is good that you can do the trip written in many guide books. But I want to dare to introduce the true trip and Tokyo cultures not to be written in such books.

For instance, if you do the trip with guide books, when you will go to the gorgeous restrunts for foreigners. But I dare to recommend the cheap restrants like Izakaya. You can feel unique Japanese food culture by entering such cheap restrant for Japanese, not foregners. Izakaya is restrants like bars if I say Izakaya by other words. But I can not look at the proper example because Izakaya is unique Japanese style restrant.

But you must have a little baravy when you go to Izakaya because the restrant make such unique food like Sashimi, Tempura etc. In Izakaya, grotesque foods used cuttlefishs, eels, octopuss etc is cooked. Because I have lived in Tokyo over 20 years since my birth, I can eat them naturally and deliciously like some of Japanese. On the other hands, there are many foods that foreigner can eat deliciously and safely in Izakaya. But you have no way except you try them in the place factly. That will be a adventure too. And what I want to recommend especially is Ja@anese alcoholic drinks, for instance Nihon Syu or Syoutyuu etc. There are many kinds of drinks in Syoutyu and Nihon syu. Because such drink is used at each Japan towm or city by the unique methods of manifactures.

If you want to go Izakaya, it is good that you say [I want to go Izakaya] to Japanese, if you can not tell well, it is good that you write [Izakaya] in paper.

If you should not go to the chain Izakaya store like Sirokiya. Off course such Izakaya is good, but you can know the true Japanese foods if you select Izakaya like individual management stores. Maybe you will never understand the means when you see the menu in Izakaya. It will be a adventure that you enjoy the made foods after you select as you want. It may be a little help if you say the assistant the proper words like[Gaijin ga konomino ryouri wo tekitou ni otukuri kudasai] or show the assistants the written paper. The phraze mean (please cook foods as you(cooker) want to do but as foreigner can eat deliciousely).

Anyway the true Japan culture is not Izakaya only, many great things exist in Japan, and I wish that you can do great trips in Japan.

Thank you for poor writing and English.

Rating:
Summary: Well written guide book
Review: There are so many books out there to choose from! I am very satisfied with this one, even though it happens to be a few years old. The entire book is carefully thought out and covers many topics that you will need to know-especially if you are travelling for the first time to Japan without a guide. I found this book very helpful,entertaining and easy to use. (I would definately reccommend it over Foder's.)

Rating:
Summary: Indispensible resource for long or short trips to Tokyo
Review: Used together with the standard Tokyo street and subway guide, this book was an indispensable tool for a very enjoyable 4-day jaunt to Tokyo. The logical explanation of the sights - together with shopping and eating experiences - gave me the information I needed as a basis for my trip. I strongly recommend reading it cover to cover before going, highlighting sights to see and mapping out adventures in half-day segments with enough time for a hole-in-the-wall tempura, yakitori, noodle or sushi restaurant as a luncheon layover. Sights, shopping, sake bars ... it's all covered here. Extend yourself - it is very easy to get around in Tokyo and the people could not have been nicer.