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Let's Go Japan 1st Ed (Let's Go Japan) Editorial Review:
ew places epitomize the meeting of old and new like Japan. Now Let's Go steers readers through this country of sleek metropolises, tea ceremonies, kabuki theater, and vibrantly animated film. With insider tips on how to travel affordably on Japan's ultra-modern rail system, readers can penetrate the peaceful mountain retreats and mesmerizing cities of this fascinating country.
Customer Reviews:
Very disappointing
After using and loving nearly every aspect of Let's Go: Western Europe, I'd come to expect a certain level of quality and reliability from Let's Go. This book, however, falls very short of that. Throughout the book, the authors sacrifice direct and concise information in favor of "cute" writing and "witty" observations, which in and of themselves aren't bad, but I can't help but wonder if the time they spent coming up with these things may have been better spent in verifying their information. Just for one example, directions say to reach a particular museum in Tokyo involves leaving a station through the West exit, yet this particular station HAS no west exit, and it tells you to continue west (They MEANT east, which was found out after walking a mile or so in the wrong direction). Granted, most of the information in the book is somewhat reliable, but you really don't want to spend your vacation verifying the accuracy of every individual item in your book. Additionally, some information such as hours are omitted entirely from the book, and even where they'd be expected to change, it's reasonable to assume that SOME listing could serve as a guideline. In short, there were many times on the trip when I wondered if my time wouldn't be better spent by
discontinuing use of the book altogether and just winging it on hostel and tourist office information, both of which are plentiful and accurate. While traveling I had the opportunity to peruse Lonely Planet's offering, and feel confident in saying it's a far superior offering, and would recommend that over this. I can only hope Let's Go gets this straightened out for the next edition (this is, after all, only the first), as this really doesn't live up to the standards of other Let's Go offerings I've seen.
Off the Beaten Path
Three years ago I found myself with a few weeks off and a little bit of extra money, and so I decided to fly to Tokyo. I had taken a few classes in Japanese, and thought that I would have no problem, as I didnt make any reservations the entire trip, two weeks by the seat of my pants. This guide book is the only thing that made that possible. From its advice on getting the right train passes to helping me find a small temple in Northern Japan where I spent then night and woke as the sun rose to meditate infront of a gaint golden Buddha with monks, it was my constant travel companion. I do own other guides to Japan, but no other ones helped me, the 20 something travler as much.
Go to Japan, and take this with you!
A great budget travel guide
First off, I'm slightly biased towards Let's Go having traveled with them throughout Europe, South and Central America and a bit of Asia.
The benefits of Let's Go are its wide variety of food and accomodation recommendations. It provides restraunts focusing on a wide variety of food at cheap prices. And if possible, it mentions any late night eats too. It also includes phone numbers that are useful to give to a taxi driver who doesn't know where your destination is.
One weakness is if you want to stay at nicer places and eat at nicer restraunts (although this book usually gives a couple options in the larger cities). If you want all your hotels to speak English, restraunts to have a true chef and the idea of comfort is significantly more important than price, this is probably not your book.
The quantity of maps in Let's Go is better than any other book I've used. They are usually quite complete and accurate (including almost all destinations written in Japanese). However, since Let's Go focuses on less established restraunts, some do go out of business. Usually, I can't find one restraunt every two weeks of travel (even though I do usually find the building).
The provided itinaries in Let's Go are usually lacking. They tend to be themed such as "The Beaches of Japan" or "The Zen Tour of Japan" rather than what the average traveler will use. To plan the trip, your best bet is just to read through the book. Let's Go does a great job of telling you what impression a city evokes, so it's easy for one to determine if you want to visit it.
One of my favorite things Let's Go does is to give detailed information (bus, train, other) of how to travel between cities. However, this type of information does change often, so occasionally Let's Go has the wrong times. But the frequency of the trains are usually more important than specific times.
For instance, if there are only two trains a day and both are in the morning. Even if the exact times are not correct, you can expect primarily morning trains to your destination.
To summarize:
The book is great for the budget traveler. It is also the most detailed in terms of maps and transportation of other (LP and Frommer's) Japan travel books. For the moderate traveler, if these weaknesses aren't a big deal, I'd recommend this book. If they are, Frommer's book is a good choice.
Konichiwa, traveler-san.
This was my 1st experience with the Let's Go series. I'd use them again if for no other reason than 99% of those on round the world trips have LP guides under their arms. My only complaint was that I relied on the SPECIFIC directions regarding Narita (the city, not the airport) and it had me on the other side of town wasting precious time trying to find the temple until my flight departed from NRT.
Having said that, once I got to the shrine and realized that my luggage had been STOLEN, the vocab in the back assisted me greatly in this very non-English friendly country.
Buy the Japan Rail Pass if you go, it's so very valuable.
Sayonara.
Save money; Travel Cheaply!
Let's Go Japan fills the same niche for traveling as Rough Guide Japan (RG), Lonely Planet Japan (LP), and the older Moon Guide Japan. However, it's the smallest and lightest and leaves out most of the higher priced hotels and ryokan as well as out-of-the-way places away from the core areas.
It doesn't have as many places as either RG or LP, but it has more than anyone is going to get to in one trip. It also has a few that neither of the others have such as Fukushima City and Nagatoro in Saitama. The maps are on a par with either RG or LP for detail, but these are bilingual; both Japanese and Romaji are on the maps without having to turn to a separate list on a different page. The pages are also divided like LP's with black edges with the name of the region, making finding a section easier.
The back page lists all the maps in the book for easy access. The front pages are 2 maps of Tokyo trains/subways and 1 map of the eastern slopes of Kyoto around Kiyomizu Temple to Ginkakuji. Access couldn't be much easier.
Information about each place is given but is minimal. This guide is to get you to a place and into a hotel. If you want stories, pictures, and history, buy a Fodors or Frommers. If you're an individual traveler who can pick up this information from the ticket counter or information booth as he/she goes, why carry it with you?
However, there are interesting boxes scattered throughout with different factoids about the area that you normally wouldn't come across in any guide or book, such as the "Masters of the Onsen Universe" challenge in Beppu, or the "Sakuda Gold & Silver Leaf Company" in Kanazawa.
Of the 3 (Moon apparently gave up) individual travel guides, this is the smallest and most succinct. However, it doesn't lose much, and for anyone briefly heading out to the more distant locations from Narita, and who isn't going on the Tokyo-Hakone-Kyoto 6-day 7-night tour, but is traveling around on a rail pass or an "18-ken," this is a good choice. It's got enough information to get you started until you feel comfortable enough going w/o a guide, which is the goal of any traveler.
Hotels and Restaurants listed are the cheapest these folks could find. There are cheaper or other hotels just as cheap that they missed, but there are listings here that are not in either of the other two. In some areas the restaurants are listed by type, with "noodles" being just one category. If you want something else, it's listed, also. If you want expensive restaurants, these are easy to find. Sometimes the cheap ramen shops are not as obvious.
I think RG & LP have a great new competitor.
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