Frommer's Japan Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Full Size) [ペーパーバック]

Japan and a large and complex country (population almost half of the USA with thousands of years of culture, history, and tradition). This small book cannot possibly cover everything interesting in the country. Every tourist guidebook has to make compromises based on what they guess their customers will be interested in. Frommer's evidently guesses that their customers are mostly upper class Americans. About 1/3 of this book is recommendations and reviews for hotels and restaurants and the establishments they list are predominantly expensive tourist and business oriented places. These places may be the most comfortable for foreign tourists, but you'd better have a big pocketbook or expense account to handle them. The material on activities is mostly fine for first-time visitors to Japan, if you're looking for the must-do tourist attractions.

For 8 years I worked long distance with a few small Japanese stores dealing with antique dolls and I have always wanted to visit this very isolated, unique and beautiful island country. I found the more I thought I knew of the Japanese women I dealt with in our business, the less I actually knew of them. I had no idea if this Frommer's Day By Day travel guide would help me plan a lovely trip or just give me a brief tourist guide. To help me decide, I asked for the help of some of my business associates in Japan.

After looking the Frommer's Japan Day by Day guide over, my Japanese associates said this guide has very little to do with Japan, but instead focuses on a westerner's view of their country, with the most obvious tourist sights. They said the 104 maps do not provide adequate navigational directions, which render themselves useless. Frommer's has focused on all the obvious very high priced large hotels, ignoring the smaller slightly more affordable hotels. (The high hotel rates are everywhere in Japan and this is an area where you will not be able to cut costs on.) Frommer's list many yen prices for breakfast in Japan, but fail to tell the reader that ALL Tokyo and other major cities hotels offer FREE breakfast every morning between 6:30 to 9:30. All you have to do is get up early and ask the desk about your free breakfast- most foreigner's do not know this Japanese custom.

As for more food choices, Frommer's provides many restaurant's with both lunch and dinner prices, most being a 10,000 yen sushi bar, which is $125.00 for a lunch or a 25,000 yen steak dinner, which is over $300.00! These restaurants Frommer's mentions, cater to tourists or wealthy Japanese impressing westerners. For the average traveller, Frommer's does not mention the many upscale fast food chains which provide the Japanese or savvy tourists an affordable, delicious lunch or dinner for as little as $25.00 per day. MOS Burger offers a large variety of delicious burgers for 2000- 3000 yen with drink included. That's a $25.00 hamburger lunch compared to a $125.00 sushi bar lunch in Frommer's! There are also many more different wonderful fast food chain's- Gansoyoshi- Sushi and Tempura Bar where you can eat tempura shrimp for 1,500 yen ($18.00!); Chao Chao- gyoza restaurant, where for 300 to 400 yen you get 5 cheese or pork gyoza ($5.00!); Tsukishima Monja- make delectable pancakes yourself (they show you how) for 200 to 500 yen per person ($2.50 to $6.27 per person!!); Tenya- a tempura chain offers a special fish, rice, vegetables and soup meal for only 700 yen ($8.00! any time of day); Onyasai offers shabo shabu a type of Chinese fondue or sukiyaki for 2000 yen with drink included ($25.00! ); Tengu offers a pizza slice for 600 yen ($7.00!); Ten ya offers fish and vegetables for under $25.00; and I could go on forever with the list of good fast food restaurants my Japanese associates sent me- none of which are listed in Frommer's Day By Day. And most meals come with a free drink- water- just ask.

Besides the great inexpensive fast food chains in Japan, Frommer's also does not mention the affordable Japanese family restaurants of Denny's, Johnathan's or Skylark. Not mentioned either are the stands Tachigoi Soba which sell bowls of buckwheat noodles for a mere 250-300 yen ($3.50!!). Frommer's also does not mention to avoid touristy shops selling food in train or subway stations. The Japanese avoid these, as they have met with a bad case of stomach disorders from food sitting all day. Another food tip is always order a set menu- never by the pieces of what you want- it is hugely cheaper ordering the set. And if you tire of Japanese food, there is a fast food chain called La Pianta, where you can get pasta or pizza, salad, dessert, bread and drink for under 1,000 yen ($10.00 and NO TIP!) Tokyo is known for some great Italian and French restaurants, and if you don't know of a good, inexpensive one- just ask a local. If you want a relaxed, unhurried lunch, go early 11:00 or later after 1:00, and avoid the hectic noon crowd.

As for inexpensive souveniers, Japan has it's own version of our dollar stores called 100 Yen Shop (100 yen equals $1.25). You can get some nice Japanese things to bring back home for dirt cheap! Also don't miss the Purikura photo sticker booth- you'll get a very different and lovely photo of yourself for very cheap.(The children love these colorful and attractive photo stickers of themselves.) Another thing my Japanese associates mentioned is Tokyo is a wonderful blend of new with old city of Japan, but Kyoto is an ancient city of thousands of temples and shrines, of which Frommer's barely touches on. They also said not to miss the many parks, Tokyo Sky Tree and Mori Art Museum as well. And if the museums get you in the mood for antiques, take a walk through Koenji, an old Japanese neighborhood where you can find many old items, used clothing, shops and cafes.

Frommer's Japan Day by Day missed the boat on every level for me- maps that provide inadequate navigational directions, places that are the obvious for tourists, over priced hotels, over priced restaurants that cater to westerners and miss the Japanese flavor of life, and they completely missed the overall experience of enjoying Japan in an affordable way, as the locals do. The guide is too western, too expensive and it makes it too obvious that Frommer's did not dig under the tourist surface to give a traveller the means of having a lovely time experiencing Japan in it's own eastern way.

This is a good book and it's genuinely useful, especially for first time visitors. I admit that some, more experienced travellers, might wish for more and greater depth. For the first timer this is a helpful book and I recommend it.