Customer Reviews

Time Out Guide to Tokyo, 2nd Edition

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By: Susan Benton

Moments before embarking on a last-minute trip to Tokyo, I stopped in a bookstore in LAX in search of a guidebook on the city. I found only two: an overview of Japan (which was extraneous for this trip) and Time Out Tokyo. I purchased the latter, and was on my way.

I read the book cover to cover on the flight over. I felt well versed on many areas of the city and comfortable with choosing a path for my weeklong trip. Despite the author's ubiquitous sarcastic and often pessimistic tone, I was hoping to find fun and excitement in at least a couple of areas of the city.

Once there, however, I found I had to rely on other sources besides Time Out for some very important "touristy" information. While I realize it's impossible to include everything in one guidebook, there are certain things that, I feel, would've been extremely helpful to include in Time Out - which would elevate it from a "four star" nice-to-have to a "five star" must-have travel resource.

Case in point: there is no map of the train lines. There's a map of the subway system, and one of the Yamanote loop, but not one of the Yamanote connecting lines that run throughout the city - more or less, the backbone of the Tokyo train system (and my primary mode of transportation while there). I had to rely on a separate train line book for this information. Seems silly, when this information would have been easy enough to include in Time Out.

Also, there are suggested supplemental trips from Tokyo (further than one hour away) and, although there are general directions on getting there, there are no maps for the areas once you arrive.

What's more (astonishingly enough) - there is no comprehensive map of Tokyo, beyond the cluttered, blurry subway map and localized - very general, detail defunct - area maps. This would have been extremely helpful to have on more than one occasion. In fact, it should've been on the first page of the book.

I would have liked to see a larger section dedicated to Kichijoji - one of the cooler, livelier areas I visited during my stay. There is only a slight mention of it.

I would have also liked to see the Japanese characters accompanying some of the descriptions - especially for some of the more obscure areas (as you get further outside of Tokyo, the signs all switch from Romanji to characters).

Something else that would've been great is a general "tips and tricks" list for navigating around the city and understanding the culture.

Examples of tips might include:
- Walk/drive to the left!
- Plan to buy N'EX high-speed train tickets a day in advance and a half hour to one hour earlier than you would like to arrive at the airport, in case of delays (which I experienced)
- Note that some temples/shrines charge exorbitant rates, while other - equally impressive temples - are next-to-nothing or free.
- Although there is a brief section on ATMs more information should have been included regarding getting money once you're there. For instance, the CitiBank across the street from Shinjuku station takes American bank cards. The best advice: save yourself the hassle, exchange your money before you leave. (This was mentioned early in the book).
- Tips on traditional Japanese etiquette. Praying and showing respect at temples, shrines (eg. donations, washing hands, general information on ceremonies that may be taking place. Are you being disrespectful if you join, watch, speak, etc.?) Also, eating on the trains is frowned upon - as I found out the hard way.

Although the sarcastic tone of Time Out left me feeling as though the authors had no love for Tokyo, or Japan for that matter, I did find the book somewhat helpful - offering interesting, sometimes quirky tidbits on the city and culture. Who knew Excelsior Coffee had to change their green to blue because Starbucks threatened to sue? And, although I didn't make any visits to the love hotels, the section on how I could've was truly enlightening. And thank God for the section on how to use the non-Western toilets. I'd have been lost for sure.

If you're planning a trip to Tokyo and you don't mind buying a map, book of the connecting train lines and doing a bit of research on your own regarding other cool things to do, then you'll be satisfied with the supplemental information Time Out Tokyo provides.

Time Out works hard to present itself as youthful and offbeat, and labors so much over this image that the oh-so-hip tone often sounds phony. The writing seems more inspired by a quest to look trendy than an effort to express anything meaningful about the city. I particularly dislike the descriptions of various Tokyo neighborhoods, which come off as little more than bravado, and rather than making me excited about going to a place, they leave me feeling annoyed, as though some jackass were trying to impress me with how cool he is because he's been there.

But then again, we don't buy travel guides for their literary value alone (or at all, maybe). As for actual information, I'd say Time Out is quite comprehensive, although not as complete as Lonely Planet. It does include entertaining bits about Love Hotels..., which you're not likely to see in guides that aren't trying so hard to be alternative. I've only come across one factual error so far: the "Japan Gift Center" in Ginza appeared to have (long since) closed and was no longer at the address listed.

