This bilingual guide to using the subway system of the Tokyo conurbation offers: information on the 12 subway lines and 300 stations; 40 bilingual station maps with major landmarks, public buildings and hotels marked; and information on zonal tickets, travelcards, hotels, embassies and airlines.
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface
Tokyo, originally known as Edo, began as a small fishing village that was first mentioned in historical records near the end of the 12th century. The village entered the mainstream of Japanese history in 1457 when a minor provincial lord named Dokan Ota built a castle there.
In 1590 another fief lord, Ieyasu Tokugawa, look over the Ota castle. In 1603 he emerged as the supreme military power in the country, and made Edo the administrative capital of the newly established Tokugawa Shogunate government. By 1700 Edo was one of the largest urban areas in the world, consisting of several hundred interconnected villages and towns.
Many of the original communities of the early Edo period are still recognizable by their names and distinctive identities, and dozens of them have grown into virtual cities within the city of Tokyo.
The primary districts of Tokyo, which number over 100, are linked by twelve subway lines that form one of the largest urban transportation systems in the world. The twelve lines have over 300 stations, many of which represent a population and business center that corresponds to one of the communities of old Edo.
This book illustrates the largest and most important of these station areas.
Boye Lafayette De Mente
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
This section is under construction Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This section is under construction Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.7 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a totally complete guide
14 July 2003
By Essie Cruise
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback Bunko
This is a nice pocket-size book, with clear maps. However, it is not totally complete because although individual maps are given of Japan's main TRTA/Eidan and Toei subway lines, no maps at all are included of the JR lines.
As anyone who has ever rode the Tokyo subway knows, the JR lines are an intrinsic part the system, esp. the green Yamanote line that makes a continuous loop around all hubs of central Tokyo. The maps that are included show where the JR subway stations are, but not where the JR routes go. How this can be left out of a book that would be otherwise complete is beyond me.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
You can do better
17 Mar 2004
By B Johnsen
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback Bunko
`Although the information in this book is useful as far as it goes, I didn't buy it, based on the example page showing Toromon Station. Instead, I bought Kodansha's Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide. It has the same maps, showing exits, plus:
1) It shows a much larger surrounding area served by the station, usually including neighboring/alternate stations, putting it in a more useful geographic context.
2) It's in color which makes it much easier to read.
3) VERY important: it shows all the`` banchi (block) numbers, which most maps are lacking, and without which it's almost impossible to find an address in Tokyo`
1) It shows a much larger surrounding area served by the station, usually including neighboring/alternate stations, putting it in a more useful geographic context.
2) It's in color which makes it much easier to read.
3) VERY important: it shows all the`` banchi (block) numbers, which most maps are lacking, and without which it's almost impossible to find an address in Tokyo`
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
There are better guides than this.
9 April 2004
By "spike90210"
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback Bunko
It's a pocket sized book which at first glance seems to be a potentially useful book. Purports to be a comprehensive guide to the complicated Tokyo transportation systems. It consists of 12 color plate line diagrams of each of the subway lines, and black and white station maps.
Pluses:
- Color pages for the individual subway line maps identified by actual subway line color (eg Ginza line is Orange, Marunouchi line is Red, etc). This makes it easy to see what stations are on which lines.
- Identifies station exits.
- Station maps show the area around the stations.
- Interesting notes on using the subway system.
Minuses:
- It only lists around 50 of the more than 300 stations on the system, so it's frequently a hit and miss proposition if the book has the station you are interested in.
- Lack of color on the station maps makes it hard to read. These maps are in black and white.
- The stations on the color subway line maps are not cross referenced to the station maps. This forces you to waste your time looking in the contents page to see if there is even a station map for the station you are interested in.
- There is no frame of reference as to where the stations are in relation to the city. The station maps only show the immediate area around the station.
- Perhaps I had a bad copy, but THERE ARE NO PAGE NUMBERS, even though the contents page has page numbers listed. A big error especially since the stations are not all in alphabetical order.
- As mentioned by another reviewer, there are no maps of the JR Rail system (JR Yamanote and JR Chuo lines). The station maps only show the JR stations as grey shaded blocks. The JR Yamanote line is probably the most important rail/subway line in Tokyo. For a book that claims to be a comprehensive guide to the complicated transportation systems, this is the biggest omission of all.
Conclusion:
Not recommended. This book had a good concept, but there are far too many minuses to recommend it. I would not use this book as your Tokyo travel guide. There are other better maps and books such as the excellent Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide. Also note that Eidan was recently renamed Tokyo Metro and the subway stations are now also identified by a letter and number to help foreign visitors.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews
2.7 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Reference > Transport > Railways
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Atlases & Maps > Cities A-Z > Tokyo
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Atlases & Maps > Special Interests > Road & Car
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Atlases & Maps > Special Interests > Train
- Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > Japan > Tokyo
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
