Japan Books

This book is great for people who want to learn by themselves our with a teacher. It has real life situations and easy to learn. I recommend buying the textbook for more practice and the CD.

This book is very good, but there are not many to choose from. This was 3 quraters of classes.

Overall a good book!

I learned Japanese as a second language from the Genki books, and now I use them to teach students of my own. This is by far the best Introductory Japanese book out there!

I am teaching myself Japanese and I really like this text. This book has a good collection of vocabulary and is very easy to follow. I recommend this book to everyone. It is excellent! My Japanese friend is very impressed with what I was able to teach myself. I feel very confident in what I have learned. The student CD that accompanies is a little lacking, though. It only covers dialogue and vocab for the book (and workbook), when I really wish the CD included more from the textbook. I also recommend getting the workbook for more practice. You should know that you need the student CD to use the workbook. Genki 1 has to be the best text out there for learning Japanese!

This book may be good for young students who anticipate homestays (and I'm skeptical even about that, for reasons below), but if you're an adult you may find this book excruciating. I recently moved to Japan, and finally determined to take some private lessons to get a more systematic grasp on the language than I have had hitherto. My school uses this text. I can't compare it with other college-style textbooks, which may mostly suffer from the same problems, but among the issues I have with it are:

@ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary. This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience. It is useless for business, BTW (though in my own case, I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business).

@ Even within this scenario, the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation -- all classmates address each other with polite "-masu" form verbs. In real life, this would be distant or even rude with your pals. (Moreover, on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like "Mary" and "Sue" address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine, squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials, not people talking to friends or family.)

@ In Japan, it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say, or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them. This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops, where they will use a lot of "keigo" (honorific speech) or other specialized formulas. Simple example: A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask "Yoroshii desu ka?" (Is that OK?), you don't answer back "Hai, yoroshii desu." Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent; e.g. when someone says "Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you," even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically (been there, done that). This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations, nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks. All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle (as well as indiscriminate use of "wa", the topic particle). So it's pretty useless for practical purposes -- unless you plan to use Japanese in class only.

@ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text, the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination. After several chapters of reading stuff like "Are you OK? I am fine. It's cold here in Japan. I took some pictures, studied Japanese and took a bath. My father is nice, but very busy," and so on, you just want to scream.

@ Although the publication date is 1999, at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan, this book is snail-mail all the way: you spend time learning about stamps and postcards, but there isn't anything about email, the Internet or texting. (Forget also about DVDs -- people watch videos.)

@ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity, in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on -A-, -I-, -U-, -E- and -O- (e.g., negative, polite, dictionary, causative and "let's" forms, respectively). This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems, so it's easy to remember. However, "Genki"'s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern (see, e.g. conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol. I).

@ The book lacks any review chapters, appendices, exercises or quizzes to help you consolidate what you've learned in a chunk of preceding chapters. Schools don't necessarily take the initiative to review the material every now and then, so you may need to request special quizzes to force yourself to review stuff you studied weeks earlier. My teachers were amenable when asked, though my lessons are one-on-one, and this might be more difficult to do if the book is used in a class situation (you might ask about that before you sign up). If you're using the book to study on your own, you're on your own with this too.

Like most students of Japanese, I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness. (Two of the best, Rita Lampkin's "Japanese: Verbs and Essentials of Grammar" and Jay Rubin's "Making Sense of Japanese", unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters, or nearly so.) You will definitely need to to the same (or at least half a shelfload) if you use this book. But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22. One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author. This one is written entirely by Japanese authors; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner.

This is a detailed book. Almost too detailed. As a Professor of International Business in Tokyo's Sophia University the author is in a prime position to detail the woes of the Japanese financial system. And maybe that's where the problem with this book lies. He is a professor and not a writer. His insistence on using the expression "Big Bang" started to become a little annoying.

His main emphasis is to point the finger at the Ministry of Finance, the government department which is supposed monitor the economy, regulate the banks and other duties as well. But the Bank of Japan, Tokyo University, private banks, gangsters, construction companies and everyone else are included where necessary.

But the main problem with the book is that it is fairly technical and dry. As I am not an economics student, I had trouble understanding a lot of the financial terms and expressions used through out the book. There is little in the way of explanations or a glossary or index for the average reader to use.

For the parts that I could follow, it paints a dire picture of the continuing Japanese economic malaise. Even though the book is a few years old now, the indications presented in the book and the remedies are still valid today because reform in Japan is a slow moving beast.

Prof. Hayes is a well-known Tokyo-based commentator and financial expert. He is especially well-known for his straight talkimg, without being beholden to ideology, vested interests or other unseen affiliations that so often cloud the analysis and the work of others in business, finance and economics. He is very effective in dismissing the cultural argument as a reason for Japan's economic misery. That indeed is a fundamental point: financial disasters (though perhaps of smaller proportions) have happened before in other countries, and the causes were not cultural then... The book should be titled slightly differently, as those that expect detailed coverage of the big Bang reforms may be disappointed - but then again, those reforms can be listed up pretty quickly by anyone doing a 15 minute search on the internet. Hayes' value added is in the incisive analysis. That the book is highly readable and indeed very entertaining goes without saying for this author.

When I saw that the Yomiuri had rubbished this book I knew it had to be good. I have previously used their feelance reviewer Scott Gordon as a counter barometer and he has yet to fail me. Gordon accuses Hayes of being a Japan basher (the old refrain on anyone who doesn't use Bridgestone's faulty tyres of Mitsubishi's faulty cars). The fact is that Japan's bust was the biggest in financial history, Japan's financial institutions are primitive and there is nothing magical in anything of that. Pathetic hacks like Gordon who hide behind the cultural argument - Japan's culture is different and therefore we should not use normal international metrics to judge her - have had their day. Japan tries to compete internationally. Hayes shows the myriad of handicaps she labors under - and he did this before the lateest scandals cropped up. Given what he has said in his book, the Mitsubishi and Bridgestone sagas are entirely predictable - as are the tirades of Gordon and other sad souls. A good, inforamtive and well written book.

