Just In Tokyo
How to Live as an Urban Nomad
in the World's Most Expensive City.

"Just In Tokyo" is, I think, the only guidebook ever to make me laugh out loud. A lot.
- Peter Merholz, peterme.com

"Why settle for a laundry list of hotels and sites when you can have a Justin's-eye view of one of the more impenetrable cities in the world? I doubt you will find loving attention to capsule hotels, cyberporn, and First Kitchen hotate fries anywhere else. Part travel diary, part ethnography, and part guidebook, Just In Japan gives hints to the enterprising traveller on how to beat your own inspired and irrepressible path through a city of riotous density and flux."
- Mizuko Ito, Visiting Associate Professor, Keio University, Graduate School of Media and Governance

"Put down that 'Prague on $5 a Day,' you hippie! Justin’s Tokyo-On-No-Yen-Just-Confused-Smiles will have you flirting, reeling with liquor and dressed up like an extra from a bootleg high-school production of Neuromancer as you chow down on a hearty breakfast of vending-machine schoolgirl panties. As you lie awake in your coffin hotel, listening to the midnight symphony of salaryman flatulence and drunken good cheer, fire up your DoCoMo handset, aim its flat-panel display at this book and read and you will feel comforted."
- Cory Doctorow, Author: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

just in cover art by wilson kello Japan is an island, five times further away from Korea than England is from France. This isolation has resulted in a marvellous mutant culture, the leading reason to see this country. Still that distance and isolation is at the heart of some alienating expense and inconvenience in traveling to Japan.

But for the flexible Western traveller, travel to Japan can be inexpensive and immensely stimulating.

Just In Tokyo is written to encourage you to find your own Japan. Get out, start walking and engage the world. Read this on the plane or the toilet to get a sense of some of the strange things you might find, and hopefully this first round of exploration explained here will help you dig deeper during your visit.

70 pages, folded over like a zine, the guide easily fits in your pocket.

The Guide is no longer for sale in print. But you can find a digital copy here. Donations appreciated!

Thanks To:
Cover Art by Wilson Kello, of Same Clothes. Design consultation with Tricia McGillis. Stephen Church from AnalyticaJapan provided some proofreading and a great online glossary.

gcpress logo
Garrett County Press, L.L.C, May 2002.
ISBN-10: 1891053507

What about Just In Tokyo? Kenji Eno speaks:

For example, if I look at only the the Statue of Liberty and say, "New York is a wonderful town truly!", what do you think?
For example, if I look at only Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Big Ben and say, "I've really enjoyed the travel in Britain!", what do you think?

Although I have many foreign friends, when I know that their sightseeing in
Tokyo is the same, I am disappointed extremely:
Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, Kabuki-za.
Maybe I will not go to such a place more than 3 times in a lifetime.
It is the same as giving only kiss, although you are married.
It is the same as playing only Tetris, although you have Playstation2.
It is the same as eating only sausages, although you ordered a jambalaya.
Traveler, Taste more!
American! Play Japan deeply!
You should marry Tokyo!

Tokyo, I think almost every country is the same. It depends on you whether Tokyo becomes interesting or less boring.
You can encourage the man of past 40 who was fired from restructuring in the public bath called 'Sento' and
You can be mistaken for a molester by a high school student girl who operated orthopedically in the train.
You can eat the sushi which the robot made in the dance-club.
You can say "You are a person really kind" to the cute pet in a mobile phone at the capsule-hotel.
After that, you will know the merit and poorness of Tokyo.
Meritorious and poor - When you love it, you are already a Japanese about 24%.
No, you don't need to worry if you become so.
You can be original you again, if you burn this book which is used as the first step of your trip, you already know.

- Kenji Eno (a game creator, the president of fyto inc.)