Tokyo

Citiescape

by Andrew Bender

Uniform, busy, monolithic. That's Tokyo at first glance. But scratch just below the surface and you'll find a city crackling with energy and a jumble of contrasts. Tokyo is both cos-players and salarymen, reticent and brazen, safe and exotic, gracious and unremitting- thoroughly engrossing and demanding to be seen.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Japan, Reference, Asia, Japanese Literature

93 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1993

About the author

Andrew Bender is an award-winning travel and food writer known for his Seat 1A travel site on Forbes and contributions to publications including the Los Angeles Times and Lonely Planet. Writing since the late 1990s, he has authored over three dozen Lonely Planet guidebooks and won the Eureka! Travel Writing Award for his coverage of California’s deserts. With an MBA from Wharton and a Master’s in East Asian Studies, Andrew is also a cross-cultural consultant and tour leader for Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese and French, has lived in Japan, France, and the Netherlands, and now resides near Los Angeles, blending travel expertise with cultural insight.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ideal, compact, focused text on one of the largest cities in the world. The itineraries were particularly useful; the breakout of various neighborhoods; and the attention to small details. An entire section on day trips outside of Tokyo ensures you're well set with just this guide if visiting the Tokyo area. Highly recommended.

[Constantin · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHat an amazing little book!

A ton of information about what to do and where to go, even more than I could find on google.
Plus I love the special touch of adding information about culture, statistics, a directory and some quotes and phrases in it.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two complaints: this book praises the National History Museum way too much. I make it a rule to visit these museums on trips, but this one was so austere, as my husband says, "it made samurai swords boring." Don't know why thy guide books praise it so much!

Next complaint is the lack of info on DisneySea. OK, so Lonely Planet readers don't visit Disney...But they should visit this one. Such a great intro to Japanese culture! Disney kawaii, Japanese hospitality... It was great.

Two saving graces to make up for this: They suggest the restaurant Sometaro. Yes. And on the tiny Disney section, they suggest you be wise with fastpasses. You need a whole strategy!

The last thing. I hope this book is too old to include TeamLab, an immersive digital installation. If it isn't, well...It's just a good thing I don't know. It was truly a highlight.

All in all, a good starting point to plan, but do research online, too.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid travel guide with maps, neighborhood-grouped attractions, and personalized descriptions of what makes Tokyo such a great place to visit. It lacks some practical tips, however, about museum entry times, ticket prices, how to navigate public transportation, and example itineraries (i.e. 36 hrs, 3 days, 1 week example plans). Still, a readable and fairly comprehensive guide despite the fact that it seems to assume readers will turn to the Internet and other sources for whatever information they don't provide.

[Alan Bach]

This guide hypes up some locations that I found were nothing special in my one trip to Tokyo so far, but it also provides recommendations of some places I've never heard of before from any of the online sources I've perused. I like that the book ended with some general travel tips for visiting Japan which by now I mostly know but would have been helpful previously, although it definitely feels like foreigners writing the book, including the lack of context of some of the essential vocab.

We'll see how well it stacks up overall after I make future trips to Tokyo.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most Lonely Planet guides, this book offers a lot of excellent information. Sometimes the focus of sections doesn't align completely with my interests/things I want to see and do, but a book like this has to cater to the majority, and anything extra I need I can look up online easily enough. The maps are helpful and the book isn't too bulky or heavy if you plan to carry it around with you.

[Anna Conneally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much to say, really useful guide divided into neighbourhoods of Tokyo. I had this on my Kindle and would have a look each night to help me to decide activities/restaurants etc. for the next day. Some of the information is slightly outdated, but I think that's to be expected really. Definitely worth the purchase if travelling to Tokyo.

[Maria Stallmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

hehe, technically not a book but i found it on a Bath pavement on a frosty night and I AM SO EXCITED TO BE IN JAPAN IN TWO WEEKS TIME - if Tokyo on its own is such a multi-faceted, buzzing city, full of food and culture and craft shops, god knows how fantastic the rest of the country must be!

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish there was a lonely planet for families and kids :-(

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good in-depth look at this amazing city

[Ulrika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kompakt men få bilder.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so excited.

[Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent guide for Tokyo. I was reading this on the plane to Tokyo and it helped a lot during my stay in the city

[Jessica Greenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guide is just alright.

[Hunter Bevis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful to find interesting spots to visit while in town.

[YesGM16 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lonely Planet is probably the best middle ground for travel guides. Since Tokyo is so large and dynamic can be difficult to cover it all but this does it well

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great guide when wandering Tokyo for the first time.

[Manuel Chiofi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Lonely Planet guides. There's everything you need, clearly explained. The Tokyo city guide is no exception.
There aren't many pictures, but this is how Lonely Planet works. You have plenty of maps anyway, so you won't get lost. With the kindle edition you also have the chance to open the Google Maps app from within the book.

[Gerald Kinro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful guide. While the authors briefly mentioned the baggage courier system in the city, they could have explained more. The "Tak yubin" system will take baggage from airport to hotel, hotel to hotel, and hotel to airport. Counters for receiving and sending are easily accessible at both airports.

[Natalie Lamb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent travel guide and I particularly liked the accommodation section. But I found myself frequently having to search backwards and forwards for specific terms that were used. I also felt like it would have been better with fewer items and more pictures but I was using the guide for inspiration rather than help while there so maybe that's why. Overall I added an extra 3 or so items to my to do list but not a lot compared to what I had already found on the internet.

[Viv · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think as far as guidebooks go it was Lonely Planet-tastic and covered all of highlights of Tokyo. What I did find useful was being able to have it on my kindle so accessing maps or realising "oh we have time to kill in suburb X what do we do" Especially since I lacked a phone to search for things. So, if you're taking your e-reader somewhere, definitely pop some guidebooks on there.

[Lmcwil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was my constant companion throughout my 8 days in Tokyo. Indispensable.

[Michael Quirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

the format of the maps could use some work. i took an extra map and was fine, but would have been annoyed at using just the map in the book.

[Winna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. I used this book as part of the material to write Ai.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent yet not as good as the Kyoto guide.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-4 stars; a good quick overview, including a breadth of topics (from sights to see, festival dates, language basics, customs, history, etc.) very well organized.

[Danielle Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

I haven't read this book yet but amazon is making me write a review so here it is for now

[Rei A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really well-organized with a very (what feels like) comprehensive overview, then details of Tokyo's districts. Hope to see and do some of the things mentioned in here when I go on my trip!

[Karrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guide was amazing for my trip to Tokyo. The walking itineraries were awesome. The food recommendations were really good and I had an easy time navigating.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the books, articles and videos I read for our trip to Tokyo this was the best single source of info.