I agree with the positive reviews of the previous posters. This book is incisive, penatrating, well written and Prof. Hayes has a solid grasp on his topic and has made it accessible to non-bankers and non-finance experts. But it should be pointed out that this book is NOT about the Big Bang. All you'll get about that in this book are phrases like "The Big bang will..." or "The Big Bang should..." or "The Big Bang ought to..." and mostly just in passing . Despite the fact that this book was published in 2000 its information seems to be current as of the third quarter of 1998. What this book does do and does very well is explain just how the Japanese economy got into the mess it is in and he answers the question of just how the world's largest banks and insurance companies managed to lose $700 billion by investing in real estate. And he lays the blame clearly at the feet of the Ministry of Finance's largely incompetant mandarins and the directors of Japan's banks who thought they could dominate global finance using the same tactics Toyota and Sony used to dominate the automobile and consumer electronics industries.

I have to rate it highly. It was a good, well written book looking at the aftermath of the Bubble and the proposed Big Bang reforms. Unlike earlier books written when Japan was outperforming all its competitors, it did not stand in shock, awe and wonder at Japan Inc but instead painted its strengths and many weaknesses. Although controversial, none of the many facts it outlines can be seriously queried.
Because the Japanese game, as Gillian Tett's book, PM Koizumi's reform plans and Carlos Ghosn's epxerience, has, in many ways moved on, this book is probably now most useful as a historical summary of what drove Japan into its current round of reforms.

In the land of Toyoashihara, the forces of the God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness have been at war for generations. Saya, a fifteen-year-old girl who worships the God of Light, is suddenly pulled into the conflict when she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden, the priestess of the people of Darkness. Saya must come to terms with her heritage and choose which side of the war she will support, for she is the priestess of the Dragon Sword, a terrible weapon that can destroy the gods themselves. Can Saya choose between the Light, which she has been raised to love, and the Darkness, which is her true family, or is she doomed to kill herself like every Water Maiden before her?

Dragon Sword and Wind Child has all the makings of epic fantasy: an exciting battle between Light and Darkness, a Chosen One, a fantastic land, and a young protagonist who is pulled straight into the center of the conflict and barely knows what she's getting in to. The problem is that after a wonderful opening hook, the story just limps along for about fifty pages. After lollygagging along, the author suddenly throws in cross-dressing, possible incest, and an extremely exciting scene that gets the reader interested again. So now the reader is saying, "Ooh, ooh, what's going to happen next?" and devouring the following sections...in which a great deal of nothing happens. Even the battle scenes are un-epic. They end in the middle or are omitted altogether in favor of overly flowery descriptions of the surrounding landscape (although the translator may be partially at fault, since Dragon Sword and Wind Child is a Viz publication and they aren't known for their stunningly faithful translations). Even the ending is a letdown because a. I saw it coming about 50 pages in and b. the author suddenly decides that the story isn't strange enough so she throws in time-traveling. Um...what?

I don't know how the translation is, since I haven't read the book in Japanese (and have no intention of doing so, since I didn't enjoy it in English). However, I can tell you that someone decided it would be cool if they didn't translate all the words...and didn't put the non-translated ones in the glossary. Thus, if you don't speak Japanese and are wondering what "sakaki branches" are, you're basically doomed. (For the record, "sakaki" is a type of evergreen.)

The characters are bland and fairly clichéd. For example, there's a couple of characters who you can tell from the moment they're introduced are going to bite it and ninety pages later...oh, surprise! They're dead! Saya is not only fairly dull, she's also blindingly Mary Sue. She has not just one guy fall in love with her, but three, two of which are immortal and oh-so-hot. (The author spends a great deal of time describing just how hot they are, so the reader doesn't assume that non-hot guys are falling in love with Saya.) What are the chances? She's also stunningly beautiful and completely useless. Princess Teruhi and Prince Tsukishiro, the immortal leaders of the army of Light, could have been interesting characters if Ms. Ogiwara had concentrated more on developing their personalities and less on describing their clothes and how smashingly beautiful they are. As is, Teruhi just seems petty and jealous of Saya's incredible beauty (which is apparently even greater than her own), while Tsukishiro is there simply to go gaga over Saya and look pretty.

The narration is extremely uneven, often spending two or three pages describing a building, field, or forest. That's great for the first couple of chapters, but when the battle scenes arrive, the author seems more concerned with describing the landscapes and Saya's clothes than the actual battle. When she finally does realize that she needs to write a battle scene, she just stops it in the middle and everything goes back to normal even though a whole bunch of people were just slaughtered.

While it has a promising premise, the story never delivers. However, it was Ms. Ogiwara's first book, so there is a chance that the later ones are better. That said, I was fairly disappointed and wouldn't recommend the book to anyone except fans of Japanese popular literature who have nothing better to read.

I first read this book when I was a child. I loved it. I checked it out of my schools library so many times they let me just keep it till the end of the school year. The story line and the people themselves are so hard to put down. The mythology in the book made me look into the shinto myths. I would recommend this book to anyone. I am twenty six now and still love this book!!

Dragon Sword and Wind Child is one of my favorite novels. What's to like? Saya is a village girl in Toyoashihara (sort of a mystical/magical Japan), a land split by the war between the Gods that created the land: The God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness (and Death). Saya has been raised to love the Light and is shocked when strange people start proclaiming that she is one of the Goddess of Darkness's people, reborn again and again to wage her battle against the children of the Light. This revelation is complicated when Prince Tsukishiro, one half of the children of the Light, comes to Saya's village, trying to woo her to the side of the Light by enlisting her as a handmaiden in his palace.

