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LITTLE ADVENTURES IN TOKYO |
Revised, Updated Edition
RICK KENNEDY
176 pp, 5.5 x 8.5", paper, ISBN 1-880656-34-5, $12.95
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stone Bridge Press
P.O. Box 8208
Berkeley, CA 94707
CONTACT: Cullen Curtiss, 510-558-7827
Tokyo's "Un-Travel" Travel Guide Whether you are heading to Tokyo for pleasure or business, you will want to pack this "un-travel" guide. Little Adventures in Tokyo: 39 Thrills for the Urban Explorer (Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley, CA, $12.95) by Rick Kennedy is not the typical, bulky travel guide written by hired researchers and filled with details such as exchange rates, post office locations, and which local maladies to avoid.
Little Adventures in Tokyo is, instead, a handy 176 pages, crafted by a 20-year resident of Tokyo, that recommends 39 delightful excursions, any of which are perfect for the first-time tourist or seasoned business traveler. Cross-indexed by location and time and filled with maps, Kennedy,s book makes the offbeat and tucked-away treasures of one of the world's largest and most perplexing metropolises accessible to all.
Aside from its invaluable insider's information, the real beauty of this book is Kennedy's writing style. In energetic and chatty prose, he not only gets you where you are going, but he provides the interesting background and insight only a longtime Tokyoite could.
Tokyo is a city of neighborhoods where everybody knows everybody and there is a strong community feeling. Every neighborhood has its police box, its fishmonger, its sake shop, its unbelievably cluttered little hardware store, its newspaper agent.
Acknowledging the different moods of Tokyo, Kennedy has separated his 39 adventures into five sections. Part One is devoted to Old Tokyo. Have tea in the garden of a Kamakura Temple and visit the "Two Gardens."
Here is a way to wile away a lazy afternoon any season of the year. First a light lunch of soba (buckwheat noodles) at a famous old Tokyo noodle shop, then a stroll through two adjacent parks. One the landscaped, manicured grounds of the residence of a prince, with lawns like a Cambridge college; the other a national nature conservancy; a 50-acre piece of land that has been left just as it was before there was a city here . . .
In Part Three, entitled Tokyo Bizarro, Kennedy suggests you participate in (not just watch) one of the many Tokyo street festivals or matsuri. He writes:
In Tokyo, every community celebrates its identity with an annual festival, slowly banging the largest drum it can find to summon surrounding communities. The centerpiece of most local festivals is the omikoshi ("portable shrine") parade and this is where you come in. Dress as though you are going jogging. . . . Join in. Nestle in between two of the carriers. You'll be welcome. . . . The joy of crowding together belly to back, back to belly, the joy of being Japanese. . . . It is an amazing scene, a scene you are perfectly welcome to participate in, just as you would be welcome at a carnival anywhere. In fact, foreigners add a certain spice.
As if you are getting advice from a knowledgeable friend, Part Five is called Listen, I Found This Great Place . . . Kennedy writes of "A Perfect Cup of Coffee" at Bon, one of Shinjuku,s finest:
Your cup is placed before you with the kind of soulful precision one sees at a tea ceremony. Set to the side is a polished copper bowl of granulated sugar, a silver creamer of "vegetable" cream, and a copper creamer with bovine cream. Bach or Chopin issues from oversized Quad speakers and at one end of the counter you are likely to spot one of Bon,s dedicated acolytes sorting through a tray of beans, looking for imperfection.
Little Adventures in Tokyo invites you to discover a Tokyo you've never seen before: the old traditions, the trendy, and the bizarre. With Kennedy as your guide Tokyo takes on many new faces. You,ll feel like you have been transported to the city before you even set foot there, complete with all the sights, sounds, and smells.
Rick Kennedy has lived in Tokyo for over 20 years. The author of Good Tokyo Restaurants and Home Sweet Tokyo, he is a popular commentator on Tokyo city life and food. Rick Kennedy presides over Tokyo Q, an on-line Tokyo city magazine.
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Publication Date, April 1998
21 maps, 176 pages
ISBN 1-880656-34-5, $12.95, Travel & Travel Guides
Published by Stone Bridge Press 1-800-947-7271
Distributed by Consortium 1-800-283-3572
