No comments about Japan Road Map with Separate Index 1:1,500,000 (International Road Map Series).

5 comments about Frommer's(r) Shanghai, 2nd Edition.

1. I haven't even left for Shanghai yet and I know this book is a disappointment in comparing it with my friend's Lonely Planet and doing some quick online research. It said there weren't any youth hostels (there are several) and the book is lacking a metro map and even a decent street map! The "exploring Shanghai" section is embarrassing small, I don't know if I would be able to keep myself occupied during my visit if this were to be my only guide.



2. This book gives you an easy overview over attractions and the maps are quite fullfilling. Really a good guide book.
   It could just be me, but I think there is to much info on hotels and restaurants. I'm normally the person to think "there is a lot of people in that restaurant we just passed - Lets go eat there". Regarding hotels I tend to book from home at the internet and just need the star rating, the website and "tips on how to get the best rate".
   But if you flip through the hotel and restaurant pages, everything looks to be squeezed in and if you need it - then you REALLY need it - I guess that I would be really angry, if I ended up stranded in Shanghai without a good hotel listing ;-)
   So the only negative I have is the quality of the paper. I think you will wear the book down if you go a lot to Shanghai.
   Ole, Denmark



3. Some of the previous reviews are about the 2nd edition which was weak. The 3rd edition appears to be a significant rewrite, and is much better. All the salient info is there, from an author who obviously has not only "been there" but understands the nuances of Chinese culture. Can't wait for the 4th edition!



4. The maps make it very hard to figure out where you are, and all the pages look alike. You'd be much better served with the Time Out or Lonely Planet guides.



5. This book has a few more useful pieces of information that Lonely Planet may not have but I found the LP format to be better laid out. This book does better than LP in the respect of including the Chinese characters on the city maps and also for destinations, hotels, addresses, etc.

No comments about Schoolmaster to an Empire: Richard Henry Brunton in Meiji Japan, 1868-1876 (Contributions in Asian Studies).

3 comments about Seeing Japan.

1. Wow, this is one beautiful book. All of the considerable beauty of the island nation of Japan has been sought out, carefully selected, and elegantly photographed to be even more stunning than it is in real life. There is quite a sweeping range of images here, from the lavender fields and Snow Festival of Hokkaido, to the ancient temples of Nara and Kyoto, all the way to the high technology of the ASIMO robot and the mag-lev Bullet Train. This is the kind of book that makes me really want to go to Japan, even though I live there.
   
   "Seeing Japan" is not an honest look at Japan, but more of a love-letter or a tourists brochure. There is not anything so much as hinting at a dark corner on this Isle of Wonders. All of the images are radiant and lovely, with the bad parts carefully edited out. There is no stray shot of the spider's web of powerlines that covers the country, obscuring almost all scenes of beauty. The temples contain no element of the loudspeakers that blare away history lessons and advertisements, or the hustle and bustle of the millions of people that are everywhere you go. Looking at this book, one would almost think that Japan was a serene, quiet country, which of course it is not.
   
   And that's OK. There are plenty of other books out there looking at the underbelly of Japan, so it is nice to have one that is pure frosting. Sometimes it is easy to forget what a spectacularly beautiful country Japan is. It takes a photographer's eye to bring out the very best, to showcase the colors and the textures that are so very abundant. It takes someone like Charles Whipple to write the text, a nostalgic guided tour through a country he obviously loves, to inspire one to hunt for this Japan, the Japan of my Dreams.



2. I almost fainted when I read in Zack Davisson's review, "There is no stray shot of the spider's web of powerlines that covers the country, obscuring almost all scenes of beauty." I thought I was the only person in the universe who had ever made that observation about the stark difference between the incredible natural beauty one sees on posters and in coffee-table books and the real Japan you find before your eyes and under your feet.
   
   (You know what observation Mr. Davisson forgot to make? The fact that there's no such thing as zoning: you'll find a Disneyland next to a farm next to a cemetery, without so much as a tree to separate the one from the other. Well, that, plus the ceaseless flow of "suburbs": on the 300-plus-mile bullet-train run from Tokyo to Kyoto, we could scarcely discern a single patch of green--although we did find 30-story skyscrapers out in the middle of nowhere [!]--plus one of the ugliest hamlets I've seen in my life, with a mountaintop sign proudly [and most ironically] proclaiming in kanji, "Chrysanthemum River Ward" [Kikkawa-Gu].)
   
