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Travel What is THE BEST travel guide for Japan?

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StevenFirst

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Hello -- in asking the above-referenced question, I found Japan Forum. It came up on Google. This question was already posed on here. However, that discussion may be dated, and I wished to present the question again. Returning back to the question and the feedback it originally generated, the consensus was that LONELY PLANET was the best guide available. Now, I plan to investigate FODOR'S and THE ROUGH GUIDE in addition to PLANET. What does the forum think? Thanks.
 
Now I'm all depressed contemplating the countless number of people whose trips to Japan must have been ruined by using the second best travel guide.....
 
In all honesty, I would rather use the internet to plan your Japan trip.
There are many great sites and blogs out there plus you can contact the people who are running these platforms if you have any questions. That doesn't work with any of the guidebooks you've mentioned.

Very popular these days is: japan-guide.com
 
Hi Steven,

Like zooming, I would suggest you use the internet. But please don't ask questions like, what is the best place place to visit in Kyoto- you can go to travel advisor for that... lol

I would start by figuring our your must visit list, then ask aroundﾂ…. For the big sites like kyoto, you will be well covered by ANY guidebook. Then if you are going of the beaten path (lonely planet's tern from years ago), do not rely on lonely planet. Look at trip advisor, google and ask questions on forums.

Hope that helps
 
The best travel guide in Japan, is a Japanese friend. I'm sorry I could not resist. But besides that, Lonely Planet and Rough Guide won't be that much different.. and I am talking from experience.
 
For some ideas, Kind of a video guide, you can search Traveling on a Dime Japan, or just go to this link below and watch the many videos. You'd be surprised the places you can go, things you can do and see, and prices don't have to be outlandish to have a great adventure in Japan. This guy Bryan, from Traveling on a Dime, opened my eyes a bit about the awesome travel opportunities in Japan.

There is no one perfect guide, or best guide. The only real guide is experience. Japan is a very safe country, so you won't have to worry much about being taken advantage of, or robbed, or being eaten by a lion, etc. All you need is some imagination, maybe a few hints about what is possible, and let your google fingers do the walking.

[video=youtube;gnkFzpfXT3g]
 


Seriously, please quit using the forum as nothing more than a place to advertise links to outside stuff. We all include useful links to outside material from time to time, but that is the sum total of your participation here. A forum is a community of people interacting with each other, learning from each other, and getting to know one another. We're not just a flat spot for posting wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am advertisements for people's vanity blogs or other outside sites.

I've mentioned this before, and I really doubt you'll take it to heart this time either.
 

The only thing I am taking to heart is how you have hijacked this thread in order to invalidate my response. What I posted, both the advice and link, were on topic and actually provided useful information to this person.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for this post, I alsowantto travel tojapan and this tips really helps.
 
Like everything else, there are pros and cons to having a guide. You can surely do Japan by yourself using just only japan-guide and hyperdia.com. Like anything else, the more research you put into it the more you get out of it. By yourself gives you flexibility and very cost efficient. Main advantages of a guide are that they will save you time in both planning and getting around Japan (especially if you have never been before and/or cannot understand the language) and sometimes having access to special experiences you can't do by yourself.

Honestly, it really depends on your travel style, budget and reasons for visiting Japan. Here is a good summary of benefits of both.
 
I don't think the OP was asking about that kind of guide, Evan.
 
Series Eyewitness.. (I forgot to say) but in this trip I will use the Froome Japan and Tokyo.
 
Lonely planet is outdated. they seem to feature really expensive hotels and restaurants. probably because these companies pay for advertising. The best way is to research on the internet before coming to japan. Im trying to write a budget travel book at the moment. Because I think there is a void in the budget travel books for japan. let you know when my book is on amazon
 
Japan-Guide.com is a good website they have lots of information and maps with pictures. Also Japan-Talk.com is really good to know about the culture and what to do while in Japan. There are travel apps you can download that are travel guide with all information and pricing to area like Tripsos apps

By the way Japan-Guide forum sucks. say something wrong and they will block you. If you really wanna get down and asked some serious question about Japan without fear, go to Reddit.com
 
These days I would probably check tripadvisor first.
 
Guidebooks suffer from being writen by individuals that might not be your kind of traveller. Also, some writes are busy trying to get free rooms off hotels/inns and that causes a lot of bias. A good example with a large generalisation was a major guidebook that basically said "Tohoku region - nothing to see, nothing to do". So wrong.

You can't get a country into a single book to suit everyone.
 
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