Customer Reviews
Marvellous - you only need this book if you can use the JR Pass - By: Mr. DAVID Geer, 15 Jul 2008 
In fact you only this book period because it tells you how to get around as well as defining what there is to detain a rail travellerin any particular place. We found it absolutely brilliant. I left my other guide books at home & slowly discarded brochures from JNTO as largely redundant.
The phrasesin the back of the book were more helpful than a 3 month night school of Japanese 1 & the timetables are still fairly accurate. You can check these locally, on the internet before you leave, when you are there or have your nice Nagoya Hotel do that for you (Hotel Astria). All JR stations will help as well!
Back to the book however, what it doesn't tell you is really not worth knowing. We visited 2 listed steam attractions; the Locomotive Museumin Kyoto, impressive & the Senzu-Oigawa line even more so, including the singing conductor! Of the places it mentions, the Gold Leaf Museum is exactly as described down to the tea you will be served with tiny squares of gold leaf floatingin it. There is usually some little thing you do not recall from the book, such as a little demonstration of what gold leaf really is like, which make this almost the perfect guide book.
Truly leave the rest at home & seek out only the very special extras if you must, such as "Walksin Nara" though we thought the 2 main things the book recommended for Nara were quite enough really, after all the Giant Buddha & the Lantern Temple are both poles apart & it was a hot day!
Will definitely look for another edition when we are next able to return to Japan.
Invaluable when travelling by train - By: Dave, 06 May 2008 I've just been around Japan & this book is an absolute must for anyone wanting to do the same via the ultra-efficient train network. I managed to get round virtually all of it with this & a basic phrasebook with very little knowledge of the language.
The main section of this book is split by area, (eg Hokkaido, North, central & west Honshu etc.) then into two sub-sections; Route guide & City Guide. The Route section deals with how to get from one major city to another via the train network & the latter deals with what you can do when you get there. Most stations, large & small are covered on each line, with suggestions about when to stop off on your journey to takein the sights. The City guide covers most major cities & provides maps showing places to eat, stay, & see, as well as other useful things such as Internet Cafes, subway stations etc. (This section was not quite as useful as it sounded as the hotels listed are often more expensive than what you can get if you just pop into the local JTB branch foundin every city.) For all the local attractions, it also lists the opening times & price, & these (at the time of writing) are pretty accurate.
There are other sections as well either side of the main one: There is a detailed section on the history & culture, along with itineraries & recommendations, along with frameworks of what you might want to do depending on how long you'll be staying. There is also a guide to how to get hold of your invaluable Japan Rail Pass, which you'd have to be barmy not to use if you intend to be there for a week or more. (Tip: Don't bother with the green passes - the standard carriages are more than enough luxury compared to the trainsin the UK). Finally, there is a section at the back with numbers/dates/days of week etc. translations, useful phrases, & some basic timetables that can be used as a rule of thumb when getting from place to place.
The bookin general has an emphasis on the JR lines (because that's what the pass is valid for), but does have some information about connecting linesin order to get to recommended destinations along the way. It would be nicer if there was a little more information about the non-JR sections & what there is to do along them, but there is only so many pages & the text can only be made so small, & its already packed to the gills with interesting & useful info already.
Overall, thoroughly recommended. Especially now as its been updated (2007) I took many books with me & found this to be enough for almost all my needs, hence why my copy of this one is so dog-eared & the others are pretty much mint. :)
