Japanese Books

This is my favorite furigana dictionary. I suggested this one when I did my review of the other furigana dictionary. There aren't alot of choices and furigana is essential after you know how to read hiragana but aren't so great with your kanji.(This phase could (theoretically) last forever.)

This dictionary is full of useful words and even has foul language from English with extensive variations. (Yeah, so I looked em up. So what?.)

The other reviewer explains how the dictionary works.

This is an excellent book, both for Japanese people who are learning English and for non-Japanese speakers who are learning Japanese.

It contains an enormous vocabulary of English words and their Japanese translations. There are 49,000 English headwords, many of which include variations of the headword. For example, the entry for the English word "luck" includes two Japanese words that mean "luck". It continues by including Japanese translations for the following phrases: "down on one's luck", "for luck", "in luck", "out of luck", "try one's luck", and "worse luck".

The Japanese translations are all written using Japanese characters - kanji, hiragana, and katakana. The reading of each kanji is written above the kanji in tiny hiragana (called furigana), so it is very clear how the Japanese words are to be pronounced provided that you are familiar with hiragana.

The book is a compact paperback (5" by 7" by 1"). It comes in a cardboard protective case and has a plastic protective cover. The binding used for this book is especially nice. The book lies flat when you open it on a tabletop. This means that when you open to a particular page, the book stays open on that page. Also, the binding seems very durable.

You must be familiar with hiragana and katakana to use this book, but familiarity with kanji is not a requirement since the pronunciation of each kanji is written above it.

This book is handy to use, very readable, and very helpful.

I bought this dictionary in the early nineties when I was a student in Tokyo. Today, I am still in Japan, married to a Japanese woman, but still continue to use this dictionary. It is so helpful, even though there are translation softwares on my computer. The Editor in Cheif is probably a genius. His work has helped/benefited many students and people like me.
I will try to add more details here when I have the time.

If you know Japanese, it's a blessing to have this dictionary. If you don't, you'll surely improve your language skills by looking up words in Kenkyusha. Not only is it made for people who translate, but it is a wodnerful tool for those who want to know in-depth informations about a certain word, or phrase: it has many examples, a thing which I personally appreciate, because it helps see the words in the right context. Difficult kanji's are spelled out in the examples, another thing that makes me appreciate the care of the editors. And you can find lots of important katakana romanizations, that's a blessing! The annexes are also very useful: one containing the katakana spelling for European/US names (authors, artists, famous people), one with Chinese names and their spelling and another one, which is wonderful: titles of famous books/novels. Another thing: next to each technical term, one has a reference (one kanji), describing the field to which this word "belongs". This is really a very useful info, because when the same word has two different meanings, I can select the one I need. Great dictionary!

William Reed has tried to define and teach the meaning of KI so that we in the west can learn. The first part of the text helps us undersatnd KI, develop KI and pratcie KI. There are a series of excericses and a section on KI meditation. The second part of the text goes into KI development in the Japanese Arts (Shodo, Aikido, Kiatsu, Go, Noh and the Tea Ceremony). And the third part, Ki in our ever changing world. A must have book.

Like William Reed, I spent over 10 years in the Orient learning martials arts from men who had dedicated their life to the practice. This book ranks among the best written concerning ki. The ideas put forth are universal, and can be assimilated by a broad minded and discerning person. Enjoy this book, I certainly did and continue to do so everytime I pick up my copy.

The book was in good condition but could tell that this was on older edition but overall in excellent condition.

This books is, in my opinion, the most accurate souce of information ever written on Hawaii's Japanese community. Other authors, such as Takaki, have also written excellent historical guides; however, they are usually mainland-born and don't/can't understand life in Hawaii. "Kodomo No Tame Ni" is a virtual encyclopedia of many lesser-known aspects of the Issei generation, and illustrates the past which has created the atmosphere of modern Hawaii.

Anyone interested in discovering the true past of Hawaii's Japanese (as well as Hawaii's other ethnic groups) should definitely get their hands on this collection of stories, which-- due to the growing mainland-ish "Americanization" of Hawaii-- will soon be forgotten.

In this day and age, I don't think another book of this sort will ever be written.

"Kokoro" is a difficult word to translate from Japanese to English. Heart, Spirit, Way of Being...it is all of these things. Rather than attempt a direct translation, Lafcadio Hearn offers a selection of stories focusing on Japanese inner life, so that by the end you will understand kokoro.

The stories follow Hearn's particular interests of Japanese folklore and the vanishing culture of which he found himself a part in post-Meji Japan. Each story is a slice of life focusing on Japanese character, morals and feelings. This is what the Japanese people care about, what they think is important, what is inside.

The selected tales are non-judgmental and non-orientalist. This is no attempt to explain or highlight the "strange" Japanese, but merely a record and an illumination, in the best sense of the term.