You've heard this story before, right? Honestly, I normally hate this sort of plot set up and the reluctant heroine type. However, Saya is unique to me because her reactions are understandable and even relatable; you see how she subtlely changes and how she makes her decisions and her mental conflicts. As for the plot? Not all is as it seems. Once Saya comes to the palace, she doesn't particularly fit in the whole court atmosphere and furthermore warrior Princess Teruhi is determined to catch Saya collaborating with the Darkness. Prince Tsukishiro isn't much of a help, as it seems this situation has all been played out before in Saya's previous lives (that she has no memory of), and he's still in love with Saya's last incarnation, who killed herself in the palace pond. And the Palace of Light has many sinister secrets... (The novel continues for much longer, not only through Saya's revelations, her final choice in alliances, but also to the final conclusion to the war that has engulfed the land for as long as it as existed.)

Another interesting part of this book is that it's not your usual elves, fairies, etc. Noriko Ogiwara, influenced by Western writers, used Japanese mythology to create this world. The implications of this are just obvious by the summary of the book above. This isn't Good vs. Evil, Dark v. Light of your normal fantasy epic. The issues the characters have to deal with in this book are immortality, mortality, reincarnation along with loyalty and empathy. Are we cursed to repeat the same mistakes over and over through our lifetimes? Does immortality create an lack of empathy? What is sacrificed during war, what is gained, and is it worth it?

I had worn out checking out the library copy all the time, so I was thrilled this classic finally has gone back into print. The deft translation by Cathy Hirano is still intact, except that mentions to Saya's stone has been changed to "magatama". I somewhat miss the old cover, but some interesting drawings have been added to the chapter title pages. I have heard that there are two more books in the series (about what I don't know, as the book pretty much covers all the bases and closes all plotlines), and I'm hoping the other two will finally be translated for English audiences. And I lied earlier. This is pretty much my favorite book (Tied with Dark Lord of Derkhom by Diana Wynne Jones). And I cry and laugh every time I read it.

SPOILERS
The insertion of Chihaya completely changes the landscape of the book. And amazingly, it doesn't feel random and unwarranted. Like Chihaya's the other main character, he's just been missing. The romance parts of the book are perhaps its weakest point, but understandable, and really do drive the plot.

Noriko Ogiwara creates riddles which seem unavoidable. And they are. However, like the words of any oracle, they are open to *very* interesting and unexpected interpretations.

Don't debate. Buy this book! Thank yourself later.

I am so happy that the book was brought back in print by Viz. I have been waiting for this book for a really long time. After I saw it on an English book of literature I wanted to have it. But when I learned that it was out of print and that it was on Amazon for more than $3oo dollars I was devastated, and I hoped that some day it would be back in print. I had to settle for the copies that were on my public library. But I really wanted to have my very own copy as well as the sequels of the book. So I remained patient and waited and finally it was brought back. I cannot wait to get my copy and hopefully I will also see the sequels also translated. But in the mean time I will enjoy this book first.

words cannot describe how infomative and wonderfully written this book is.It gives the reader a little inside look into thier lives and how they got there and what they go thru.It also gives a look into the culture of japan and makes you want to learn more about these women and their life style.A wonderful read.

This book was amazing! I loved it and learnt so much - you really feel as if it is a true story by the way it is written. Would thoroughly recommend.

Memoirs of a Geisha is an amazing Bildungsroman (coming-of-age) literature. When little Chiyo and her sister Satsu are faced with crisis in their house in their little fishing village of Yoroido, they both end up in different okiyas. While Chiyo in stuck in Gion, Satsu successfully gets out. Chiyo was going to be permanently resided in the Nitta Okiya, until she becomes an apprentice geisha, in which her name changes to Sayuri. Sayuri is faced with things that a normal teenager now days aren't faced with at all, but at the same time can still be related. You find that throughout this book, Sayuri is forced to go through life-changing experiences, whether she wants to or not.
As seen through Sayuri's eyes, life was about the same in the early 1930s as it is now except for the fact that it's about 70-80 years later, and we aren't faced with the same situations as Sayuri.
The author does an extremely good job in making the character realistic. At times, you actually think she is a real person. The author didn't do extremely well in describing background scenes, but you really don't need that when you have an amazing character like Sayuri to give descriptive detail on what's going on with her life, and not what's going on around her.
All in all, I would recommend this to everyone and anyone. On particular, I would single out people who are in need of a good read, but it's a fantastic book which I recommend to anyone.

I loved this book. It was a very easy read. I learned so much about the history of a geisha. I never knew most of the things. I also loved how it ended. I totally didn't expect it. I would highly recommend reading it.

Women in japan aren't just considered woman if they are pretty they are considered business opportunities. for one little girl this was just the case. with stunning blue eyes she wasn't just an ordinary japanese girl her life was about to change forever for good and for bad. A geisha is the most renouned type of woman, they get to get all dolled up and go to special parties where they are paid to sing, dance, and entertain men who come in from all over the country. If you are a good geisha you get a danna which pays for everything, housing, clothes, anything you want. for Chiyo becoming an important geisha ment life or death. either she would become the best in kyoto or she would spend the rest of her life as a made in the Nitta Okiya.
This book is a great overview of the life of japanese woman who used their looks to overcome starvation and homelessness. even though their job looks so easy all the schooling and training takes years for them to become anything better than a prostitute. if you like history and enjoy learning about other cultures this book has it all, the life of a geisha how they survived, how they became geisha, and most of all how a little fishermans daughter was able to become so much more but want it all to go back so bad. i recommend this book for everyone it has everything and i think everyone would be able to enjoy this.

Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

My husband, Jack Elias, a student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in the early days of San Francisco Zen Center, recommended Crooked Cucumber to me shortly after we met. At a loss for words to describe his Zen teacher, he handed me the book and said, "David has said it all amazingly well." I didn't know much about Zen, and all I knew about this great Zen master was that he had authored the classic, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. I didn't know who David Chadwick was, either. After reading the book, though, it soon became apparent that the birth of American Zen Buddhism, the life of Suzuki Roshi, and a deep admiration for David, the author of this beautifully written and exactingly reported biography, had all entered my mind's world ineffably and permanently. I remember this book and its stories the way one recalls favored scenes from one's own personal history. This phenomenon itself has proven interesting food for contemplation. Sometimes out of the blue, details of Suzuki Roshi's life arise vividly and with great immediacy. In those moments I think about how this teacher lived, and how he made his difficult way to enlightenment. Quite simply, this book continues to nourish me, though I'm not a Zen student. Crooked Cucumber changed my mind in ways I can't pinpoint, but for which I'm nonetheless deeply grateful. A thousand thanks to David Chadwick for delivering Suzuki Roshi to us with such love, humor, and rigorous specificity.

