Japan by Rail: Includes Rail Route Guide and 30 City Guides (Trailblazer)

This book was very helpful on our Japan trip. We got a 7-day JR Rail Pass in the US and between the book and the kind people at the train stations, we found ourselves on every train we planned to be, and got to the destinations we wanted to get to. The green cars are very nice and have room to put a carryon up above the seats, plus your seats are assigned, so that was helpful, but it's a bit costlier. We ended up sending our larger suitcase on from hotel to hotel rather than lugging it through the stations and on the trains. (about $20usd to send through your hotel) By the time we got to Tokyo, our 7-days were up and didn't need the Rail Pass anymore anyway, we just did local trains and the book helped with that also. There is also a lot of information on sights and attractions throughout the book, which was wonderful. PS- you need to try Tokyo trains at rush hour at least once. OH MY!!! "Incredible" is the only word I can think of that describes this!

I spent two weeks in Japan with a JR Pass and this book as my "go to" guide. From the planning stages to actually being there, it was invaluable. While I also used the DK Eyewitness Japan, Trip Advisor and online references, this was the practical, nuts and bolts workhorse. It was excellent for planning day trips and prioritizing what to see. It has a simple overview map with call outs of highlights and some great "best experience" lists. For my first week I used Himeji as my base of operations - its a small city on the Shinkansen. I followed the book's recommendation to Miyajima and loved it. Everything was well described and easy to find using the book's instructions. Traveling in Japan by train with a JR pass was a great experience. The trains are efficient, the stations are hubs and experiences in and of themselves. And the pass makes it a breeze.

No other guide explains the Japan rail system better than this book. Of the 3 guide books I bought this one covers Japan rail the best. While this book is very good, I still found myself using it the least because I was more of a fan of the Lonely Planet Japan or DK Eyewitness Japan travel guides. This guide has the least photos of the 3 guide books I bought and I didn't like as much the way the book was organized. If I could only buy 1 guide book I would probably get Lonely Planet Japan, if I could get two guide books I would get this Japan by Rail and Lonely Planet Japan.

This is the best guide book to bring to Japan. Don't be misled by the title into thinking that it is only about the rail system. It is a first rate guide book to the places and sights, plus a detailed guide to the train and bus systems. We traveled with both this book and the Lonely Planet guide, and after a while stopped looking at Lonely Planet and left it behind because we found that Japan by Rail did a better job of covering all the sightseeing and historical information, and would be the better guide even if it did not also include great, fine-grained information about using the trains and the buses (not just which train goes where and how long it takes, but things like which side of the station to exit from, where to buy tickets, etc.).

I had a one week Japanrail Pass and this book helped me use it to the max. From Tokyo I did day trips following the careful directions in this guide. I didn't know where to go and what to see so I used the end pages in this book. It pointed me to the highlights of Japan in a way that other guidebooks never did. Then it gave me step by instructions including excellent dining suggestions. In one week, I went to Nikko, Himeji Castle, Miyajima island, Nara, Inari, Kyoto, and Kanazawa and of course Mt.Fuji. It also gave excellent suggestions to save money at every turn. It was my third trip to Japan but the most fruitful because of this guide.

Before my travels I buy or borrow about a dozen travel guides. For a 1-month first-ever trip to japan with very light luggage, I took only three guides and Japan by Rail was one of them (the others DK Japan and Lonely Planet Kyoto). Although moving by plane to some distant Japanese destinations may be faster (not always), the Japanese Rail system is the best in the world and it should not be missed in any tour of the country. This book is geared to the Train traveler with everything that he or she may need. The hotels nearby the Stations are exactly rated and can be trusted. The food evaluations are also trustworthy. Thanks to this book I log thousand of miles trouble-free throughout Japan, remarkablef a first timer non-Japanese speaker.

Summary: This guide was purchased for my 2nd trip to Japan. I used the rail extensively on this trip. It’s worth it to get this guide. Pros: 1) Has useful easy to access information. Cons: 1) Not enough information for all areas.