The collected stories:

"At a Railway Station"
"The Genius of Japanese Civilization"
"A Street Singer"
"From a Traveling Diary"
"The Nun of the Temple of Amida"
"After the War"
"Haru"
"A Glimpse of Tendencies"
"By Force of Karma"
"A Conservative"
"In the Twilight of the Gods"
"The Idea of Pre-Exsistance"
"In Cholera Time"
"Some Thoughts about Ancestor Worship"
"Kimiko"

Not to be confused with Natsume Soseki's novel by the same title, Lafcadio Hearn's "Kokoro" is a magnificent collection of essays, vignettes, memoirs, and meditations on Japan in the 1890's. Very much a product of the mid-Meiji period, these masterfully-written little literary pieces are nonetheless timeless. Each piece is quite different from the rest, and yet almost all of them manage to start from everyday incidents or obvious observations and gradually spiral inwards to some deeply moving and startling insight into Japanese attitudes, values, and worldviews; more than once this seemingly methodless method allows Hearn to share with the reader certain common opinions and normal spiritual orientations held by average Japanese folks--the kinds of things usually taken for granted and so unarticulated, hence least amenable to documentation and scholarship (especially of the time, but even today). And Hearn does all this with an unpretentious erudition and an understated and balanced sympathy for his subject that, along with his literary flair for wonderfully clear and flowing prose, places his writings here in a category far above the rest. With him we can find none of the unintentional strains of condescension and orientalism so typical of folklore and religious anthropology, for while he's looking with the surprised gaze of the outsider with one eye, his other eye is that of the insider feeling very much at home where he is. The resulting view is visionary--but in subdued and shadowy tones.

Appendix on an Appendix: in addition to the fifteen excellent essays forming the main body of "Kokoro", there's an extensive appendix featuring Hearn's translations of three popular folk ballads: "The Ballad of Shuntoku-Maru", "The Ballad of Oguri Hangwan" and "The Ballad of O-Shichi, the Daughter of the Yaoya". These are fascinating on a number of levels. They provide a tantalizingly fleeting glimpse of plebian drama, remarkable in its very lack of remarkableness. There's a certain sociological angle, as the versions of these oral ballads collected and translated by Hearn are those recited by mountain outcastes in the area of today's Shimane Prefecture. Religiously the first two ballads are key in understanding popular attitudes concerning pilgrimage in Japan--the first demonstrating a creepy (almost voodoo) edge in Kannon faith at Kiyomizudera Temple, the second delightfully exaggerating the rejuvenating benefits of Kumano and its sacred hot springs. Meanwhile, the third ballad is a straightforwardly melodramatic retelling of a true story better known to us today in a more refined and literary version as found in the novelist Saikaku's "Five Women Who Loved Love" of 1686.

1. Rose is Rain - Bara Tamago Sosei Roku (Instrumental)
2. Scarlet -Tachi no Butou - Saikai (Instrumental)
3. Bara no Kokuin - Kuuchuu Teien no Hanayome (Instrumental)
4. Duelist - Yomigaere! Mukyuu no Rekishi "Chuusei" yo (vocal)
5. Illusion - Akui no Sanagi (Instrumental)
6. Belladonna no Wana (Instrumental)
7. Toki ni Ai wa (vocal)
8. Akio Enbukyoku - Video na Kioku (Instrumental)
9. Bara no Rashin ~ Shura - Nikutai Seiza Alpha Psi Zeta Seiun - (vocal)
10. Abraxas ~ Hikari Sasu Niwa (instrumental)
11. Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku - Adolescence of UTENA - (vocal)
12. Kessen ~ Beruzeburu no Oujou (instrumental)
13. Rinbu - revolution ~ Adolescence Rush (vocal + instrumental)
14. Fiancee ni Naritai - Symphonic instrument (instrumental)

utena was always one of my fave animes.and the movies were great.the sheet music is a good tool because since I take paino lessons I can learn all the music.the songs are beautiful and breth taking. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!

Though I have not actually read this book or been formally told the story of The Bamboo Cutter, I know most of it legend. After watching InuYasha; The Movie 2, Castle Beyond the Looking Glass (reffering to Kaguya's moon palace) I was very interested. If you have seen the series by Rumiko Takahashi (InuYasha, that is) then you'll know of InuYasha red kimono that is indestructable. It's made of the fur of a fire-rat which I believe is one of the things Kaguya orderred a man to fetch (in the stories, not in InuYasha {in InuYasha she must collect firerat fur and the other items like the Stone Cup of Buddah (which happen to be the things Kaguya ordered men to get in the stories) to oppen her moon palace. You see in InuYasha Kaguya was evil (and it's funny because she was working with a minion of the real baddie in InuYash a who was named KaguRA) so the story wasn't the same of course!}) And InuYasha isn't the only anime/manga Kaguya has been in or refferenced in. Sailor Moon and Oh My Goddes also feature Kaguya. I think it's cool to learn about something and then hear about it somewhere else. Though you can simply but a Bamboo Cutter story book, It's much more interesting to learn about things in the form of a chapter book. Definentally a choice to make.

