This is my Tokyo Shopping Guide. Please see the main index for an introduction and links to all the posts.

A note on guide books

I have a few Japan/Tokyo guidebooks but this is what I recommend:

Rough Guide Tokyo
Great overview for first time visitors with lots of ideas for shopping and sightseeing. The area, train and subway maps are also excellent and I carried this every day. I don’t think I had a single problem finding something that was on one of their maps. Not so good for food recommendations and lacks things like walking tours or in depth things for people who have seen the popular sights already. Still, if you only get one guide – this is the best overall.

This book initially made the Rough Guide one look like a 4 page brochure. It’s very in depth with itinerary ideas depending on the length of your trip, walking guides to get the most out of an area, eating out guides for each area with prices and whether they have English menus and lots and lots of shopping and sightseeing info. It’s also very chatty and has details that really saved us on occasion, such as days shops are closed and the best trains to get to the Sea Life Park if you don’t go at the weekend. However, the maps are atrocious and the directions aren’t always very good. We spent a long time trying to find a supposedly popular restaurant and had to give up in disgust after the directions turned out to be no help at all. Admittedly, this is partly the lack of street names in Tokyo but that’s why you really need directions that mention obvious landmarks like department stores and tell you how many streets along it is. I’d recommend it as background reading and for eating out suggestions (everything we tried was great) but make sure you have another map and know where you’re going.

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Posted by Marceline Smith on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 2:47 pm in Tokyo Shopping Guide.