Book Review: Tokyo: Capital of Cool

Tokyo: Capital of Cool is like a guide book and introduction to Tokyo. It's written by Rob Goss, a writer based in Tokyo who writes, it seems, mostly travel related articles and on Japan.

Tokyo is one of the places on my travel list and reading through this book makes me anticipate my future trip even more.

The book covers the different areas of Tokyo, e.g. the central, north and east, south, west and the nearby places, such as Yokohama, Kamakura, Hakone, Mount Fuji and Nikko.

The first chapter explores the history and culture of the place. It looks at the high tech, such as technology and architecture, and the cultural side such as the customs, food, festivals and fashion.

The chapters that follow on specifically on the interesting places located in each area. Each chapter starts with a map that highlights the locations featured, and the following pages provides details and nice photographs about them. The writeup and photography are really enticing. I really enjoy learning more about the place as I've always been intrigued by the blend of a modern society that still has so much cultural history.

I'm not really familiar with Tokyo but most of the places that I know of are featured, such as the Tsukiji Market, Akihabara, Tokyo Skytree, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and many of the other places I don't know of such as the Tokyo Station (amazing architecture), Imperial Palace, Ginza, Ueno, other places and the beautiful gardens. As someone who likes to sketch, I can see so many wonderful places that I want to draw!

This is not exactly like those travel guides with exact addresses of restaurants or shopping centres, but it's more of a general guide. It's like those travel articles you read in magazine. The writing style is easy going and information.

Definitely highly recommended to all who are interested in Tokyo or would-be travellers.

Also check out all the other Japan sketchbooks I've featured so far.

Tokyo: Capital of Cool is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)