Tokyo on Foot: Travels in the City's Most Colorful Neighborhoods

This book is a lot of fun, and it's prominently displayed in m classroom library. I have studied and taught Japanese for many years, and I always get frustrated with portrayals of Japanese culture that are too extreme in one direction or the other. The books tend to be either all Zen or and tea ceremony or all pachinko and maid cafes. This book does a good job of showing a Japan that is quirky without being ridiculous.The book is full of illustrations, so it kind of has the feel of a manga, but it includes real-life stuff, from shrines to restaurants to street scenes. It's organized by neighborhood, so it's a bit like a fancy travel guide, but it is so much better than that. The maps and pictures have highlighted all the little details that caught the author's attention, which gives it a personal touch.Finding this book led me down a kind of rabbit hole of similar books on Japan, mostly from Tuttle, that present specific aspects of contemporary Japan from a very personal angle. This book was the gateway drug (Thank you, Tulsa City-County Library).I teach Japanese in a middle school, and I leave this book out in the classroom for the kids to browse through during their copious free time. They really like this kind of look at Japanese culture. This is just why they are studying Japanese at all.

I love this book! Fun notes and observations makes it feel like you're on the trip with chavouet. This book is a pictorial diary of the author's time roaming tokyo while his girlfriend got a job there for a few months. If you buy this book thinking it's a guide, you'll be sorely mistaken. The guy drew his observations and comments on his experience. The style is relatable, cartoon caricatures in color pencils. Fun look through and study of some smaller "everyday" neighborhoods most tourists overlook when they're there to see see see the sights! The artist also concentrated on the area of 1 train line which he frequent which is nice there's a concentration. Tokyo is huge, the author is neither an expert on japan nor claim this as a guide. It just a beautiful peek into his adventures and experiences while living abroad. The hardcopy is a nice book to have. To reminisce perhaps he capture your own thoughts in pictures so well or just to see what some things you might be overlooking if you're heading out there yourself. It's a great inspiration piece, too.NOW FOR THE KINDLE EDITION: I wish I saw the review for the kindle edition sooner! It SUX! I have the8.9 fire HDX and the pages are basically an image,, A LOW RESOLUTION at that, quality degrade blur and pixelated when I try to zoom in to read certain comments caption. I need to find out how to return this kindle version, sigh more work. Actually quite annoyed right now.

TOKYO ON FOOT: TRAVELS IN THE CITY'S MOST COLORFUL NEIGHBORHOODS book by Florent Chavouet is a wonderful book filled with colored cartoon sketches that the artists drew when he was living in Tokyo.Although this couldn't be considered a guide book by any means, it'll give some idea of what it's like to experience Tokyo as an outsider.Chavouet's drawings are well done, especially the details on some of the buildings, and he painstakingly draws out maps for each section and even Japanese signage (including Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji writing) so readers get the full effect. I like that most of the drawings are cartoon-ish, but there are also some that are rendered with some realism -- mostly signs and packaging.His comments that accompany the drawings are funny and after reading TOKYO ON FOOT..., I feel like I went on the trip with him.The book isn't arranged like a comic where you read from one panel to the next, it's arranged by neighborhoods and filled with drawings of people, places and things, that Chavouet encountered in that location, and is more like a scrapbook.I recommend this book to artists and people who love all things Japanese and Tokyo. It definitely has that "kawai" (cute) feel to it.

The book is very detailed and contains many different visual ideas of Tokyo. It is know for the mapping and illustrations. My first impression of the book was very exciting. However, as I began to go further in the book, I was not as excited as I hoped. The illustrations were on the whole, above average, but nothing very unique. The idea is great! I did like the idea of information being placed about where the author had traveled and who he had come across while living in Japan. The other plus is the amount of work you get. I can't imagine how long this took him in terms of illustrating it. It reminds how a good piece of work really does take time. I would recommend this people who are interested in off-grid way of looking at Tokyo. It is one I will keep on shelf, but will probably never open again.

Not your average guide book but that was not the author point! The fact that this work is all rendered in color pencil blows my mind! I got this book because I was taking a class on drawing with color pencils and I want to travel in Japan. The book has beautiful details and is inspirational.