If you are interested in the story of Zen in America, you must read this book. Paints a vivid portrait of one of the premier teachers, giving a "behind the scenes" view of what a spiritual teacher's life is like, without the mythologizing you often find. A good read, too. The story of his life in Japan draws you right in, and the descriptions of San Francisco in the sixties bring it to life, although the forward momentum of the narrative begins to bog down into various random anecdotes from his students.

For the continuation of the story after Suzuki's death, you should follow up with "Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion and Excess at San Fransciso Zen Center" .

--Alan Zundel, the HeartAwake Center

This is a very good book. You can read "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind" and find out what Shunryu Suzuki says. More importantly, you can read this and see how Shunryu lived his life - an even better example. Simply and accepting (well most of the time except when he threw the odd wobbly). The book shows that there is nothing to zen, and then of course, there is everything.

It could benefit with an index

This is really the only way to get the skinny on Shunryu Suzuki in a short amount of time. David was kind enough to allow me an interview regarding this (then) recently published book for my last (online) edition of Royal Vagrant, back in February of 2001. In addition to the information he graciously shared with me, I really enjoyed the book a great deal as readable biography and a useful guide to ordination and what to look for in a Zen/Ch'an teacher.

"Crooked Cucumber" is what Suzuki's own Zen master called a naughty Suzuki as a boy. Suzuki was a little bit lazy and devious and the name is an endearing trademark for the man's affable appreciation for the natural bent of a person's character, especially in Americanized Zen practice (and it MUST become somewhat "Americanized", is what he would have said, to become authentic practice for Americans).

Chadwick is a talented author and fuly deserves to be remembered as the man who captured Suzuki's personality and life down on paper.

I came to this book with some reservations, having been told that it was a largely flattering and hagiographic "authorized" biography by one of the subject's most avid students. I expected a saccharine-sweet, whitewashed vanilla ride...and was very pleasantly DISAPPOINTED, lol!

While the author makes no secret of his own profound respect and admiration for Suzuki, he does not omit many ambiguous and less flattering details and events in the subject's life and character. So while the portrait of Suzuki that emerges is largely positive, it is not without some shadows and warts as well, i.e. it is not a two-dimensional characterization by any means. We get a balanced insight into Suzuki the "Zen master" (=highly skilled teacher of Zen) as well as Suzuki the perfectly imperfect human being.

What sets this book firmly in the top echelon of biographies is Chadwick's fluid and graceful storytelling, and the skillful interweaving of Suzuki's own writings and talks into the narrative. In some ways it reads almost like a novel, with the vivid and often lyrical descriptions and re-creations...Chadwick's prose certainly does not have the tedious smell of your typical academic writing. Every few pages there are italicized excerpts from the teacher's books or recorded talks, and they are for the most part very well chosen, with the events that are subsequently described complementing and/or exemplifying those thoughts perfectly. In this way, when you read "Crooked Cucumber" you really get to enjoy two books in one: a very enjoyable biography about a very interesting and irresistible man, and that man's own unique interpretation and practice of Zen philosophy.

It's been a very long time since I've been as engrossed by a biography as I was by this one...maybe we could get David O. Russell (director of the ingenious and deeply Buddhist "I Heart Huckabees") to make a film out of it!

My grandfather served with the Devils Brigade, and since knowing that I wanted to learn more about this extraordinary elite unit of WWII. What I found was perhaps one of the best oral recount's of one of the finest units to ever exist. Having grown up in East Helena (3 miles east of Helena, Montana) and working at one point out at Ft. William Henry Harrison, this book gave me a new found respect for my grandfather and the great men who served in the First Special Service Force. Having finished the book I passed it on to my grandfather and he couldn't let it go. Driving by Memorial Park in Helena and watching the American and Canadian Flags both flying next to the First Special Service Force memorial, day and night, 365 days a year, I can't help but utter a simple, "thank you" everytime I go past it to those that are still living and those that perished for the freedom they helped provide for both countries.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a greater depth of knowledge of this elite unit, or for the military buffs who wish to learn about or learn more of this outstanding unit!

My grandpa happened to pass away about 6 years ago, and he happened to be a part of the Black Devil Brigade. His accounts are in this book, his name is Fred Hubbard, and throughout the book he moves from a 2nd LT to a Captain. The funny thing is, I married a man who just commissioned into the army as a 2nd LT. and will soon be deploying. It is amazing to hear the story of what my grandfather when through captured in a book. The things these men endured for our freedom will always amaze me. I will always wish that I spent more time picking my grandpas brain while he was alive, but I am thankful to have this book to remember these things. This book really captures the essence of what these men went through, and what began what is the special forces today.

Hats off to Joe Springer....! He did the men of 5-2 and the FSSF an honor. My father was a Lieutenant in 5-2 FSSF and one of the main characters of the book, and Joe's Uncle was one of my father's NCO's who was KIA on Anzio. The personal accounts in the book may sound far fetched and exaggerated. However, this is far from the truth. The exploits of the men of the FSSF are a matter of record. Every man who served in the FSSF is a very unique individual. I got to know many of these gentlemen over the years by attending the annual FSSF reunions. And yes, what an honor and a privilege to just meet and speak with them about WWII and life in general. Every man in the FSSF willingly, and knowingly volunteered to join a unit where the odds of being accepted in the unit is less than 20%, and your chances for survival were even less. Thank You Joe for getting my father to open up regarding his experiences during WWII for your book. It also meant so much to him to honor the men in his command who were taken, that were not only soldiers/warriors, but true friends forever.

