Product Description

Discover Tokyo

Watch them slice tuna like samurai at Tsukiji Central Fish Market
Slip into a cotton-fresh yukata (robe) in your peaceful ryokan
Find out why it's important to 'refuse' a gift
Sink countless thimbles of sake in a Golden Gai drinking den

In This Guide:

The leading guide to Tokyo
Resident Tokyo authors uncover over 40 top new restaurants
Special chapter on manga, robots and gadgets, and where to find it all
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196380 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781741047882
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Best for curious and independent-minded travelers' --Wall Street Journal

Customer Reviews

Reformatted, Not Revised?
I found the previous edition of the Lonely Planet Tokyo city guide handy as an independent traveler. Unfortunately, the new edition appears to be a reformatted version of the 2006 edition, rather than an update.

For example:

pp. 62-63 - The guide bizarrely claims that the Ghibli Museum is located in Ginza, when it is in fact located in a western suburb of Tokyo (the correct information appears on p. 112).

p. 64 - The guide fails to note that the hours for tourists to visit the Tsukiji fish market have been officially restricted since April 2008. Incredibly, the lead author of the guide wrote in his blog about this very issue in April 2008 (http://www.gadling.com/2008/04/05/big-in-japan-tokyos-top-tourist-attraction-is-limiting-access/) - so he certainly knows about the new rules.

p. 125 - The hours for the Edo Tokyo Museum - apparently copied from the previous edition without the editors verifying them - are wrong and have been so for at least a year.

p. 242 - The guide describes Passnet cards as an option for train and subway travel. Passnet cards haven't been sold since January 2008 and haven't worked since March 2008.

Much as I would like to give the new edition of the guide a more positive review, I can't do so; a shiny new cover doesn't offset the unrevised content. Given that Lonely Planet's website says the next edition won't be out until 2011, there is no excuse for not having updated basic information in the guide.

Numerous Mistakes, Not Entirely Interesting Either
I waited about a week after getting a few other books on traveling Japan for this new edition of the Tokyo City Guide. Within the first few pages of the book, I noticed numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and even some pictures that were clearly mislabeled. It's not a huge flaw, but I don't really take its suggestions quite as seriously as seemingly no one looked over the book for mistakes. If a casual reader can notice a few surface mistakes in a few minutes of reading, I wonder what an editor could find as inaccurate within a few minutes. The other reviewer found some mistakes himself.

I highly suggest either the Tokyo guide from Frommers or even the complete Japan guide from Frommers. They have blown everything else I have read on Japan out of the water.

any guide but this one, which makes me sad because I normally like LP
This is a very bad and inaccurate re-tread of the previous Kara Knafelc authored edition (2003), which itself was inaccurate and highly disorganized. Poor editing and fact checking throughout, and even maps are out of date. The new cross-metro and JR Lines PassMo card information is not included (and old information on a discontinued card is), although it has been online since March 2007.

It looks like LP has a dud on the top destination for those who first experience Japan (Tokyo), which makes me sad.

As of March 2009, I have to say "any guide but this one."