Train Japan

As a raw travel guide this is just decent, organized as a series of individual getaways that give you photos and maps. Enough to show why this is a neat place to go, not enough to actually plan an itinerary. But. The pièce de résistance is that every itinerary shows the rail passes that are valid.

Japan's rail system is a sprawling thing that I cannot yet comprehend, rather like the New York subways before they were unified under public ownership. There are piles of rail passes covering maybe one train company, maybe multiple. Knowing which passes are valid for which things you might like to see does help with itinerary planning, and is enough to lift a book of day-out itineraries to something a bit more.

Nette Episoden und viele „Geheimtipps“ und praktische Tipps. Das Buch wäre aber so viel praxistauglicher, wenn es eine Karte hätte, in der die Stecken verzeichnet sind und nicht nur ein paar briefmarkengroße Schemata. Und was mich auch sehr gestört hat, dass es keine Zuordnung der Bilder zum Text gibt. Da kann man häufig leider nur raten, was wohl gemeint ist.