DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Japan

Fantastic book that breaks down all the regions of Japan plus some of the larger cities in more detail. The pictures are fantastic!! The Survival Guide in the back is not to be missed. Some incredible tid-bits in there that really help you understand the cultural differences in Japan and how to act so you don't look like the clueless tourist. A lot of "ah-ha's" in that section if you read it while you are in Japan. We took this book with us everyday and really helped us to prioritize what to see, plus to know when things were open, etc.

I love the DK travel books. They are filled with pictures, cultural information, and place descriptions. I'm a visual person, and I really appreciate the many, many photos in the DK books. I can look at the pictures of the shrines and decide if it's worth it to me to go out of my way to visit, or if I should stick to the beaten path. The descriptions, hours, pricing, transportation options, and restaurant info is also very helpful.

The DK Eyewitness Guides are excellent in most respects: beautiful color illustrations, succinct yet comprehensive descriptions, and useful advice. However, they are quite heavy and difficult to carry about. In the long run, I would leave these at home and take a lighter book with me. They do look good on the bookshelf as a record of one's travels and reference guide.

We are currently using this guide book to plan our first trip to Japan. It's is thorough & well organized. Being that we are unfamiliar with Japan & the thousands of places to visit, the lists, maps, & attractive photographs help steer you in the right direction. In the past, we mainly used online guides (lonely planet, trip advisor, & blogs) to plan our international travel. Now that I see all the info & locations I have not come across online, it makes me realize that printed books are also essential. I love that the maps are organized by not only major cities, but the areas within the city (e.g. Northern Tokyo, Central Tokyo, etc.). Having the sites plotted on the map is something that very helpful for efficient planning of multiple sites per day. The book also includes rough maps of major museums & many street level maps.

Used this last March and found the practical information at the back of the book spot on. My sister-in-law is going in May this year and so I sent the updated edition to her and she loved the visuals and the advice on preparation for the trip to Japan. She was most interested in the cultural tidbits and the customs. She wanted to be cognizant of dos and don'ts so she would be a welcome traveler. Although she's going on a tour, she will have some free time to plan side trips and this book was the ticket for her to choose those places of particular interest to her.

I have owned many DK Eyewitness Travel Guide. In terms of content, this book is not as good as the DK guides of other country/places. For example, the content is very old (the latest update is probably 3-5 years ago). Even for important sites, the description is quite short (sometimes even shorter than then free brochures that come with the admission tickets).

This book is jam packed with great historical tidbits. When I was traveling in Japan my friend's dad is a Japanese history teacher at a local university and he said that the book had some amazing facts in it that a lot of tour books leave out. He was impressed by its contents so at the end of my trip, I gave it to him so he could use it for his students!

If you plan to visit Japan I recommend this book. In fact I found it very useful when I was in Tokyo and Kyoto. It describes the top places to visit in each city and its surroundings, and most importantly how to get there. The photos and descriptions are superb.

I like this kind of guides that indicate the main sights and photos for identifying them. The order of appearance and the suggestions are good and useful. There are no indications about price of tickets and that kind of stuff (you have it in the Lonely Planet guide). intuitive and useful. Good quality product.

- Das Buch ist i.a. sehr oberflächlich und nicht ausführlich genug. - Karten sind z. T. gar nicht zu gebrauchen. - Infos gerne Mal veraltet. - Nachdem ich mit meinen japanischen Kollegen z. T. völlig unterschiedliche Erfahrungen gemacht hatte, habe ich Teile des Buches denen vorgelegt. Vieles wurde mit Unglauben, Kopfschütteln oder Gelächter bedacht. Als Vorbereitung auf einen Japan Besuch ungeeigent, als Tourführer vor Ort noch viel mehr.

Great travel guide - easy search navigation to specific points of interest. Have been using DK - Eyewitness guides for several years now for my trips. Maps and tips are great for planning and whilst on tour... keep up the high standard!!

We have just returned from a two week trip to Japan. During our travels we used used the Eyewitness guide all the time to identify places of interest that we could visit. It not only provided extremely accurate details about all of the places but also gave very useful information on best means of transport to get to the various locations. We also liked the location maps which enabled us to plan our visit schedules. The book is very easy to follow, made of strong hard to damage pages and has flaps back and front which you can use to bookmark your locations. All in all an invaluable purchase for visitors to Japan. Interestingly we noticed a number of other travellers with the same book.

Si vous achetez ce livre en pensant qu'il s'agit s'un guide façon Routard ou Lonely Planet, passez votre chemin. Il donne juste un aperçu des différentes régions et villes du Japon sans s'y attarder, ce qui ne vous sert pas à grand chose une fois sur le terrain.