Japan - book(s)

[BeaLola]

Apologies not about a holiday as such and posting separately do as to not derail thread.

My DB and his wife are planning to go to Japan Autumn 2025/spring 2026 to celebrate milestones birthdays - probably going for 3 weeks.

For Christmas I was thinking of getting them a useful book re Japan and travel holiday plus maybe a glorious coffee table type one to inspire their route .

I know there are a lot of MN who have been , are returning and also who are planning trips. Can anyone recommend anything suitable please ? And if there's anything else you think would be a great gift feel free to add

Thank you

Such a lovely idea - so much of the best travel content and planning is now online, but I think a coffee table book is a great place to start. The Monocle books are a really great mix of guide and inspiration, or you could go niche depending on whether their main interests are food, transport, culture, etc. The Assouline ones are very popular/trendy, but I haven't read any myself.

Failing that, you could always buy them an extra suitcase - we went to Japan in May and had to buy another suitcase to bring home all the things we bought 😅

boymum1989 apologies for not thanking you before - was super helpful

IMO you can't beat a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide for info about a country. We're also going to Japan next year and the first thing I bought when we started planning was a LP guide! I'm also adding a few books by Japanese authors into my reading. There is a whole sub-genre of books by Japanese authors about cats, which are rather fun if you happen to be a cat person, maybe not if you're a dog one!

Which Cat one would you say is a good read (SIL is a cat person)

Well, I've read 'The Cat and the City' by Nick Bradley, which I enjoyed and I've got two more to read that both have excellent reviews. 'If cats disappeared from the world' by Genki Kumamura (makes you think about what is really important in life and why, but I think it's also sad), and 'We'll prescribe you a cat' by Syou Ishida (which sounds more uplifting and amusing).

@BeaLola Japan By Rail is indispensable. Together with Lonely Planet they are the best guide/planning books.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a good read too. Bookshop UK is a good place to start looking for cats in Japanese literature. Then there is the The Maneki Neko Museum in Okayama dedicated to Japanese culture cats.