Japan is a world apart - a cultural Galapagos where a unique civilisation blossomed, and today thrives in delicious contrasts of traditional and modern. Its spirit is strong, warm and welcoming.
Lonely Planet will get you to the heart of Japan, with amazing travel experiences and the best planning advice:
inspirational images, 3D illustrations, city walks and recommendations from our expert authors
planning features and top itineraries to help you plan the perfect trip
local secrets and hidden travel gems that will make your trip unique
plus features on hiking, skiing and traditional accommodation
Coverage includes: Planning chapters, Tokyo, Mt Fuji, Around Tokyo, The Japan Alps, Central Honshu, Kyoto, Kansai, Hiroshima, Western Honshu, Northern Honshu (Tohoku), Sapporo, Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu, Okinawa, the Southwest Islands, Understand and Survival chapters.
Chris Rowthorn:I've been traveling since the age of 2, when I crossed the Atlantic aboard the QE1 bound for New York. I grew up in the States and moved to Japan in 1992. Now, I live in Kyoto with my wife and son.I'm very interested in the Beats and I'd have liked to join Sal Paradise for a spin in the Hudson. I'm also well into the Merry Pranksters and I would've liked to hitch a ride on the bus. I'd give anything to see Ko Pi Pi the way it was in 1970. I'd like to have been at an Afrika Bambaataa block party in 1979. And I'd have liked to have been in Japan just after it opened to the West.I've had cartoons published across the United States. I was in a rap band in college and we performed a song about Mikey's tragic Pop Rock accident.My goal is to get by on less. I want to avoid information overload. I'm a digital Luddite despite having a handful of websites.Phillip Tang:Phillip Tang writes about travel and the people there, who just call it living. He likes smelling fresh mint in a market in a new town and imagining a parallel life there.Phillip Tang has been a travel writer on Lonely Planet's Mexico, Peru, China, Japan and Korea guides, and the books World's Best Brunches, Cooks Clowns and Cowboys, Calm, 1000 Ultimate Adventures, Guide to Pride, World's Best Drinks and Big Book of Free. Plus articles for this website, lonelyplanet.com. He has also written for Rough Guides, BBC Travel and Le Cool.Phillip Tang has made his home in Sydney, Melbourne, London and Mexico City. His travels include most countries in Europe, much of Asia and Latin America, as well as the greatest hits of North America.Wendy Yanagihara:Born and raised in California, studied abroad in Spain and lived in Vietnam.Been writing for LP since 2003, including contributions to: Southeast Asia on a Shoestring, Vietnam, Japan, Tokyo, Tokyo Encounter, Mexico, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Grand Canyon National Park, and AZ, NM & Grand Canyon Trips.Ray Bartlett:I'm a travel writer specializing in Japan, Korea, Mexico, and the United States. I've worked on many different Lonely Planet titles, starting with Japan in 2004 and going through the present.Benedict Walker:Born in Newcastle, Australia, notions of the beach are core to Ben's idea of self, having traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometres from the sandy shores of home. Ben was given his first Lonely Planet guide (Japan) when he was 12. Two decades later, he'd write chapters for the same publication: a dream come true. A communications graduate and travel agent by trade, Ben whittled away his twenties gallivanting around the globe. He speaks fluent Japanese and has contributed to LP's Japan guide, twice. Ben thinks the best thing about travel isn't as much about where you go as who you meet: living vicariously through the stories of kind strangers enriches one's own experience. Ben has also written and directed a play, toured Australia managing the travel logistics for top-billing music festivals and is experimenting with a return to his original craft of photography and film-making.Simon Richmond:My first gig for Lonely Planet was on the Kazakhstan chapter of their Central Asia guide in 1999 but I began specialising as a guidebook writer for other publishers several years before that and have worked as a freelance journalist and photographer since the early 1990s.
In the 1980s I honed my writing skills as a young journalist on the consumer magazine Which? in London before heading east to Tokyo, where I spent two and a half years learning the language and working as an editor and writer for a major financial news organization. At the same time I travelled Japan (later co-writing an award-winning guidebook to the country, as well as one to Tokyo) and Asia, scribbling notes and storing away ideas for travel features.I first came to live in Sydney in 1994 on a year-long working holiday visa and quickly found the local media snapping up those stories. Entranced by Australia I moved back in 1998 and lived in the city until 2005. I'm now based back in the UK in Folkestone on the east Kent coast.Rebecca Milner:Co-author of Lonely Planet guides to Japan & Korea. Co-author of upcoming cookbook, From the Source Japan. Longtime Tokyo resident (13 years and counting!). Native southern Californian.Andrew Bender:Not Info. Craig McLachlan:Hi! I'm not Craig McLachlan, the actor and singer - I'm Craig McLachlan, the 'freelance anything' and I've been writing for Lonely Planet since the 1990s, co-authoring multiple editions of Japan, Hiking in Japan, South Pacific, Tonga, Hawai'i, New Caledonia, and covering the Greek Islands for LP's Europe series of guidebooks.I spend the southern hemisphere summers running an outdoor activities company in Queenstown, New Zealand, then head north for another summer, leading tours of Japanese to Europe, tours of Americans to Japan, and researching and writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet.Among other adventures, I have walked the length of Japan (3200km in 99 days!), hiked around the 88 Temples of Shikoku pilgrimage and set the record for climbing Japan's 100 Famous Mountains (78 days!). I have written five books available in English on my adventures in Japan - four are available in Japanese. These books can be purchased on Amazon.com.A firm believer that my home country New Zealand should become a republic, change its flag and change its name, my first novel 'Kiwi Republic' is now available both as an e-book and a paperback on Amazon.com.
