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Title: Frommer's Japan by Beth Reiber ISBN: 0-7645-6554-0 Publisher: Frommer Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Informative and Reliable
Comment: I've been living in Japan for six months now, using this book to plan a number of trips to various places. So far, it hasn't let me down once; recommended eateries and accommodation have been excellent, and the guides to attractions have been accurate and helpful.
It is targeted at people who speak no Japanese, and who are interested in seeing the tourist sights. If you're interested in hiking around the bits of Japan that no tourists visit, you'd be better off with a different book. However, I don't see that as a flaw of this book. It does what it sets out to do extremely well.
Rating: 1
Summary: Maybe I can burn it?
Comment: I bought the book for a general overview of places in Japan, and was very disappointed. If you're going outside of major cities, information is very minimal, even skipping some cities with populations of 1 million people. The entire Okinawa island chain was left out as well! In short, this book is terrible!
Rating: 2
Summary: For a real Japan experience, look elsewhere...
Comment: Although this book is filled with helpful information, for example, "recommended tours if you have 1 day, 3 days, or 5 days", or "Top 10 Japanese experiences", the (rich, culturally inept) woman who wrote this book intended this for a very specific demographic. This causes a whole plethora of problems when trying to use the book, particularly if you are young, can speak some Japanese, or would like a Real Japanese Experience. Why?
1. Reviews for restaurants and hotels seem to focus on restaurants that serve Western food and speak English (how dare they speak Japanese in Japan!) and Western style hotels that have beds, rather than Japanese styled tatami mat rooms and futons. The humbling experience of entering a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant and pointing at other people's dishes or the pictures on the menu and eating foods you've never seen or heard of-or staying at a fairly inexpensive hotel sleeping on the floor in a futon-is top notch! I felt this book really neglected to mention a lot of these opportunities for cultural experiences, and I found that frustrating when looking for ideas.
2."And what good is a book with no pictures?" Alice wondered...Many of the best ways to get excited about a place is to first see pictures. There are very few, if any pictures in this book.
3. She refers to the Japanese language as "symbols".
4. In addition, rather than giving the Japanese characters for the cities, towns, restaurants and hotels she recommends you visit on that same page (this is very helpful because English translations are not always written, but you can easily make sure you're in the right place simply by comparing the book with the sign), she puts them all in an appendix at the back for inconvenient referencing. Including both the Japanese character and Japanese pronounciation of each location is extremely helpful.
Overall, the book will assist you in having a wonderful English tour of Japan, but I think you may miss out on some great Japanese experiences that do not require a lot of money (which many of her suggestions do require). Of course, this will involve a little bit of work and discomfort on the part of the tourist (although by no means Japanese fluency). Nothing compares to the satisfaction of having successfully ordered yakisoba in broken Japanese!
Bottom Line: This book is better used as supplemental reading to another book, although the beneficial descriptions of must-sees in Japan that are the most helpful in this book can really be found in just about every other guide book.
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Title: Fodor's Japan, 16th Edition : The Guide for All Budgets, Completely Updated, with Color Photos and Many Maps by Fodor's ISBN: 067900890X Publisher: Fodor's Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Lonely Planet Japan (Lonely Planet. Japan, 8th Ed) by Chris Rowthorne, Andrew Bender, John Ashburne, Sara Benson, David Atkinson, Craig McLachlan ISBN: 1740591623 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.99 |
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Title: Japan by Rail: Includes Rail Route Guide and 29 City Guides by Ramsey Zarifeh ISBN: 1873756232 Publisher: Globe Pequot Pr Pub. Date: 12 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook (LONELY PLANET JAPANESE PHRASEBOOK) by Yoshi Abe ISBN: 086442616X Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Frommer's Tokyo by Beth Reiber ISBN: 0764565524 Publisher: Frommer Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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