   The memory that will always stick foremost in my consciousness is of the young guy who scuttled down the street slapping adhesive prostitutes' business cards (I guess they're "business labels," then) wherever they'd fit: on a lamppost; on a newspaper vending machine; on a postbox; even on a manhole cover (in Japan, those are quaint, sometimes bearing mosaic cartoons of firemen in samurai regalia).
   
   I have more books on Japan and Japanese and Japanese culture and Japanese mythology and Japanese history than I care to recount, but this title just really didn't add anything to it. Too, too bad.



3. This book was given as a gift to a person who will be traveling to Japan this year. He briefly scanned the book and seemed happy with it. I know after the holidays are over, he will totally go page by page. He is an artist and I know he will appreciate the photography throughout.

1 comments about Japan Bilingual Map.

1. This double-sided road map is a shaded relief map at 1:2,200,000 with road and tourist information overprinted. There are spot heights on mountain peaks. The reverse side has numerous hypsometric maps covering tourist regions and Tokyo. These maps of the cities are not street maps, rather they are maps showing the roads into/out of the city or tourist destination. These inset maps include Mt. Fuji, Tokyo (2 maps), Hakone, Nikko, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagoya, and Sapporo. Bilingual throughout.

5 comments about Queer Japan: Personal Stories of Japanese Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals.

1. People will stumble upon this book, I think, from their interest in other areas, gay and lesbian studies, or Japanese culture for example. The area of gay and lesbian studies in Japan is still so new and relatively small compared to the United States, for example, that as a discourse it does not quite have the independence and stature to attract wide notice or sympathy.

   That said, this is an excellent introductory book, one-of-a-kind, in fact, of Queer Japan. In every story, translated by a trio of non-Japanese academics who have spent several years apiece in Japan and are active in gay-lesbian-bisexual-transexual groups, the author is awash with gratitude, to be allowed finally to speak in one's own voice, of the struggles, pain, and yes, the joys experienced. In such an oppressive culture, where candid, direct speech is not encouraged, or even actively discouraged as being childish and selfish, these essays are all the more remarkable.

   My only complaint, which prevented me from giving 5 stars to the book, is technical: there are numerous grammatical errors, as well as careless word use. Sorry, I was an English major in college. I was trained to spot misuse of transitive/intransitive verbs, for example. It makes me sad that such errors suggest to me a lack of attention on the part of the publisher; in other words, this makes me feel that those involved in editing the book did not take as much pride in their own book as their subjects, which conflicts with the heartfelt call for those in the book, and others like them who struggle in Japan, to take pride in themselves, their essential beings.

   In short, an excellent, though technically flawed book, for those looking to expand their understanding of modern Japan.




2. I have lived in Japan for more than twenty years and I was very pleased to read this book. Though I am not gay I have many Japanese and non Japanese friends who are, and I have listened over the years to their stories. This book is a perfect example of what the gay experience is like here in Japan. It's very honest and moving. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Japanese sub culture.



3. I came across this book three years ago, when I first arrived in Japan. I was reading it just as I was coming to terms with my own homosexuality. It contributed to the opening of my mind, and helped me find courage to come out and start living my life to the fullest.
   Queer Japan was, at first, my only way of knowing about Japanese attitudes toward alternative lifestyles, and about Japanese gays and lesbians themselves. Since the subject is never discussed (in either a good or bad light) at work or in the media here, the book helped me realize that there were indeed a lot of Japanese people out there in situations similar to mine.
   The book provides an extremely accurate portrait of how homosexuality is viewed in Japan, but that's not really the point. The point is that it allows so many individual gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual Japanese people to tell their stories -- something they are all too often forbidden to talk about.



4. Queer Japan is an excellent book examining the real lives of gays, lesbians and transsexuals in Japan. I know the editors of the book personally and attended the book opening in Tokyo. I heard the stories of the Japanese women and men whose personal stories are contained in the book. It is a moving and realistic account of the Japanese people's treatment of transgressors of their mianstream culture. I lived in Japan for 6 years and taught at Gunma Prefectural Women's University with Cheiron (one of the editors); and I know first hand the lives of the lesbian, gay and transsexual people in Japan.
   All I can say is "Read it !"



