Rating: 
Summary: These are Fabulous Books
Review: Japan is a place one does not visit every day and it is expensive. Also I like to go well armed with maps and books because unlike the USA or Canada some areas have no english signs so the more information the better. I would recommend this book, and at least one book on Japan's society - see Amazon.com plus a good map book. I first discovered these books (a series Eyewitness Travel) by accident. The photos and desicriptions and cutaway drawings are excellent. Plus they throw in some history and details on the art and many other things of interest including places to eat. A solid effort - lots of stuff to see and absorb. What is attractive about this book is that it pulls a lot of things together such as history and culture and urban areas. But the book brings it all to life with just magnificent photos and maps. Jack in Toronto
Rating: 
Summary: DK Travel Guides: The Best
Review: My wife and I travel internationaly at least once a year. The DK Eyewitness travel guides have proved indispensible. The big advantage of the DK guides is an extremely user friendly format that includes great photos on every page so you can see what they are writing about, full color cut-away drawings of buildings and museums, history and culture tips... I especially like the layout of the book. With the Eyewitness guides you will get a feel for the place before you get there and you will know what to expect at the various sites. Other guides may have more details about hotel listings, restaurants, and other such minutia. The Eyewitness guides are more about the reason for going (sites, history, culture) and a little less about the logistics (hotels, traveling in-country, etc.) All that can be found on the web now, I rarely rely on travel books for that stuff anyway. Still, we usually take two travel guides with us, to cover all the bases. But, one of them MUST be the DK Eyewitness guide.
Rating:
Summary: Eye-catching guide is a worthy investment
Review: This is sort of a "Japan! Wow!" type of guide, full of eye-popping graphics and catchy factoids. It is a very fun guide, and does a great job of engaging enthusiasm for Japan and its wonders. The makers definitely know their audience, and all of the weird and wild parts of the country and its culture are captured. Nothing off the beaten path here, only the major attractions of each city/region are represented. It is wide but not deep. Pricing information and such is well done, and gives an accurate picture of what to expect. Tidbits of culture and history help explain what you will be seeing and make for interesting overall reading. Even as someone living in Japan, I find this guide to be valuable and fun. It has sparked my interests in several sites and is a great reminder of places that I have been. For a deeper travel guide, I recommend "Gateway to Japan." That combined with "Exploring Japan" should be all you need to plan a snazzy and enjoyable trip.
Rating:
Summary: Eye-catching guide is a worthy investment
Review: This is sort of a "Japan! Wow!" type of guide, full of eye-popping graphics and catchy factoids. It is a very fun guide, and does a great job of engaging enthusiasm for Japan and its wonders. The makers definitely know their audience, and all of the weird and wild parts of the country and its culture are captured. Nothing off the beaten path here, only the major attractions of each city/region are represented. It is wide but not deep. Pricing information and such is well done, and gives an accurate picture of what to expect. Tidbits of culture and history help explain what you will be seeing and make for interesting overall reading. Even as someone living in Japan, I find this guide to be valuable and fun. It has sparked my interests in several sites and is a great reminder of places that I have been. For a deeper travel guide, I recommend "Gateway to Japan." That combined with "Exploring Japan" should be all you need to plan a snazzy and enjoyable trip.
Rating:
Summary: Eye-catching guide is a worthy investment
Review: This is sort of a "Japan! Wow!" type of guide, full of eye-popping graphics and catchy factoids. It is a very fun guide, and does a great job of engaging enthusiasm for Japan and its wonders. The makers definitely know their audience, and all of the weird and wild parts of the country and its culture are captured. Nothing off the beaten path here, only the major attractions of each city/region are represented. It is wide but not deep. Pricing information and such is well done, and gives an accurate picture of what to expect. Tidbits of culture and history help explain what you will be seeing and make for interesting overall reading. Even as someone living in Japan, I find this guide to be valuable and fun. It has sparked my interests in several sites and is a great reminder of places that I have been. For a deeper travel guide, I recommend "Gateway to Japan." That combined with "Exploring Japan" should be all you need to plan a snazzy and enjoyable trip.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing DK guide
Review: Until recently, I was a devoted fan of the Eyewitness Guide series. (My bookshelf holds their travel guides to France, Bali, South Africa, and even some US cities among others.) However, my recent trip to Kyoto and Tokyo proved too much for the series and I thought other travelers deserved a warning. The Eyewitness Japan volume is an interesting cultural introduction, but a woefully insufficient travel guide to this complex country, even for a very short trip such as the one I took. Some thoughts: (1) The maps (particularly outside of Tokyo) are not at all comprehensive. It would not be possible to find one's way around Kyoto, for example, without another guidebook. There is a high-level overview map of Kyoto (without most streets marked) and some cut-away maps of particular tiny areas, but you could not piece together one usable city map out of it. (2) The phrasebook is only four pages long and doesn't contain some of the most basic and useful information. Example: It doesn't contain the word for "cash machine," and Japan appears to be a heavily cash-oriented country. (3) The hotel information is wholly insufficient. It lists few hotels and then gives only one short sentence about each hotel. It doesn't make any suggestions as to which neighborhoods would be better to stay in, either. (4) The greatest strength of the book is in its cultural information and its visuals. For example, after finding the Kyoto "philosopher's walk" on a map in another guidebook, we were able to learn from the Eyewitness book why it was named the philosopher's walk and some interesting (but not particularly practical) facts about the walk. However, here again there is a hidden weakness: unlike other guidebooks, the Eyewitness book doesn't seem to take a stand on which sites are worth seeing in limited time. In such a complex country (particularly if, like me, you do not speak Japanese), you need a more comprehensive and more opinionated guide. All in all, in terms of survival and travel enjoyment, you're better off with the other travel books we had with us: Lonely Planet Japan (which has great opinions on what to visit) and Time Out Tokyo. I also recommend the Berlitz phrasebook on Japanese to get around; it's small and contains lots of useful phrases, although sometimes in strange places. Also, if you're leaving Tokyo, don't forget the bilingual maps. Happy traveling!
Lydia PS: This particular Eyewitness book (perhaps I'd missed this on other trips) seems oriented towards the high-end, perhaps business, traveler. Whereas the eyewitness guide described a particular Tokyo ryokan as having a convivival lounge area that encouraged travelers to meet people, exchange stories, and strategize about their travels, Eyewitness would describe a particular ryokan as not having a particularly nice view. Perhaps that's something to keep in mind, depending on your interests.
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