Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18152 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"In the same way that Time Out magazine can tell you more about what is happening culturally in the capital than any other publication, the city guides will give you the big picture on bars and clubs, galleries and museums, restaurants and services." - Sunday Times"

About the Author
Nicholas Coldicott has lived in Tokyo since 1998, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of a Tokyo-based creative agency. He was Consultant Editor for the previous Tokyo guide and has also written about Tokyo for the Japan Times, Tokion, Time and Cnet.

Customer Reviews

Get Lost With Time Out Tokyo
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.

Comprehensive, easy to use, focused - who could've thunk it?
I am usually less than impressed with Time Out - too concerned about being cool and hip; ocassionally preaching, sometimes overloaded with opinion.

This is not the case with Tokyo. Yes, the guide sometimes slips into over-casual tone of oh-so-self-aware urban cool, which can be annoying, but overall this is a major success.

I would say Time Out covers Tokyo better than Rough Guide Japan, by far the best guide to the country (where places OTHER than Tokyo are covered very well, and Hokkaido is just outstanding, but Tokyo chapter lacks punch and inspiration).

Eyewitness and Fodors, although more than adequate, are clearly behind on this front; Lonely Planet is just about OK, which is more than can be said about many of the LP guides.

Back to Time Out. I would say that maps could be better and some of the practicalities are sketchy, but overall description of the city, area by area, and why you would want to go there, are very good.

The guide, regrettably, overlooked the town of Narita, which, 40 miles away from Tokyo, is so much more than the location of Narita international airport, although the giant Tokyo is just too close and is steeling its thunder. Most of the other guides have a good description of the town and Narita has a good tourist office.

I found descriptions of restaurants good, but maybe too heavily biased towards foreign cuisine (why would anyone eat foreign food when visiting Japan, a paradise of gourmet adventures both cheap and expensive, is anybody's guess).

Hotel descriptions, I thought, were really among the most accurate. I have stayed in quite a few places in Tokyo and upon checking my experiences against this guide, I would say it is very reliable.

If you're only going to visit Tokyo, this is the natural choice. If you are touring Japan and have an all-country guide, this is still a book that you will not regret buying.

Occasionally useful, but mostly just pretentious
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".