TAKE ABOUT FIFTY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN WORLD WAR TWO COMBAT VETERANS THAT WILLINGLY VOLUNTEER FOR A WINTER SUICIDE MISSION BEHIND GERMAN LINES. THEY ALL HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXPLOSIVES, THEY ARE SKIERS, PARATROOPERS, AND ARE EXPERT SHOOTERS. THEY BECOME THE BEST TRAINED AND HIGHLY MOTIVATED AND FIERCEST SOLDIERS THAT THERE GENERATION AND NATIONS PRODUCED. SEND THEM TO CENTRAL ITALY, ANZIOBEACH, AND SOUTHERN FRANCE WHERE THEY SLAUGHTER FIFTEEN TO TWENTY THOUSAND GERMANS. MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS PASS BY AND THEN THESE SAME FIFTY COMMANDOS INVITE YOU INTO THERE HOMES AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUNNY, SAD, AND ASTOUNDING THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN COMBAT. THAT IS WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT.

Mr. Springer may have been initially motivated by the desire to honor his uncle (killed serving with the First Special Service Force) but his work honors all who served in that unit. One seldom sees an oral history which tells the story of a unit so well. All the contributions by unit members tell the story without the distractions often found in other compilations. Always engaging, you just don't want to put the book down. Not only does one learn about the unit and individuals who made up that unit but one also learns about the equipment used, how it was acquired, and the soldiers' opinions of its performance. An amazing amount of information presented in a way that also entertains and honors the men who served.

I've used a number of books to learn Japanese over the years, and this was not the first or the last, but I immediately recognized it as the most important as a learning tool and as a reference for beginners. It gives the reader a clear and concise tour through the fundamentals. It doesn't teach you "street" Japanese, but that's better learned on the street - not from a book. It would be best coupled with spoken Japanese lessons from a native speaker or Pimsleur audio (get the CD and make MP3s). Also, you don't need to learn how to read/write Japanese kana or kanji to use this book.

What it won't give you is a gentle cumulative approach to vocabulary, instead it just tosses you in the deep end. If you are serious about learning a language, that's OK - you plan to eventually learn all of the words anyway, so what matter the order in which you learn them? It's also NOT a good book for the tourist who wants a crash introductory course.

The best part? You get through this and then you can buy the Intermediate edition and continue toward fluency. Learn one word a day and you'll be fluent before you know it!

This book is great. It is as it says a dictionary of basic Japanese grammar.
This book explains grammar in a way that is very easy to understand. With this book and the "Dictionary of intermediate Japanese grammar", you will be set. I recommend all serious students of Japanese to get these two books. Then find a good Kanji study system, and follow that up with a good workbook, to enforce practice.

It is more than 1 year since the last review for this book was written here, but reading through all the reviews there seems almost only to be positive comments about this book (the few negative comments there are, are rather unimportant things). BUT this book, used wrongly, may very well teach you Japanese that has never been heard from a native speaker's mouth.

The information provided in the book is overwhelming and the explanations are almost too good to be true. However, depending on what you are trying to learn from the book, in may get you in big trouble.
I am currently living in Japan and trying to pick up the language, and one thing I have come to understand is that there is not only one Japanese language ... but several. There is spoken langauge (actually there are 2 spoken languages, formal and informal), there is written language in books etc., there is news paper language, there is subtitle language (this is a fancy one!) and there are probably many more.
This is not a unique feature to the Japanese language, that is not the point I am trying to make, but especially the difference between spoken language and written language in general is so destinctive, that you must be very well aware of it.

Now, what has all this to do with the book that this review is about? A whole lot!
One evening when I sat at the dinner table studying my host brother (I live with a host family) came down from his room, saw me and placed himself on the chair besides me. He asked me what I was doing, and I of course answered `studying Japanese`. I was reading some random entry from "A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar" and when I showed it to him he started laughing and asked me why I was studying weird stuff like that.
Of course I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained me that what I was studying was not useful at all. He had only read it once in a book but never heard it in a conversation (he is 30 and native Japanese). After consulting my hostdad he agreed as well, the stuff I was reading was useless and waste of time to study.

That little incident made me start asking my Japanese friends about stuff I had learnt from this book, and a lot of the entries they told, they never used in normal conversation.
When purchasing this book and starting to use it as a study aid or grammar reference, you should definitely have some native speaker to ask, whether what you are studying is useful at all, because the authors of this book completely fail to provide any information on where you will find the grammar you are studying. Some of the grammatical expressions in book, you will never hear in a conversation and others are restricted to movie subtitles. So if you use this book without being critical you will end up with an understandable and grammatically correct but extremely odd Japanese.

As I said earlier the Japanese used in subtitles is a category itself. "Subtitle Japanese" is a paradise for people who has used "A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar", but you will never hear it in daily life conversations.
So please be careful to use this great but dangerous book!

There is a bit of a myth about Japanese grammar--that it is too complicated, too alien for the non-native speaker to ever really master. This is a myth that many Japanese perpetuate themselves, seen in unflattering characterizations of non-native speakers, or in the (unhelpful) praise lavished upon anyone who can speak Japanese to any degree, no matter how ungrammatical it may be. This is a myth that is also unfortunately and unintentionally perpetuated by guides like Jorden's "Japanese the Spoken Language" that do the learner a disservice by explaining grammatical points in a language better suited for a linguist than a language learner. For people like you and me, who want to surpass these low expectations and confusing explanations and start on the road to true fluency, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" is an essential companion.

Let's face it--from the perspective of a native English speaker, mastering Japanese grammar is difficult. Very difficult. Don't trust anyone who says otherwise! Much is made of the difficult writing system, but mastering grammar is perhaps even more difficult and essential to smooth communication. Sure, learning the difference between "wa" and "ga" is not as sexy as learning how to write "love" or "raccoon dog" in kanji, but it's many times more useful on a daily basis. By providing easy-to-understand explanations as well as examples of both good and bad usage, the student is given a better understanding of basic (but still difficult-to-master) grammatical points. This dictionary does an especially good job of contrasting similar constructs that give beginning-to-intermediate (and even many advanced) students trouble (wa/ga, aida/uchi, ageru/kureru, hazu/beki, ni/de etc.)