5. I have a great interest in gay life in Japan, so I figured this book would be a helpful resource, though it is a little dated. There are some excellent personal stories that make up this compliation, however I was disappointed to find that it is primarily focused on the the lesbian community. Of course I have no problems with lesbians, however the role they take on and the problems, issues they encounter being gay in Japan are likely far different than mine as a gay man. To be honest, they are probably facing a lot more discrimination than us men!
   I didn't feel that there was an equal depiction of the lives gay men lead in Japan - probably 80% of the book is devoted to bi women/lesbians. As the book's title suggests a more diverse collection of the entire QUEER community, I feel it was misleading. Devote an entire book to the bi/lesbian/femminist movement in Japan as I'm sure it deserves atleast that. If you're interested in GAY/BI men in Japan...my suggestion is to keep looking.

No comments about The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain: Early Travel Encounters in the Far West (Meiji Series, 5).

No comments about Exploring Osaka: Japan's Second City.

No comments about Tray landscapes (Bonkei and Bonseki) (Tourist library).

1 comments about Pilgrim's Guide To Forty-Six Temples.

1. The title of this book is perfectly straightforward. It's also a bit misleading, for by "pilgrim" Usui Shiro clearly does not mean Buddhists traveling to a specific temple or circuit of temples for plainly religious motives. When folks such as this do appear, they are depicted third person almost as romantic aspects of the temple landscape rather than cohorts with which the author identifies. This is not a guide for their use. And yet something more than the average casual tourist is obviously intended, judging from Usui's rather dismissive annoyance with the latter. Who are the "pilgrims" for whom this guide is intended, then? It's hard to say exactly, but semi-secular university-educated city-slickers seeking some sort of personal spiritual inspiration from the art, architecture, and scenery of Japan's older Buddhist temples seem to be the implied audience. Cultural pilgrims in the tradition of Watsuji Tetsuro, one might say.
   
   Which probably pretty much approximates the orientation of most English speakers in Japan interested in visiting the forty-six temples in question, making this translation of Usui's Japanese work "Koji Junrei Hitori Tabi" quite useful for such purposes. And this guide is definitely meant to be used practically, including maps and transportation directions as well as visiting information, notes on when and if certain temple buildings are open to the public, and a calendar of major special events. Each temple is the subject of a short, rather impressionistic and sometimes ramblingly diffuse meditative essay by Usui, after which facts about the temple (sect, principle image, when and by whom it was established, and cultural properties) are listed in outline form. Almost all of the temples are located in Kyoto and Nara or thereabouts, Koyasan Kongobuji and Eiheiji being the farthest outliers.
   
   Given the cultural nature of Usui's pilgrimage, references to poets and novelists and their impressions of these temples abound in the essays--including Mori Ogai, Shiga Naoya, Yosano Akiko, Inoue Yasushi, Shiba Ryotaro, Ariyoshi Sawako, and Mishima Yukio, among others. The poems (tanka, apparently) of Aizu Yaichi on the Nara temples are quoted extensively. Less common but equally interesting are reflections by some of the temples' abbots on their institution's significance and aesthetic impact. The founding monks and their Buddhist doctrines get short shrift here with a faux-populist nonchalance that will make even the most easygoing Buddhologist wince, however. Still, that information can be found elsewhere, whereas for actually getting around the great temples of Kyoto and Nara this handy, eminently portable little tome is extremely useful as well as poetically evocative.
   
   P.S. The forty-six temples covered in this book are as follows:
   Eastern Kyoto: Myohoin and Sanjusangendo, Sen'yuji, Kiyomizudera, Rokuharamitsuji, Chion-in, Nanzenji, and Zenrinji
   Northern Kyoto: Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji, Manshu-in, Sanzen-in, Kuramadera, Daitokuji, and Shokokuji
   Western Kyoto: Ninnaji, Myoshinji, Koryuji, Daikakuji, Seiryoji, Tenryuji, Kozanji, and Jingoji
   Southern Kyoto: Toji, Hokaiji, Daigoji, Manpukuji, and Byodo-in
   Nara: Joruriji, Todaiji, Kofukuji, Shin Yakushiji, Hokkeji, Saidaiji, Toshodaiji, and Yakushiji
   The Outskirts of Nara: Horyuji, Taimadera, Hasedera, and Muroji
   Other Areas: Kongobuji, Enryakuji, Saikyoji, Miidera, Ishiyamadera, Chikubushima, Hogonji, and Eiheiji