Trails of Two Cities: A Walker's Guide to Yokohama, Kamakura, and Vicinity

by John Carroll

Presenting a series of guided walking tours through the booming port of Yokohama and the ancient capital of Kamakura, this book provides adventures for armchair travellers and avid explorers This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 4770018371
• ISBN13: 9784770018373
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Dated but invaluable

It's not really fair to criticize Carroll for not updating the book. It's obviously a one-time-only labor of love project that he worked up to and put to paper in 1994. So yes, much of Yokohama has changed (as has much of Japan in 10 years time), but valuable insights he has into the history and nature of city can't be topped. Since he's not a professional tourbook author (I believe), I cut him slack. This book is still the only and most important guidebook to just Yokohama, and is a must-read for people who really want to dig into Yokohama, but can't be used as a sole guide.

Best guidebook of Yokohama and Kamakura, but some update needed.

This guide may be a must-have if you'd like to explore Yokohama and Kamakura. Recently I've joined a voluntary guide group for this area, and started to look for a guidebook from the view of an ordinary American tourist. I found it the best. Unlike other guidebooks, that are based on official information from the Japanese government and travel agents, this book picks up interesting spots for people unfamiliar with Japanese history and culture. This is also free from a common flaw in many books on Japan written by elites who have some tendency to Orientalism and love to seek a Madam Butterfly taste everywhere. However, the Central Yokohama area has been changed a lot since this book was written. It is still useful to plan your itinerary, but you'll need a new map and tips before you start walking. For example, a new subway line has started the service from Yokohama to Chinatown, and new shopping malls are built in the Brick Warehouse area. Some attractions and new sweets/snacks are now popular in Chinatown. You can find neccessary information on the Yokohama Convention and Visitors Bureau site, or the Tourist Information Center in front of Sakuragicho station.

The Other Japan: John Carroll's 'Trails of Two Cities'

The average American tourist sees Japan through the looking glass: Tokyo. Though it is a fairly accurate view, it is a narrow one. John Carroll, however, has discovered the rest of Japan within an hour of Tokyo. His 'Trails of Two Cities' takes the reader to Yokohama, Kamakura, and other spots within the Kanagawa Prefecture, which covers the peninsula south of Tokyo at the mouth of Tokyo Bay. Trails is an excellent tour of the area, but it also gives the reader an accurate history of the area, secret and out-of-the way spots only a local would know, and background, insight, facts and legends you can't get in your run-of-the-mill Fodor's or Lonely Planet guides. The series of walks gives you a through view of the port of Yokohama, a city of foreign influences once considered the wildest port in the Far East; and the ancient capital of Kamakura, where the rise of Buddhism in Japan and the first shogunate occured. Its bilingual maps and information are highly accurate. I was stationed in Japan for more than two years in the area and took every walk in the book and had a great time; I wouldn't have even known Jogashima and Enoshima exsisted if it wasn't for this book, and the part on Kamakura alone pays for itself. It's a super way to explore that part of Japan. Even if you're an armchair tourist.