From Antarctica to Zimbabwe, if you're going there, chances are Lonely Planet
has been there first. With a pithy and matter-of-fact writing style, these
guides are guaranteed to calm the nerves of first-time world travellers, while
still listing off-the-beaten-path finds sure to thrill even the most jaded
globetrotters. Lonely Planet has been perfecting its guidebooks for nearly 30
years and as a result, has the experience and know-how similar to an older
sibling's "been there" advice. The original backpacker's bible, the
LP series has recently widened its reach. While still giving insights for the
low-budget traveler, the books now list a wide range of accommodations and
itineraries for those with less time than money.
This thorough guide is the perfect companion for discovering the classical
and contemporary delights of Japan. The more than 170 maps have keys in both
English and Japanese script and there's a 30-page arts section covering
everything from calligraphy to rock music and an enticingly descriptive guide
to the joys of Japanese cuisine. Whether your interests lean toward culture
and history or the great outdoors, this book will get you there. --Kathryn
True --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of
this title.
Book Description
The electric chaos of Tokyo or the tranquil wilderness of Hokkaido? Osaka's
street culture or Kyoto's shrines and Zen gardens? From Ginza's bright lights
to the 88 Temples of Shikoku, with this guide and a bullet train you can see
it all.
• Japanese script throughout • extensive menu glossary covering all
styles of Japanese cuisine • wide range of sleeping options from opulent
ryokan to capsule hotels • over 150 maps, most with Japanese script to aid
navigation • illustrated special section on art and architecture •
language chapter to help you tell your setto from your sento
Book Description
They don't come any cooler than Tokyo. By turns hi-tech, lo-fi, conventional
and outrageous, Tokyo is a city that shouldn't work but does. Promenade with
the goths of Harajuku, feast your eyes on the blazing lights of Ginza, and
unwind in an intimate izakaya. For a city as stylish as Tokyo, you need a
smart and streetwise guide. This is it.
• INDULGE YOUR APPETITE in the finest local restaurants with our Japanese
food chapter
• CATCH THE BULLET TRAIN with confidence, with 11 detailed color maps,
and routes and prices from Akihabara to Ueno Zoo
• DO THE SHINTO SHUFFLE with walking tours to temples and shrines,
gardens and palaces
• PICK UP THE PULSE of the city with our entertainment listings and City
Life chapter
• REFRESH YOUR SENSES with easy day-trips to onsen, temple towns and the
famed Mt Fuji
From the Publisher
Introducing Tokyo
When you first step off the Yamanote Line, you'll find a tangle of sounds
and stars and telephone wires. Iridescent tiles on a nearby building will
glisten, and bells and whistles will filter through the din of the crowd as
the automatic sliding doors of a pachinko parlour half a block away open and
close intermittently.
If it's morning, which it probably is if jetlag nudged you awake with the
birds, you'll be swarmed on all sides by some of the 20 million people who are
on their way to somewhere - quickly, quickly. They will be from one of Tokyo's
23 wards or from suburbs that are featureless or beautiful. They will be bank
presidents or janitors or children in school uniforms. They will be patient
but a little tired, knowing that come evening they will retrace their steps
and reverse their routes - if you happened to be standing in the same spot,
you'd be moved back onto the train with them, swept and rolled by an
incredible wave.
If you're lucky enough to spend a few more days here, you'll realize that
all this madness is as predictable as a lunch bell, and that it's only the
surface of this wonderful city, which has as many bars with booths and soft
cushions as it does karaoke machines. This is Tokyo's exquisite complexity - a
horn in your ear and a hand on your shoulder, the knowledge that you can, if
you choose, be alone in any crowd, but if you drop your wallet, three
strangers will pick it up.
But there's no time to consider this. You're off into the city, pulled by
the escalators and jostled by anonymous elbows. Tall buildings appear, each
one a stack of activity marked by a sign to be read from top to bottom, a sign
that may be composed of several spiny scripts and perhaps decorated with a
patch of English. A few more steps and you happen upon two rust-red wooden
posts separated by a few car's lengths and joined high above by a cross-beam
of the same color. A neighborhood shrine in the middle of all this? You walk
beneath the torii (gate to the shrine) and up to a small weathered structure
where everything is quiet except for the well-fed cats who live under the
wooden steps. Miraculously, in a city of millions, no-one seems to be around.
You leave and, as you go to step back onto the street, you forget to look
to the right and are nearly run over by an old man riding a bicycle at
breakneck speed while puffing on a cigarette. Slowing as he's just past you,
he turns around to make sure you're okay, then laughs and pedals on.
This is just 20 minutes, a beginning. There are stairs up ahead on the
corner, just across from the chestnut stand, that lead down to the subway.
These could take you to a train that carries you back to the station where you
started. Or like a magic rabbit hole, it could transport you to other
neighbourhoods where sumo wrestlers eat lunch or grandmothers buy rice or shops
sell plastic spaghetti and sushi. And all of this says that Tokyo is about
possibility, the real reason more than a quarter of Japan lives here. Though
fire and earthquake and economic recession occasionally threaten the
well-being of the city, there are steps up ahead, there's someplace else to go
- quickly, quickly.
These guides can be very useful for
travellers,
teachers, and workers in Japan or planning to travel, visit, or work in the near
future.
For more
information about living in Japan or working in Japan. There are many topics
covered in the Japan section at the forum read more.
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where you want to go and would like to read more about other countries! Then
you can try travel South Korea