Japan: Tokyo To Taiwan

Boy, the Japanese have it rough. Check this out: traveler Ian Wright stops at a little bed & breakfast on his travels across the Land of the Rising Sun, and gets to sit on the Seat of the Warming Buns--a computerized toilet seat that, amongst many other no doubt important features, warms your butt. This interesting toy (which obviously caught my attention, and moved straight to the head of my wish list for Santa next year) is just one of the off-the-beaten-track kind of things you tend to find in IVN's outstanding Lonely Planet series, and this island-hopping trip down the spine of Japan is no exception. Wright, the intrepid Britisher, visits a conversation bar in Tokyo where Western girls sit and talk with Japanese businessmen for a price. One woman comments on the safety of Tokyo, where a person could leave a purse on a table and return an hour later to find it untouched (try that trick in Grand Central). Wright also rides the bullet train, samples cuisine that wouldn't pass my lips on a dare, swings a fire basket at the Aso Fire Festival, and visits the museum at Nagasaki. Animal rights are apparently not a big issue in Japan, as a gruesome display of the Japanese form of bullfighting shows us, but personal politeness is still pretty big (Japanese people will often wear a gauze mask if they have a cold; Americans on the other hand, will wait until you're in firing range to get off a good sneeze...especially if they also have a mouthful of food). While Japan: Tokyo to Taiwan won't tell you everything you need to know as a traveler, it does convey a lot of information you won't find in other travel videos, and it does so in a very entertaining way. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)