LOCAL FOCUS - A Japan Guide to Nature, Culture, and Community, Vol. I: Kamakura and Enoshima is the first in a series of guidebooks featuring the charming towns of Japan, highlighting their unique natural environments and one-of-a-kind cultures and communities. It's a convenient and handy all-in-one English guidebook to offer non-Japanese access to the local community's experience of Japan more efficiently and meaningfully as if they had a local guide alongside them.
Vol. I features the historic town of Kamakura along with Enoshima, the island connected to the town by a bridge.
Both locations:
- are located only an hour from Tokyo by train
- are the venues for sailing competitions for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
- have a history made rich from samurai warriors and Zen culture
- have beaches and hiking trails・have a unique hybrid culture of old and new
LOCAL FOCUS is for those who:
- enjoy exploring small towns
- prefer to avoid crowded, touristy spots
- like stepping off the beaten path
- value well-crafted arts and time-tested traditions
- prefer smoke-free dining
- prefer organic, all-natural food
LOCAL FOCUS features:
- 210 pages in full colour
- over 100 places to visit hand-picked by the production team
- easy-to-read maps
- at-a-glance icons indicating places with "English menus available," "Vegetarian or vegan menu available", "Credit cards accepted," and "Barrier-free accessibility," etc.
- history, culture, food, local communities, and more
LOCAL FOCUS strongly places value on the nature, culture, and community of the area, and Local Focus is a careful compilation that presents Kamakura and Enoshima as the backdrop for daily living, featuring shops that are part of the everyday life of the production team, introducing the must-sees, -dos, and -eats, where they take their guests from overseas or recommend to travelling friends. We avoided any kind of sponsorship from the featured sites in order to introduce them with a fully unbiased approach and perspective.
Reviews
Exciting guide to help uncover even more to love in this wonderful city
"Now that I've had a few months with this guide, I have to say that the restaurants I've had the chance to visit so far have all been phenomenal. From traditional Japanese breakfast to high-quality tempura, the content here has definitely been carefully selected, and are almost all spots I wouldn't have likely discovered on my own."
The only Kakakura guide you will ever need
"This book presents a lot of great information in a concise, easy to read format. I started reading it a few hours ago and could not put it down. I already have so many pages bookmarked; map routes to follow, restaurants to visit, and places to shop. This book really has it all! "
A labour of love produces a great guidebook
"There are very helpful maps and descriptions that could only come from people who are intimately familiar with their surroundings. If you plan on travelling to Kamakura, and I have a number of times, this guidebook will be a great companion to take along on your journey."
The perfect guide to Kamakura
"It is not your ordinary guide. The writers provide a lot of interesting history of Kamakura and the surrounding area and some really cool places to visit as well. Many of these places are off the beaten path and only known by locals. The restaurants in this book are owned by some wonderful people who care about their craft, their city, the environment, the food they make, and the people to whom they serve such great food. Come visit Kamakura and let this book be your guide. Be careful because it may make you want to move here."
Great guidebook of Kamakura
"I was looking for a good guide book for my friend coming to Japan and came across this great book. I'd recommend it to all the travellers visiting Japan as it contains very useful pieces of information including history, restaurants, and places you should visit."
About the authors
Over a span of twenty years, while working in public relations, Mariko Miki hosted a nature program for swimming with wild dolphins in the ocean. She established The Blue Co., Ltd. to help spread awareness of lifestyles that are harmonic with nature, and is organizing cultural events and workshops, producing environmentally-friendly products, publishing books.
Brought up in Tokyo, Sae Yamane is an editor and writer on the topics of travel, food, and personalities, and is also a Bach Flower Essence practitioner. She runs a small cafe located close to a beautiful beach in Hayama.
Norie Fukuda holds a Master's degree in architecture and is also a writer and translator who works on a wide range of publications including such diverse topics as Japanese cuisine, art, design, and health. For this guidebook, LOCAL FOCUS, Norie both translated and copy edited all of the material from Japanese text. She is also the translator of a book on Eastern medicine by Dr Katsumi Ishihara called The Mechanism of Life-Illness as a Part of Life's Journey (2019), Honeycomb Tube Architecture Technology, Shinkenchiku (2009), Honeycomb Dynamics Architecture - Steel Honeycomb Tube Architecture Designs Inspired by Fractal Geometry (2008), and a 2-part series bilingual guidebook on architecture in America authored by Masayuki Fuchigami, A Guide to Contemporary Architecture in America, Vol. 1 Western U.S.A. (2005) and A Guide to Contemporary Architecture in America, Vol. 2 Eastern U.S.A. (2006) and is also the translator of subtitles for NHK on-demand programs and several independent documentary film artists.