Although I don't think it's possible to gain complete comfort and mastery of Japanese without living in Japan, or at the very least, interacting with Japanese people on a regular basis, this book is the perfect guide for explaining the nuances that a beginner might not notice, and an intermediate student might be aware of but not fully understand. This includes the deceptive "similar constructs" I mentioned before, words that are not easy to translate into English (sekkaku, darou come to mind), and other issues such as auxiliary verbs and onomatopoetic "sound words". Whether you're learning Japanese in school, living abroad in Japan, or even just studying on your own, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" is an indispensable companion for your studies.

One last comment--there are a few reviews that have comments along the lines of "yes, but the Japanese don't really talk like this" to which I say, "You're missing the point." That's a bit like arguing against learning multiplication tables because in the "real world" there are calculators. Sure it would be nice to go directly from "Please give me that pen" to "Hey man, can ya grab that pen over there for me?" but language learning isn't that easy. If you understand the fundamentals of grammar, you will understand Japanese of all formalities, dialects, and other variations and transmutations. It is much easier to learn the shortcuts once you have a strong foundation because you are in a position to understand the nuances and principles involved. In other words, you know and understand what exactly is being "shortcutted". If you only learn the shortcuts, you will have a hard time generalizing your knowledge for usage out of a narrow, specific context. Worse, you might not even realize that you are even making a grammatical or etiquette mistake by misapplying knowledge from one context to another. The worst thing a language learner can do is to try to take shortcuts to "speed up" his or her progress without taking the time to build up a steady base. This dictionary provides that strong foundation that is needed for the serious Japanese language learner.

Personally, I feel that these two books (basic/intermediate) goes together in order to have a complete reference. If it's separated, it's like splitting elementary school's vocabulary and highschool's vocabulary into two dictionary. Which dictionary should you buy if you want to check for words that seemed to be in between these two levels. For example, words like "honor".

The other reviewers are very informative, so i'll just give you a good example of a grammar from the "Intermediate japanese grammar". (I chose intermediate because it can better express a more complete capacity of how the book work. (I apologize if you're a beginner audience)

"believe it or not" - nanishiro

Three ways to use it

#1. (sentence 1). nanishiro (sentence 2)
#2. (sentence 1). un, nanishiro...
#3. (sentence 1), nanishiro, (sentence 2)

Example for #1 (there are 5 examples for this particular grammar)

Ano hito ha kanemochi desuyo. *NANISHIRO* bentsu wo sandaimo motteirun desu karane. (In Hinagana)
(He is rich, you know. *Believe it or not*, he has three Mercedes Benz) (gives you translation)

Unlike regular dictionaries, I find the joy in flipping thru these grammar dictionaries just because it's easy to read and it's also informative. Other than *Nanishiro* in the previous sentence, didn't you also learn what kanemochi means?

I love the show 'Heroes,' but this isn't the show. This compilation of the on-line comics is nice to read, but not essential to the enjoyment of the show even though it does add to the cache of information the show offers. The artwork is not very good at all in some of the mini-issues, and the writing is minimalistic.

If you like comic books and the show, I recommend you read this. If you like the show but don't like comic books, don't come near this. If you don't like the show but love comics, stay away.

I'm glad my library had this in stock! I'd have hated to pay for it just to get 30 minutes of entertainment.

I really liked how this book came. It was wrapped up in plastic so it could be kept as a collectors piece. I gave it as a gift and when he opened it, the graphics were unbelievable. I think that everyone in our family wanted to borrow it. I love the book! Too bad I couldnt read it before I gave it :(

i'm a huge fan of the tv show, heroes. and i love illustrated books. so i was pretty stoked when friends gave me this gorgeous book for christmas.

the chapters in this book (each very short) were created, originally, as web comix for the show's site. they were developed prior to and concurrently with the show's script development. as a result, they're complimentary to the show, as opposed to merely being a recap of the first season. there are characters who aren't in the show, and scenes with the show's characters that aren't in the tv episodes.

that said, this book would be almost impossible to follow for someone who didn't see the show.

the illustrations are stunning, and i really enjoyed it. but, ultimately, it's a book for fans of the tv series.

Over the years we've seen superheroes leap from the four colour pages of comics onto the big screen and even the television.

The quality of these shows has varied greatly over the years. But, for the most part, the movies were terrible up until the turn of the century.

Take a look at the movies that we had based on superheroes, until Tim Burton's Batman, (lets try and forget Batman 3 & 4, ok?) they pretty much all sucked! Any of you old enough to remember the original Spiderman movies from the 70's? Dr. Strange anyone? Or, how about the Swamp Thing?

The same can be said about most superheroes that made it onto the small screen. Sure, there were some pretty good shows (Flash anyone?), some that were so campy I'm shocked that they survived (Batman from the 60's), and some that were just mediocre, but somehow managed to stick around for several seasons (Mutant X comes to mind).

I personally found that the best way for superheroes to be portrayed was, of course, through the animation medium. We've had numerous Spiderman, Superman, Batman and X-men incarnations over the years, and every few years the studios try to re-imagine our favourite superheroes.

Once again, to varying degrees of success.

Now, Back in September of 2006 we had a show hit the airwaves that totally changed the face of entire genre for television.

Heroes hit the airwaves.

Now, this show, as anyone who follows it knows, isn't about flashy special effects or multi-coloured spandex... it's about people.

Ordinary people who are doing their best to lead normal lives, people who discover that they possess extraordinary abilities that set them apart from humanity.

And, of course, the secret organization that plans on controlling these special people.

