Let's Go Japan 1st Ed

Rating:
Summary: No better than Lonely Planet's book
Review: I recently travelled to Kyoto, Hiroshima and Tokyo after buying both this book and "Lonely Planet Japan" in Spring of 2004. While I found the energy of this book to be superior to the LP and better able to answer the "what's there to eat in Kyoto?" - type questions, the writing style of "Let's Go" is simply atrocious. Most of the eating options that were featured were simply noodle fill-up joints. What happens when you had ramen yesterday? The fawning over their favorite ryokan in Tokyo (the ONLY unfriendly place in my trip) is unjustified. I found LP much more useful in getting around the cities I visited, although neither book offered much help in the How to Get Cash at Night in Japan category. LP was also better for pre-trip planning. My advice is to grab the Fodor's / Frommer's guide when it comes out next.

Rating:
Summary: Save money; Travel Cheaply!
Review: Let's Go Japan fills the same niche for traveling as Rough Guide Japan (RG), Lonely Planet Japan (LP), and the older Moon Guide Japan. However, it's the smallest and lightest and leaves out most of the higher priced hotels and ryokan as well as out-of-the-way places away from the core areas.

It doesn't have as many places as either RG or LP, but it has more than anyone is going to get to in one trip. It also has a few that neither of the others have such as Fukushima City and Nagatoro in Saitama. The maps are on a par with either RG or LP for detail, but these are bilingual; both Japanese and Romaji are on the maps without having to turn to a separate list on a different page. The pages are also divided like LP's with black edges with the name of the region, making finding a section easier.

The back page lists all the maps in the book for easy access. The front pages are 2 maps of Tokyo trains/subways and 1 map of the eastern slopes of Kyoto around Kiyomizu Temple to Ginkakuji. Access couldn't be much easier.

Information about each place is given but is minimal. This guide is to get you to a place and into a hotel. If you want stories, pictures, and history, buy a Fodors or Frommers. If you're an individual traveler who can pick up this information from the ticket counter or information booth as he/she goes, why carry it with you?

However, there are interesting boxes scattered throughout with different factoids about the area that you normally wouldn't come across in any guide or book, such as the "Masters of the Onsen Universe" challenge in Beppu, or the "Sakuda Gold & Silver Leaf Company" in Kanazawa.

Of the 3 (Moon apparently gave up) individual travel guides, this is the smallest and most succinct. However, it doesn't lose much, and for anyone briefly heading out to the more distant locations from Narita, and who isn't going on the Tokyo-Hakone-Kyoto 6-day 7-night tour, but is traveling around on a rail pass or an "18-ken," this is a good choice. It's got enough information to get you started until you feel comfortable enough going w/o a guide, which is the goal of any traveler.

Hotels and Restaurants listed are the cheapest these folks could find. There are cheaper or other hotels just as cheap that they missed, but there are listings here that are not in either of the other two. In some areas the restaurants are listed by type, with "noodles" being just one category. If you want something else, it's listed, also. If you want expensive restaurants, these are easy to find. Sometimes the cheap ramen shops are not as obvious.

I think RG & LP have a great new competitor.

Rating:
Summary: Let's NOT Go to Japan with this guide
Review: Let's Go's first crack at a Japan guide book leaves all the others way behind crying in their dust. Japan is feared as inaccessible because everyone believes that it is expensive and has a huge language barrier (the lowest English ability in Asia!) which makes it impossible to travel here. This guide solves these problems for the budget traveler! It simply outlines the best way to do Japan on a budget. And with the bilingual maps you can say good-bye to your language barrier. These maps are a 1000 times better than Lonely Planets, Rough Guides and Frommers put together. In a country where very few streets if any have names, and very little is written in english, these maps are like a ray of shining light on the incomprehensible signs that are everywhere in Japan. Don't worry about having confusing conversation with a local to find your way any longer, just show them the detailed map, point to where you want to go, and both you and the local will understand each other completely. If I could... I'd give this guide 10 stars!! It has literally saved me hundreds of dollars in travel and confusion, and I live in Tokyo and can speak Japanese! For non-speakers, do not even think about buying different Japan guide, this is the one you want!

Rating:
Summary: Beats all the others - the bilingual maps are incredible!!!
Review: Let's Go's first crack at a Japan guide book leaves all the others way behind crying in their dust. Japan is feared as inaccessible because everyone believes that it is expensive and has a huge language barrier (the lowest English ability in Asia!) which makes it impossible to travel here. This guide solves these problems for the budget traveler! It simply outlines the best way to do Japan on a budget. And with the bilingual maps you can say good-bye to your language barrier. These maps are a 1000 times better than Lonely Planets, Rough Guides and Frommers put together. In a country where very few streets if any have names, and very little is written in english, these maps are like a ray of shining light on the incomprehensible signs that are everywhere in Japan. Don't worry about having confusing conversation with a local to find your way any longer, just show them the detailed map, point to where you want to go, and both you and the local will understand each other completely. If I could... I'd give this guide 10 stars!! It has literally saved me hundreds of dollars in travel and confusion, and I live in Tokyo and can speak Japanese! For non-speakers, do not even think about buying different Japan guide, this is the one you want!

Rating:
Summary: Let's NOT Go to Japan with this guide
Review: When I buy a travel book I expect accurate, useful information. I recently used this book on a trip to Kobe. Not only did the book not mention clearly how restricted are bank hours and how difficult it is to find a bank that handles foreign exchange, but the one bank in the Sannomiya area that was mentioned doesn't exist at the location indicated. The restaurant recommendations are typical for this sort of budget guide that assumes that you want to eat mostly Western food. It did have one good recommendation for a Kobe beef restaurant but didn't give its exact location, only the neighborhood. I had to ask some Japanese colleagues for help because it was only listed on a Japanese language web site. Finally, one of the best places to go in Kobe is a famous hot spring town called Arima. The guidebook makes no mention of Arima though every Japanese seems to know about it and recommend it. The book seems to generally ignore hot springs (or onsen in Japanese) which is strange because they are some of the most scenic and beautiful parts of the country. I didn't use the guide for other cities, but based on my experience in Kobe it fell far short of my expectations. The index also is not comprehensive. No guidebook is perfect, but there have to be better ones than this.