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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nice maps, but not much else., September 29, 2005
This is a super-condensed version of the Tokyo chapter from Lonely Planet Japan with some extra info added by author Wendy Yanagihara.
I honestly cannot find any reason to recommend this book beyond its small size and fold-out color maps, although if you are going to Tokyo for a short business trip it might help. Although I like Lonely Planet's guides, this one is rather inadequate in that it spends too much time discussing Japanese culture and history and wastes too much space on big pictures instead of cramming that space with more useful information such as phone numbers, websites, and travel information (which is confined to a very small space in the back of the book). Culture and history are important things in Japan, but the amount of space given to them in this book defeats the purpose of this guide.
In other words, buy the most recent issue of the Lonely Planet Japan Guide if you're planning a trip to or employment in Japan. If you really love Tokyo above all else you can substitute the Lonely Planet Tokyo guide. Either one has plenty of information about everyone's favorite megalopolis. As for the maps, you can do without them simply by asking your hotel or the average large information desk (especially at Narita Airport) for maps of the Tokyo Metro and JR lines.
Author Yanagihara, while of Japanese ancestry, has a gee-whiz-wow attitude about everything. At times she seems to have less experience in Tokyo than the average English-language school employee. She certainly means well, but the result is a less than stellar guide - however, I get the impression her editors may be most at fault. Perhaps most unfortunate is the guide's invitation for inexperienced visitors to Japan to get lost - that is, to visit places like Kamakura, Nikko, and Fuji without providing any maps of the areas or decent advice on how to get there. There are other errors such as listing the Tokyo Monorail as the only way to access Haneda Airport, but Keikyu and Keisei Railways provide faster service to a more convenient station (Shinagawa). This should not be the case in a guide like this.
If you want a easy-to-carry guide to Tokyo, this will do. For any info beyond that, look for Lonely Planet Japan and Lonely Planet Tokyo.
Update (October 2007): I paged through the guide again recently and came upon this quote describing the Edo-Tokyo Museum:
"...this wonderful museum illustrates Tokyo's rise from the humble riverside origins of Edo (the Eastern capital) to today's fast forward futuristic metropolis."
It's bad enough that Yanagihara and (worse) her editors don't seem to know that Tokyo, not Edo, means "Eastern Capital." The fact that the main Lonely Planet Japan guide correctly describes the name means that someone at LP isn't doing the proofreading they should be, especially as Yanagihara is a contributor to the main guide. An oversight this bad ruins the credbility of "Best of Tokyo" and is a disappointing exception to LP's otherwise high quality.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some problems with this one, October 11, 2005
I have been using Lonely Planet books for years and am surprised that it would turn out a guide as skimpy and shoddily written as this. The maps are useful, but the text's author, Wendy Yanagihara, seems to be unfamiliar with (or unable to get a sense of) Tokyo's character and its people. Yanagihara seems more bemused than informed, and one can only wonder why she was hired to write about a complex metropolis that she does not seem to understand. I agree with the reader above about the Lonely Planet Japan and Lonely Planet Tokyo guides -- both are good. I'd add another to the list: Time Out Tokyo, which surpasses anything Lonely Planet has yet produced as a guide to Tokyo.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Colorful, fun and travel-sized!, October 1, 2007
I had no idea this book was so small until I received it, and I don't mind it at all. I have other Japan travel books by Frommer's and Fodor's so this thin book was a blessing.
Another reviewer mentioned needing a magnifying glass to read, but I can read it fine and so can my husband -- we're twenty-somethings and he wears glasses -- so I think that if you have grandchildren or existing eyesight problems then yes, it might be an issue.
For me, the bright colors behind the text were no problem. I love how colorful everything is -- EVERY page is in color. Great photos and summaries of the top "must do" attractions.
The descriptions are short to keep the size of the book down, but they list all essential info: name in english AND hiragana/kanji/katakana (really handy!), address, hours of operation, admission fees (if applicable), a URL if they have one and what train to take to what stop and even what exit to use from the station. AWESOME.
The only blemish on this otherwise amazing book is the foldout map. Mind you the map itself is helpful as heck, what with the Tokyo subway system map included, close-ups of three popular neighborhoods, every sight listed in the book listed on the map with appropriate designations (a2, d4, etc), and even helpful phrases such as "hello" and "two beers please." However, the perforation on my copy was poor and the map was glued in VERY crooked. While trying to carefully pull the map out like was intended, it pulled the cover from the back of the book. I should have just cut it with scissors in retrospect, but that was the point of the map: to pull it out easily. When I got it loose, it was difficult to pull the excess paper from the perforation. So just cut out your map out of your copy of the book and you won't have any problems!
Oh, and the super-glossy parts of the front and back covers are just slick as hell.
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