Fodor's Exploring Japan, 3rd Edition

Fodor's has long been one of my favorite sources for travel guides and I love the Fodor's Exploring books. The photos in Fodor's Exploring Japan are beautiful and well chosen with nice captions. The book is filled with interesting facts and historical refrences. It's a great guide book but also just a wonderful book on the culture of Japan.

I have recently returned from spending a couple of weeks in Japan and used this book beforehand to plan, and then during my trip as a guide. Its smaller size, interesting facts and history, vivid pictures, and nicely planned walks, make it a good travel book and an excellent pairing with a larger, but drier, tome such as Rough Guide or Lonely Planet.

I am planning a trip to Japan in 2007 with an adult granddaughter and two of her friends, the book is informative and gives suggestions about Hotels and other lodging. I'm still finding things of interest and info every time I pick up the book.

Unlike the other reviewer, I have not yet read Fodor's Japan, but Exploring Japan still appears useful. Yes, it does have a lot of, maybe too many, pictures, but I chose this guide over others, the names and publishers of which I can't recall for several reasons. As a student of Japanese language and history, I wanted to prepare for a semester of study-abroad in Japan. For the businessman or regular tourist, the most needed info. might be found in other travel guides which are mostly resturaunt and hotel directories. However, as a student, I didn't need a guide on food and accomodations. Exploring Japan is good, at least helpful for me, in that it focuses on cultural, historical sights, and national treasures. It does devote some information to other things, such as shopping, hotels, resturaunts as well as the usual information on customs, visas, and emergency and contact info. Besides its focus on Japanese history and culture, the other thing I like about this guide is its organization. Within the regionally divided sections are paragraphs each devoted to a sight with coordinates on regional/city street maps that begin each section, a rating of importance (so you can prioritize for your itinerary), a description of its place in Japanese history more detailed than most guides, and opening-closing times and contact info. when applicable. Another nice feature is the guided walking tours for many major cities and towns from Kyushu to Hokkaido, which could be helpful for those wishing to get in a lot of sights crowded in one small area (such as parts of Kyoto and Nara), those who don't want to rely on expensive transportation but don't want to get lost walking Japan's confusing labarynth of streets (Tokyo and Kyoto each have more than one walking guide in this book). For those of you who just plan only on enjoying Tokyo's nightlife for a week then this book is not for you, but if you plan on doing a lot of travel and most of it on "educational" excursions then I highly recommend this book.