I will be making my second visit to Japan shortly. I wanted to purchase the new version of the Lonely Planet Japan guide but was hesitant to do so after reading negative reviews of other Lonely Planet guides published in the new format.

I received the Japan book today. My first impression is that the new format is not as awful as depicted in many negative reviews, but it certainly has flaws.

In order to make a comparison between the old and new formats of the Japan guide I chose a city that I visited on my last trip to Japan and compared the 16th edition of the Lonely Planet guide (published in 2019) with the new (18th) edition of the book. The city for which I am making the comparison is Kanazawa.

One of the first thing that one notices in the new format, something that has been commented on negatively by reviewers of other Lonely Planet new format guides, is that there is nothing in the new edition about how to get to cities such as Kanazawa. Also, the information on "Getting Around" has less information that previous editions.

One of the most frustrating aspects of the new format is that the city maps have major sites indicated, but they are not cross-referenced with page numbers in the book where information about those sites can be found. Also conspicuously missing are addresses, opening and closing times, admission fees, and other information.

Reviewers of other Lonely Planet guides in the new format have pointed out that the editors at Lonely Planet apparently have determined that since so much practical information is now available on the internet and on smart phones there is little need to include that information in the guide books. Point taken. But who wants to work back and forth between a book and their phone when traveling around? Smart phones themselves have limitations, chief among them is that they require a lot of tapping through internet pages and maps to find information. The whole point of a guide book is that it has everything in one place. Not so with the new Lonely Planet format which is missing a lot of practical information.

Readers will notice that unlike other negative reviews of the new Lonely Planet format I have chosen not to go all the way down to a 1-star review. One thing that stands out in the new format is that major sites are grouped together by site type, e.g., gardens, walking districts, museums, etc., as opposed to simply listed in columns as in the old format. So in some ways that is an improvement. So I would temper the negative reaction to the new format with a bit of praise.

Still, like other reviewers my first impression is that the editors at Lonely Planet figure that online information no longer necessitates the inclusion of practical information in the new guide book format. Like other reviewers, I beg to disagree.

May 2024 Update: I just returned from Japan and had a chance to put the new format Lonely Planet guide to the test. Based on my experience using the guide on the ground I have lowered my review from three stars to two. I am sort of reminded by what two American tourists told me in Kyoto regarding their approach to travel. They told me to "throw away the guidebook," by which they meant that the best way to experience Japan is simply to explore without letting a guidebook dictate your travels.

In designing the new guidebook format, one gets the impression that the publishers and editors at Lonely Planet took the advice of the two tourists I met in Kyoto, but in a different sense. Which is to say, with all the information available on the internet you can simply "throw away the guidebook" because it is no longer necessary. The problem is that the publishers and editors at Lonely Planet seemingly can't decide what travel guide should be when so much information is available for free online. The new format Lonely Planet guides have a smattering of useful information, but they seem more designed to spark the reader's interest than to offer the sort of practical information that used to be the meat and potatoes of Lonely Planet guides.

To be fair, I did get some useful information about the new format Japan guide, but a lot of that useful information is also readily available online. I get it that the internet has created a lot of competition for print media, but Lonely Planet has lost its way, to use an apt metaphor, when it comes to designing practical travel guide books.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4 (237 ratings)
Price	$23.99
Category	Asia

Lonely Planet Japan (Travel Guide)