Lonely Planet Tokyo (City Guide) [Paperback]

Matthew Firestone (Author)

Book Description

Series: City Guide | Publication Date: August 1, 2008

Discover Tokyo

Watch them slice tuna like samurai at Tsukiji Central Fish Market
Slip into a cotton-fresh yukata (robe) in your peaceful ryokan
Find out why it's important to 'refuse' a gift
Sink countless thimbles of sake in a Golden Gai drinking den

In This Guide:

The leading guide to Tokyo
Resident Tokyo authors uncover over 40 top new restaurants
Special chapter on manga, robots and gadgets, and where to find it all
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Best for curious and independent-minded travelers' --Wall Street Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 7 Pap/Map edition (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741047889
• ISBN-13: 978-1741047882
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Travel > Asia > Japan > Tokyo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reformatted, Not Revised?, August 24, 2008

By 

J. Silversmith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet Tokyo (City Guide) (Paperback)

I found the previous edition of the Lonely Planet Tokyo city guide handy as an independent traveler. Unfortunately, the new edition appears to be a reformatted version of the 2006 edition, rather than an update.

For example:

pp. 62-63 - The guide bizarrely claims that the Ghibli Museum is located in Ginza, when it is in fact located in a western suburb of Tokyo (the correct information appears on p. 112).

p. 64 - The guide fails to note that the hours for tourists to visit the Tsukiji fish market have been officially restricted since April 2008. Incredibly, the lead author of the guide wrote in his blog about this very issue in April 2008 (http://www.gadling.com/2008/04/05/big-in-japan-tokyos-top-tourist-attraction-is-limiting-access/) - so he certainly knows about the new rules.

p. 125 - The hours for the Edo Tokyo Museum - apparently copied from the previous edition without the editors verifying them - are wrong and have been so for at least a year.

p. 242 - The guide describes Passnet cards as an option for train and subway travel. Passnet cards haven't been sold since January 2008 and haven't worked since March 2008.

Much as I would like to give the new edition of the guide a more positive review, I can't do so; a shiny new cover doesn't offset the unrevised content. Given that Lonely Planet's website says the next edition won't be out until 2011, there is no excuse for not having updated basic information in the guide.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Satisfactory Writing, but Horrible Editing and Maps., December 28, 2009

By 

asoka88 (Binghamton, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Tokyo (City Guide) (Paperback)

I just returned from Tokyo barely 24 hours ago and wanted to relate my feelings on the latest Lonely Planet Tokyo Guide. I'm a hard core Lonely Planet reader, which is why I bought Lonely Planet's Tokyo Guide without doing any research about the latest edition. I spent four days in Tokyo as a tourist with the Lonely Planet Guide as my only source. The writing within the guide is generally good. However, and this is a big however, the editing and the maps are absolutely horrible. There are numerous editing inaccuracies within the guide, which I am amazed by. I'm fairly certain that the editor just gave a cursory nod to the latest edition without doing any actual work. A good example of this conclusion is that the location of a restaurant within the guide that I really wanted to go to turned out to be on a completely different map from the one specified in the guide, and the location of the restaurant on the correct map also turned out to also be incorrect. Additionally, the maps had numerous errors and were usually on such a general scale that they were for the most part useless. In cities like Paris or Istanbul where street signs are in Roman script, this wouldn't be a huge difficulty. In Tokyo, however, there is almost no street signage in English, so you unfortunately have to completely rely on the maps within the guide. The author is also to some part to blame in that they give no written directions about how to get to places and restaurants that are written about in the book. As an example, the written directions that are given for a particular onsen in Northern Tokyo are factually inaccurate. I had to seek help from people on the street and was introduced to a social work office where they gave me a photocopy of a very accurate map with the route that I needed to take highlighted. Without the help of that office, I never would have found the Onsen.

Additionally, I have noticed that in recent editions Lonely Planet has begun to steer away from a mini city atlas in the back of their guides in favor of a detachable map of the city. The detachable maps are also to a great extent useless.

In conclusion, and I hate to say this as a faithful reader of Lonely Planet Guidebooks since 1997, I would recommend that you steer clear of this edition of the Lonely Planet Tokyo Guide.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars any guide but this one, which makes me sad because I normally like LP, March 16, 2009

By 

Bachelier ""1004"" (Ile de France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet Tokyo (City Guide) (Paperback)

This is a very bad and inaccurate re-tread of the previous Kara Knafelc authored edition (2003), which itself was inaccurate and highly disorganized. Poor editing and fact checking throughout, and even maps are out of date. The new cross-metro and JR Lines PassMo card information is not included (and old information on a discontinued card is), although it has been online since March 2007.

It looks like LP has a dud on the top destination for those who first experience Japan (Tokyo), which makes me sad.

As of March 2009, I have to say "any guide but this one."