This is a wonderful retelling of a classic myth. It educates young readers about the origin of some symbols and themes that they have already seen in popular cartoons and comics such as Naoko Takeuchi's "Sailor Moon", Kosuke Fujishima's "Oh My Goddess" and Yuji Moriyama's "Project A-ko"

This was a very uplifting writing about surviving the deplorable and dire circumstances during WWII in a Japanese prison camp. Dr Hekking was a very remarkable man practicing medicine under such conditions. After reading this book...I have a deeper respect for veterans and survivors.
In ending, the doctor and the Americans seemed to help each other psychologically to survive....

I have had the pleasure of knowing the author for going on 8 years now. His memoir of his time as a prisoner of the Japanese, building the Death Railroad, the real Bridge on the River Kwai, is riveting, and sadly the suffering of POWs is little known.

In the decades since returning from the War, the author has had a distinguished career requiring excellent writing and editing skills, and this book reflects that. It's an easy read, and when you've finished it, you will most likely re-evaluate the struggles and low points of your daily routine.

Lastly, the man who is the subject of the book, Dr. Henri Hekking of the Dutch Colonial Army, will instill in you a sense of awe in the medical skills he learned from native Javanese sources, and how these skills, scorned by English and American doctors, saved *so many* of the men under his care, the author included.

This book adds greatly to, and dovetails with, Hornfisher's latest, and compliments Winslow's "Galloping Ghost...".

No one has written a poem like this for a hundred years--150 sonnets that tell the story of a war. A Japanese naval officer tells the story of WWII to an investigator from the War Crimes Tribunal, an American officer he knew before the war. Deep and powerful. and so conversational you don't know that it is in sonnet form until you start counting lines. I can see why it won an international prize.

This is an unusual book. It tells a story. It's about "the defining moment of the Twentieth Century--the dawning of the atomic age and the destruction of Hirosima." It's all rhyming sonnets, 150 of them. Despite its form, it's conversational. It's an epic, although some critics claim epics can't be written anymore. It's a dramatic monologue, in character. It won an international prize. No one has written anything like this since Browning. What we have here is a new major and important American poet who goes back to classical roots, a neo-victorian who ends the gender war by returning to high culture.

Reviewed by Anne Marie Medema (age 12) for Reader Views (3/08)

"Laura's Victory" is written by Veda Boyd Jones and is appropriate for children ages 8 to 12. Veda Boyd Jones cleverly winds a fictional family into the historic events of the Second World War. The author takes the tragic events of World War II and relays them to what is happening in America. The words chosen to tell the story are descriptive and understandable for a child. Veda Boyd Jones brings the history of World War II to a level that can interest and influence children. Veda Boyd Jones has a simplistic writing style that makes the reader want to continue to the end of the book. The whole book can be summed up in the final three words of the book, God Bless America. These words say that no matter what nationality you are, America is one melting pot of the world, and Veda Boyd Jones makes us understand that clearly.

In the beginning of "Laura's Victory" Laura's brother Eddie comes down with the deadly disease called polio. Eddie fights the polio and survives although the disease cripples one of his legs. Eddie is confined to a brace on his right leg. Laura's other brother, Bruce, is fighting for the United States Army during World War II in an undisclosed location. Laura wants to know where Bruce is fighting. So Laura devises a code that makes Bruce's letters look like simple letters. Yvonne, Laura's friend, helps Laura devise the code. Laura and Yvonne give the code to Maude, an old woman whose son is also fighting for the US in WWII in the Pacific Ocean. Maude helps Laura's mother run the family's hotel business. Class elections are held in school. Both Laura and Eddie became President of their respective classes. In social studies they are asked to find out their nationality. Laura discovers her father is from South Africa and her mother is from Germany. A boy in class ridicules Laura and others because their ancestors are the enemy. Laura's old friends, the Wakamutsu family, bring home a surprise. They adopt a 5th grade girl named Miyoko whose father is fighting in England for the United States. They learn that President Roosevelt is dead and Harry Truman, Vice President, takes over the office of President. Laura feels a special bond to President Roosevelt because he had polio just like Eddie, her brother. Later Laura finds out her family is moving to a home in the outskirts of Seattle, Washington. Laura is sad because she grew up in the hotel and loves the people she has known. Laura's family still owns the hotel. The Second World War ends. Upon hearing the news, Maude cuts open her pillow; and she shakes the feathers around the streets of Seattle in delight. A few weeks later, Laura and Eddie spot their brother Bruce coming home from the war. They are overjoyed. The book ends at a Thanksgiving dinner that Laura says is the best ever!

I recommend the book "Laura's Victory" because it is filled with suspense and adventure. I consider "Laura's Victory" to be one of the best "Sister in Time" books that I have ever read. It is a touching story because of how the war has affected Laura and her family who live in America. The author entwines the life of common Americans into a fascinating adventure during World War II. Laura is a character I can relate to because she is independent and devoted to her family. With every page turn there was a new twist to the story that made me feel like I was Laura Edwards. "Laura's Victory" is a must read.

I absolutely love this book! I got this book and two other books from a friend of mine for my 11th birthday last month. So far I've only read three of Sisters in Time books and this is my least favorite of the three, but I still really,really like this book. I would definitely recommend that you buy this book! I promise you will love it!