I used this to help plan a trip to Japan. In the end I chickened out and took a bus tour except for 4 days in Tokyo; I left it behind in Japan rather than go overweight on baggage. But now I will repurchase it before a follow-up trip. In short, using the book coupled with Google maps (through a roaming phone or rented hotspot) would allow a person with no Japanese to get around with minimal frustration. It also seems very good on recommending sites and itineraries, although I did not compare it to any guides other than Lonely Planet's.

I bought this purely for the details on Japanese railways. This book has much more to offer, in fact it is a complete surprise. So much useful information. A very worthwhile purchase, highly recommended.

This handbook accompanied me in May 2017 on a trip that covered 14 cities (not including day trips) with the Japan Rail Pass. This solid, no-nonsense handbook makes it easy to plan your trip as well as find information on the fly. There is ample information about practical issues such as luggage storage in trains & stations, buying snacks and food at and nearby stations, WiFi availability and SIM card rentals, some usual Japanese etiquette, train types, travel durations between major cities and the whole procedure of getting a JR pass. In short, it's suitable for first-timers, short-timers, long-timers and young-timers and old-timers alike. Accommodation suggestions are the most useful I've seen in any guidebook, in particular the ever-reliable Toyoko Inn hotel chain and the hostel chain K's house as well as many other affordable options are listed with websites and phone numbers. However, a few suggestions that came warmly recommended by the guidebook had actually received rather controversial reviews on TripAdvisor (e.g. Sekishoin in Koya-san; Ryokan Seikan-so in Nara), so don't take everything at face value. The book lacks in photos so it's difficult to get a good image of what a given destination is actually like. For this, I carried an Eyewitness Travel "Japan" edition with me and these two complemented each other sufficiently. The few photos that are in the guide are rather random snaps on glossy paper in the very beginning of the book. However, the maps for major city centers are very useful. I found all given prices for entry tickets and transportation to be fully accurate. Certain things the book could do without, such as the history of Japan and some rather marginal museum/art gallery picks. In places, the book is fantastically detailed, even advising you which bus to take and from which platform in order to get to a popular sight. All in all, this book offers fantastic value and it is sufficiently concise to make on-the-platform use possible. To conclude, a few random pointers: - I found the station lockers to be larger than the book stated, easily fitting a 60x41x30 cm suitcase in the 400/500 yen lockers. - finding garbage cans outside JR stations may be difficult - vocabulary does not include words for spoon and fork - the North-South train connection in Hokkaido between Furano and Shintoku was partially out of order as of May 2017 - WiFi seems to be available even in small stations. - Electronic offline maps for Japan are not available; your only choice for on-location navigation is Google Maps and a data connection or relying on paper maps from tourist infos or this guidebook.

Only read about 1/3 of the book so far but it very detailed and has lots of helpful information and travel ideas to get around Japan smoother.

Clear and concise. Very helpful.

Dopo tanti viaggi in Giappone non avevo mai sentito parlare di questa guida. Cercando nuovi spunti per il viaggio di quest'anno ho consultato diversi forum e ho letto ottime recensioni di questa guida in inglese, meno costosa di altre e aggiornata nel 2016. La guida si rivolge principalmente a chi intende visitare il Giappone con i mezzi pubblici (Japan Rail Pass o cmq muovendosi in treno) e con i mezzi pubblici in città ed è davvero esauriente, per alcune tratte indica addirittura da che parte del treno è meglio sedersi per gustare al meglio il panorama. Ci sono appendici interessanti con le frasi utili e spiegazioni dettagliate sulle linee degli Shinkansen. La guida non si concentra solo sulle città principali, ma anche sulle mete turistiche meno gettonate (ma non per questo meno interessanti) che si possono raggiungere in giornata dalle grandi città e spiega dettagliatamente come arrivarci. Le spiegazioni sono sintetiche, ma ricche di informazioni e utili anche per chi il treno lo userà poco o per nulla.