One reason I chose Time Out was that is one of the only books I could find that contained a Gay & Lesbian section. I give them some credit for at least thinking about this, but the 2 pages devoted to it are essentially useless, unless you want to know where you can go to have anonymous sex in the bushes, in which case this might be right up your "alley". If you're gay and also have a life, prepare yourself to be disappointed with Time Out. Here's some much more useful information in a nutshell: The gay neighborhood of Tokyo is Shinjuku-2-chome.....

A major drawback of this guide is the poor design of the maps of Tokyo neighborhoods in the back. They are well drawn and mark useful things, but are fatally flawed because there is no indication of which direction is north. I can hardly imagine how the editors missed such a glaring oversight, but somehow they did. Having been here for several weeks and pieced together an understanding of how the city is laid out, whenever I look back at these maps I can only laugh at what a joke they are. Not only is the compass not marked on the maps, but the orientation also varies from page to page. It's worse than useless; the maps in this book are likely to get you lost.

For a more authentically off-the-wall guide, I would say you are much better off with "Tokyo Q" by Rick Kennedy et al..., and "Little Adventures in Tokyo: 39 Thrills for the Urban Explorer", also by Rick Kennedy. For a comprehensive guide with fun but not such tragically-hip writing, go with "Lonely Planet".

I recently visited Tokyo and brought both the TO Tokyo Guide (2nd Ed., 2001) and the Rough Guide to Japan (2001 Edition). Ultimately I found the Rough Guide to be much more usable, and most days I left the TO guide in my hotel room. Why?

The main reason is that the maps in the TO guide are close to useless:

1. The maps do not show where North is (each map is different), so orienting oneself, on exiting a subway station say, is hard.

2. The maps do not have a scale so it is not possible to judge distances.

3. There is no overall map showing the relative placement of the detailed maps. The Tokyo Overview map on p.288 is wholly inadequate.

4. The map keys and text do not also show the Japanese characters for names of places, so finding restaurants and so on is a matter of guesswork.

5. The subway map looks like it is a low quality scan, and is not particularly legible as a result.

6. Many places mentioned in the text are not shown on the maps despite the assertion on the back cover ("32 pages of color maps annotated with EVERY entry in the guide"). For example, in the Harajuku section (p.59) the following places are not on the map: Cafe Vasy, Elephant Cafe, Give Life, News Deli, Perbacco, Pizza Express, Red Pepper, Will V; and that's just in a two page section of the guide.

The Rough Guide does not suffer from any of these deficiencies, which unfortunately outweigh any advantages other parts of the TO guide may have.

The one poor review this book has unfairly received has prompted me to put metaphorical pen to paper.

I have been living in Tokyo for over two years, and find this by far the most useful guidebook available. I've been through the Lonely Planet (no addresses, only phone numbers, how useful is that for non-Japanese speaking visitors?) and the Rough Guide (full of mistakes), and this is the only one that even comes close to bringing this disparate city to life.

I like the way the book as a whole is structured. It takes its time to tell you what is interesting about the various areas that make up Tokyo and leaves you to make your own mind up about whether you want to go there. Sure, the Time Out style may at times grate, but at least there IS a style. This is a book that has an attitude of its own. You may not like it, but at least you don't have to wade through the clumsy mundanities that pass for prose in the competition. Guide books that wear their hearts on their sleeves and provoke a reaction are all too scarce, and Time Out is to be applauded for venturing into areas where few others go.

One of these is the gay section. In my new edition, this has four pages, and the maps have served me well on many occasions, since I often carelessly leave my compass at home, preferring to navigate by the landmarks that are clearly marked on the maps. Other tips that I knew nothing about, even as a long-term resident, include dressing up for cheap tickets for the movies, and the location of two well hidden bars in Shibuya.

In short, I would recommend this book to anyone coming to Tokyo for any time from a few days to a few years. It makes the city sound like the fun place it is, rather than the sterile futurescape of western imaginings. The nightclubs section alone is worth the price of admission.

I used this guide on a recent trip to Tokyo and found it to be very useful. I had both the Lonely Planet Tokyo and the Time Out Tokyo guides with me and Time Out won my favor. The content is similar between the two, but I found a bit more information included in Time Out, the maps are excellent, and the whole book is organised better. The listings are OK, but don't waste too much time searching for things listed in this book. I could not find any of the internet cafes that were listed. I did rely more on TokyoQ for restaurant listings because it seemed more up to date.

Overall this is a good guide to get a general feel for this insane city. It is more off beat and youth oriented than the Fodors of the world. But Tokyo is a constantly changing storm of a megalopolis, no guide will give you the whole story, follow human recommendations and your instincts over anything you read in a guide book.