Another thing that really set the show apart from others of its ilk that didn't survive (Birds of Prey, anyone?) is the fact that it was also supported online. Fake blogs, trivia, production stills, being able to watch entire episodes online and finally, one really, really cool feature...

The online graphic novel.

In my case, I didn't bother reading the online graphic novel, simply because I'm not all that big into comics, and, to be totally honest? I completely forgot about it!

That is until I found the first volume, which contains the first 34 issues of the online comic, at my local bookstore.

Being a fan of the series that I am, I decided to pick it up. Despite the fact that I'm not really what one would call a fan of the four colour books.

I bought the book for several reasons. First of all, I skimmed the book and was, for the most part, pretty impressed with the artwork throughout. Even years ago, before married life took hold of me when I was heavily into comics, I found that if I didn't enjoy the art, it didn't matter how well it's written. I just couldn't read it.

That wasn't the case with this graphic novel.

Secondly, and the biggest reason is because I AM a fan of the series. It was really neat to see all these short comics that add more depth to the main characters, and others that showed up only for a very brief period of time in the show.

To me, it was just filler, background information, but useful information, not regurgitated info that we already knew about in the show.

Since I haven't followed comic book writers or for that matter artists for nearly two decades, I have no idea who the people were that were mentioned in the credits. I don't know what work they have done previously to the graphic novel, so I can't say if any of them are considered to be powerhouses in the industry.

Still, I enjoyed the artwork throughout. It was, as one person has put it in the past, up to my fascist demands when it comes to artwork.

As a bonus, there is an introduction Masi Oka AKA Hiro Nakamura and an interview between series executive producer Jeph Lobe, and series writers Aron Eli Coleite and Joe Pokaski.

Now, in ending, the book is hardcover, and because of this, quite expensive at $[...]Canadian and $[...] American. But, consider that it is over 234 pages in length, you're getting your money's worth.

5 out of 5

This graphic novel contains a serie of short stories that were previously published on the internet and that give you additional information about the characters and all the story. It's an amazing read if you're a fan of HEROES, as it provides you with some interesant hindsights on the Heroes's world.
Also, the drawings and the story telling are superb.

Another mystery to solve by the mathematically-minded Japanese duo - but is it worth reading about? I don't think so. The author describes his locations in better detail than his protagonists so the only feel I have for Morimoto and his assistant Suzuki is intelligent calm. And a story without some stress is a dull one. I appreciate the humor as overeager insurance agent Sasaki tries to help the investigation but by and large I find this story as boring as the first. No action, some travel and lots of clever, logical thinking. The author improved his writing style a bit but it's still a series that I won't bother to continue with. Again I see generic 5 star reviews given to help sales at Amazon. I know why it's done but I find it annoying enough to write a negative review.

My mom and I love the Morimoto series.
Nice stuff about Japan and cool characters.
We want to go and ride on those bullet trains.
Suzuki is my hero.
It's a brainy mystery.
Lots of thinking and laughing.
Worth reading for sure.

I was introduced to the Inspector Morimoto series of detective stories by my friend. After reading the first book I started straight away on the second book. They are very fine detective stories that tell a lot about Okayama City in Japan and Japanese culture and lifestyle. I recommend everybody to read these books.

I haven't read the first book of the Inspector Morimoto series, but reading this book was still very enjoyable.
It reminds me of some Japanese detective story writers such as Kyosuke Nishimura, Jiro Akagawa, to name just a few.
The story can help people to get to know life in Japan, and especially in Okayama where I live. I really recommend this book.

Timothy Hemion is a Ph.D. in Mathematics, born and educated in England. His area of expertise is probability and statistics. He has published a college textbook in his area, numerous articles, and three Inspector Morimoto mysteries.

This is Inspector Morimoto's second appearance as an Inspector from Okayama, Japan, a medium city situated on the bullet train line, which is readily accessible to Osaka and Hiroshima. Inspector Morimoto and his assistant, Officer Suzuki employ the Hercule Poirot method of solving cases. They formulate theories and then act to prove or disprove them. In this case two large diamond pendants have been stolen using a similar modus operandi, by blowing home safes. Interestingly enough, the victims are competing kimono shop owners whose wives greatly value displaying their diamond pendants. The case involves a young bank manager, Mr. Izumi, who is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital. A diamond pendant is discovered in his briefcase by the hospital, and the case begins:

"'Exactly,' Mrs. Akikawa said curtly. 'It looks like a diamond to me, and a diamond of that size must be worth a great deal of money. It's no business of this hospital whether or not Mr. Izumi carries large diamonds around in his briefcase, and it would be quite inappropriate for us to discuss the matter with his wife or with his bank-not unless he gave us his permission, that is.'"

Timothy Hemion's style of writing is concise and well...mathematical. The first two-thirds of the book is dialogue driven, as Morimoto and Suzuki employ their brains to formulate their theories as to what exactly happened. The setting is Japan, and its culture is reflected in their conversations, as the wives of the two kimono salesmen are considered part of the upper crust of Japanese society. Morimoto is under pressure not only from his chief, who doesn't quite understand his methods, but also from the insurance company, who luckily sends a rather young representative who Morimoto can convince to join in the investigation.

INSPECTOR MORIMOTO AND THE DIAMOND PENDANTS is a tale about symmetry, as the considerable talents of Morimoto and Suzuki are ideally suited to unravel the tangle.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

Samurai is Saburo Sakai's own story of his times as a naval aviator for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Mr. Sakai tells us about his past (yes, his ancestors were samurai's), his time spent learning to be a naval aviator, the pre-war (meaning hostilities prior to those with the US), and yes, his time fighting US pilots.

Things that I personally found very interesting in his telling:

What Japanese Naval personnel (aviators and non-aviators) went thru in basic training. Very brutal treatment. Mr. Sakai tells about Petty Officers beating trainees, ordering them to do physical things that bordered on the impossible. Aviation training was better, but only from the perspective of beating not occuring due to minor infractions. However, the standards they were held to... Obviously, the training was not run by kinder, passionette people.

