Customer Reviews

Japan, a Bilingual Atlas : Nihon Nikakokugo Atorasu (A Kodansha Guide)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I travel to Japan every 5th week or so to sell my company's semiconductors to various manufacturers spread out all over Japan. This Atlas is terrific for English-only speakers like me, as it has all the Japanese characters next to the English names, which is essential when navigating the train stations off the main lines. This Atlas has good city maps for all the major destinations and the touristy sites are also well located. A nice feature is the very good transportation maps in the back showing the courses of all the major train lines. The dimensions (0.54 x 8.57 x 6.21") make it easy to carry at all times in my computer bag too. Finally, even though it is a paperback, the binding is robust, so this book has stood up to all the abuse I've given it.

I bought this book in a rush while preparing for a trip, figuring I'd replace it once in country. I didn't bother as this Atlas has had everything I needed and more.

While getting ready for a two-month stint in Japan, I found an entry for this book and it looked helpful. When I received it, I was disappointed in the quality of the printing. Not only does it look cheap, but it is also difficult to read.

When I got to Japan, I also realized that it is more than a bit dated. I have been traveling for more than a month now and have stopped using it. Granted, the cities are still in the same place on the maps, but the city maps need to be updated and corrected. This book was put together in 1991. My bad choice here. In the States, I would never depend on maps over 12 years old.

This is just my experience. Take it for what it's worth.

I lived in Japan for a year and found the bilingual atlas to be invaluable, especially for traveling in less touristy areas where the signs are not transliterated in romaji (roman script.) I highly recommend this book for anyone who is going to spend any time traveling around Japan.

This atlas contains complete details on navigating all of the cities of Japan: train, plane and automobile. If you have a compass with adjusted declination (compass is optional) and this guide, you will be able to get everywhere. You will not need another map/atlas at all ! I successfully navigated Japan alone using only this guide. I traveled between and inside Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Arashiyama and Tokyo. Every train stop written in English and diagramed to scale. Stuck in a temple on the side of a mountain in Kyoto ? rely on this map and you will find home ! This book is not a guide book and is not meant to be. It provides the information necessary to navigate. If you know your source and your destination, then this book will provide the path you need !! My japanese level was roughly Level 4 (JLPT), I am comfortable navigating subways in NYC, and I navigated alone for 15 days in Japan. Highly recommended !! Anyone who does not give this book 5 stars, does not understand the purpose of an atlas !

I am an American who has been living and working in Japan for two years and have gone on many road trips here, but I did not use this book at all. It has a nice detailed bilingual driving map of Tokyo, but you are better off taking the trains since they are faster than driving in Tokyo's traffic. It has a nice map of the train lines in major cities but you can get maps of the train lines in English for free at many of the major train stations. So don't wast your money. I did most of my driving through rural areas and country side where it makes more sense to drive, but this atlas did not give good details of the roads in those areas. Many of the roads in this atlas did not even have labels and were not clearly marked. Instead I use maps that were given to me for free from the Japanese government.

The key here is that the atlas is bilingual, and has surprising depth of detail, down to fairly small towns. So if you need to know the kanji and the English, this is your atlas.