This is wonderful book full of great pictures, fun facts and interesting snippits. It is very entertaining and remains interesting thru out. It is well written with the American Traveler in mind.
Major attractions of each city/region are covered. It covers a lot of area and provides a great overview without getting to deep into any one place. It gives pricing information and as such is well done. Interesting historical and modern facts are given about locations adding to the fun.

I used it on a 2006 trip to Japan and found it very useful. It was especially helpful in the preliminary planning stages of our journey.

For a more encompassing travel guide, I recommend "Gateway to Japan" and "Exploring Japan". These three along with a common phrases book or electronic translator should be about all someone would need to have an enjoyable trip!

I wouldn't call this a "travel guide" so much as a beautiful little glance at Japan. It would be wholly unusable for someone actually trying to get around an unfamiliar area- I suggest a Lonely Planet instead.

This guide book is the most current and much better than others out there! The pictures are not dated (you could tell by the eighties hairdos in other guide books) and DK Eyewitness travel are usually better than other ones out there. The only thing is that it's more focus on Tokyo than other cities, so if you are looking into Osaka and other cities, it's not as detail as Tokyo!

This series is simply one of the best travel guide series around today. I have used at least 10 other guides from this same series and have found them to be comprehensive, easy to use and up-to-date. You cannot go wrong with this book and some internet web research. Definitely worth every penny and then some.

I love this book. I looked at several other books, but they were not up-to-date. This is a great book for anyone planning to visit Japan. It is arranged by geographical district and has beautiful maps and/or pictures on every page. It is extremely informative and no matter what you want to know, you will probably find it in this book. I'm now using the book to document my photographs taken in various areas of Japan. The only drawback to this book is that, because of all the pictures and maps, it's printed on glossy paper and is quite heavy. I took it with me every day on a Japan tour, but kept it in my carry-on for reference. I found it too heavy to carry in my purse while walking on a tour.

If you're going to Japan I recommend this book for 95% of your travelling pleasure and information. It may not have EVERYTHING about Japan or be as detailed as other guides, but the true point of a guide is to be concise and accurate.

It's not too large so that you're carrying around a dictionary which hurts to walk with; makes you embarrassed to show; or vividly display's to the country that you're a tourist. It's not too small that you have to squint to read; is easy to lose; or hard to find the information you require.

The layout is precise, colourful, and common-in-sense. The chapters each have an apparent colour and mark a different region of Japan. Within each region are the major cities present plus some notable other areas (eg: Hot Springs, Mountains, and Beaches). There are plenty of pictures, diagrams, charts, important information sheets, etc, throughout the book. (eg: each region has a breakdown map of cities/notable places). Within the major cities, there are landmarks, attractions, and neat notable nooks mentioned throughout. Everything is followed by an appropriately concise paragraph. This is how it should be to me: A brief description of what you are going to see so that you do not have your nose buried in the book when you should be viewing the sites and yet still have a background to what you are viewing.

I think every guide book should have many pictures, maps, etc, so that you can help visually reference yourself, which you will need to do in Japan. There is so much packed together in this country that it's easy to get lost. There are pictures literally on almost every page of this book, which provide excellent landmarks for your travels. The maps are not overwhelming; they only display the required information.

I obtained 15+ guide books and maps during my travel to Japan, however this one book was the reference I carried with me everywhere I went. Until you tour Japan often you are going to want a book like this one for everywhere you go.

This book is filled with good general travel info. There is so much to see in this amazing country, you could fill volumes, but this book is filled with enough usable info to get you to some great sites. When searching for a travel book on Japan, this is the one I chose and it was a good choice.

I recently bought this book and went to Japan for 7 days and thought overall that this is an excellent book. The survival guide is a must read and covers a LOT of stuff.

I used certain places mentioned in the book about Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.
I could easily figure out what I wanted to do and what NOT to do.

As with any travel book, you should get a detailed brochure when you actually get to the place of interest. This book is very good at giving an overall picture of the place.
Highly recommended.

Beautifully written and illustrated. I really like the part about Japanese customs and manners. It has been very helpful.

I lived in Japan for two years and I took a couple of guides with me. I love this one. It has beautiful pictures, lots of facts, and contact information for hotels and restaurants (although I think the internet is the best place to find hotels because it is more updated). Some attractions are especially treated in this guide with diagrams and cross-sections to explain the whole experience. It even mentioned my little town! This is the guide I bought for my sister when she came to visit! It's great!