Mistakes in combat. Mr. Sakai remembered his mistakes so well. The simple fact of failing to arm the guns, over shooting a target, or worse yet, failing to properly identify the target (Mr. Sakai mistook a unit of TBM/TBF Avengers for F6F Hellcats).

His respect for his opponent. Most of Mr. Sakai's combat time was spent in New Guinea flying against US units that were flying P-39's and P-40's. Both of these planes were outclassed by the A6M Zero in almost every category except diving (note, since neither the P-39 or P-40 were supercharged at this timeperiod of the war, their performance went from bad below 15,000 feet, to terrible if they went above 15,000, thereby denying them altitude to dive for an extended period). When this is merged with the fact that the Japanese pilots were combat seasoned veterans, while the Americans were green, it makes for a bad time for those flying the P-39's and P-40's. In remembering these engagements, Mr. Sakai spoke very well of how the US pilots tried to engage the Japanese pilots.

Mr. Sakai's writing style if very readable. It's direct, to the point, without great flurishes or breast beating. This does not mean that it's unemotional, but rather that when he uses emotion, it's very memorable. For rating purposes, I have to give this 4 out of 5 stars (Amazon rating system). I don't know how he could have made it better (writing style?) but I can definatly say that it's a very good read!

Samurai! documents the wartime exploits of Saburo Sakai, the greatest Japanese fighter pilot to survive World War 11, in which he was credited with downing 64 enemy aircraft. Sakai, who died in September 2000 of a heart attack became a legend in his own lifetime. This book explains why.
Samurai! takes us from early victories over the Chinese airforce to the later dogfights with the Dutch, the Australians and, finally, the unstoppable Americans. Sakai, in describing his journey from a rookie pilot to the final surrender, also chronicles the rise and fall of the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Force as seen from one of the most spectacular cogs in its vast apparatus.
Saka, who was never decorated for his actions, was a truly amazing fighter who was held in adulation by his mechanics and wingmen. Indeed, of all Japan's aces, Saburo Sakai was the only one who never lost a wingman in combat. This is an astounding record for a man who engaged in over two hundred aerial melees. But then again, Saburo Sakai's story is an astounding one.
His retreat from Guadalcanal is evidence enough of that. Having suffered paralyzing wounds in his left leg and left arm and having being permanently blinded in his left eye and temporarily blinded in his right eye, with jagged pieces of metal in his back and chest and with the heavy fragments of two 5-caliber machinegun bullets imbedded in his skull, he managed to fly his crippled Zero all the way back to New Guinea. That is the stuff of Hollywood legends.
So too is his dogfight against 15 Hellcats over Iwo Jima. Although he only had sight in one eye, Sakai managed to out manouver the Hellcat fighters and land safely back on the besieged island. His escape from Iwo Jima is also the stuff of Hollywood legends.
Hollywood bases its stories on legendary warriors. And Sakai and his comrades quickly became legends as their honed skills and Mitsubishi Zeros allowed them to cut a swathe through their Chinese, Dutch and Australian enemies. Sakai's accounts of those earlier battles are like reading th accounts of Cochise, Crazy Horse or Geronimo. Sakai and the other Japanese warriors of the air went out and did what they felt they had to do. Their Zeros were as precious to them as the finest steeds were to the warriors of old. They were the cream of the crop.
Unfortunately for them, their numbers were whittled down as the war dragged on. Midway accounted for over 300 of Japan's best pilots.The Americans, meanwhile, came relentlessly at them with their Wildcat and Hellcat fighters, which were purposely designed to outpace the Zero. Time and again, Sakai stresses that it was only the Americans' lack of combat experience that saved him.
They didn't save the others. As the war dragged on, the standard of the average Japanese pilot plummeted.
This book is not a glorification If this book glorifies anything, it is the futility and blaspehemy of war. Sakai describes how business went on as usuall in China even in the middle of combat zones. He describes watching Australian pilots being eaten by sharks. His account of how his superior skills saved him at Iwo Jima reflect the skills he noted in the Dutch and Chinese pilots of the earlier chapters. The Japanese, who had been the confident hunters I nthe earlier chapters, were now the prey. Usually, they were sitting ducks, powerless to do anything but volunteer for a kamikaze mission or to train the young novices who made the bult of the kamikazes.
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, another top air ace who was later shot out of the air in an unarmed transport plane, was one of these. Sakai describes him as bing "unpredictable in the air, a genius, a poet who seemed to make his fighter respond obediently to his gentle, sure touch at the controls." Sakai constantly uses similar imagery to decribe his love for the Zero. This book has been reissued on countless occasions. Read it and find out why.

Sakai gives us insight into the progression of the war from the Japanese perspective, revealing the mindsets of those on the other side, without meandering into the chronological army list minutiae that many others succumb to. Action and emotion, quandaries of conscience and honour are always the subjects discussed.

Very good book. Highly recommended - very pleasureable read.

Also of increased value to those of us who play WWII combat flight simulators (grin).

I read this book while I was in high school. It gripped me from begining to end. Saburo was a proud and disciplined flyer. His combat prowess seems almost super-human, but as he is quick to remind us knowing the aircraft's capabilities and the tendencies of your enemy is half the battle. His description of the unsuccessful surgery to repair his face and eye after shrapnel is really painful to read. Amazingly, despite the lack of vision in one eye he continued to fly for the Empire, though with a severe handicap. This book is excellent. Anyone interested in learning about Japanese WWII aviation needs to read this book, you will not be dissappointed.

This book shows that combat warriors on both sides have the same thoughts and concerns. They worry about their families and complain about their leadership.

I bought the Classics of Naval Literature volume after reading a library copy. That's how much the book impressed me. The top-surviving Zero naval ace of WWII, Sakai had realistic and controversial opinions of Japan's role in the war. He did much to build postwar friendships with the United States, even at risk to his own life.

Little did I realize when I bought the book that I would someday meet him. I visited him in his Tokyo home and hosted his visit to Naval Air Facility Atsugi. My book is now autographed.