What is better: the eyewitness travel guide to Japan or the Lonely Planet travel guide to Japan?

Personally I like the Time Out Guides best of all but that wasn't one of your choices.

Out of the two you mentioned I would select the Eyewitness but it really comes down to what you intend to get out of a travel book. One of the others was right in saying that it's a bit kindergarden. The Eyewitness guides are typically heavy on the pictures and a bit light on the deep details. If you're more of a visual person then I would go this route since it will give you a good idea of what there is to see in a particular place.

The Lonely Planet guides seem to be more targeted at the budget traveler or the backpacker as a general rule of thumb and they're an excellent resource if that's the kind of travel that you do. While these guides also include pictures, the text seems to be more of the focus.

If you can afford it I would go for both since they kind of fill different needs.

Happy travels!

The Eyewitness guides are geared more for grade school aged kids. The lonely planet has more background information and detail about the different sites and events. They are both great, but it all depends on what you want out of the book. My kids have several in the eyewitness series and they love them.

I prefer Lonely Planet because I like the info - not just the basic traveling info but the info on history, culture, and festivals.

Eyewitness would be a better book to look at before you go to help you determine what you want to see.

Lonely Planet would be better to use while you're traveling to aid you in hotels, restuarants, transportation, opening/closing times, etc... while also learning a bit of the background.

Both are useful. They serve different needs. I like taking Eyewitness with me and then another of the more detailed recommendations like Lonely Planet/Frommer's/etc.

Just go out on a limb...go to japan with no guides...and experience japan first hand.

Ask the locals and just live the land. not by a book.

go off on a limb...it is where the fruit is

Either one is great. My dad told me not to buy either as he had an old book that he used when he was there and insisted I use it.

All I could say over there was "throw down your weapon!"

lonely planet is better

challenging task. look onto yahoo. that can assist!

http://www.worldtravel.com/