Recommended Reading for Life In Japan

There are lots of books I'd like to recommend to help you with your life here in Japan.

However, the only reason that I'm writing this right now at 2:40 in the morning is that I'm still recovering from my trip and waking up at all kinds of odd hours. The second that I get the urge to sleep again, I'm doing it.

Okay, so for now:

It took me way too long to actually get myself a copy of Being A Broad In Japan by Caroline Pover. It's great, don't wait.

I really like this series of Point and Speak books. I bought both the Travel in Japan (English) version at Kinokuniya at the Hiroshima Sogo and I bought the Love edition at Village Vanguard in Sunmall on Hondori. Village Vanguard is not only funky, but seems to be doing pretty well, too.

I have a lot of regular textbook favorites, too, but that post will have to wait til later.

For now, I'll finish this short list by telling you about Morning, Noon, and Night in Japanese. I picked up my copy at Junkudo in the Fukuya across from Hiroshima Station. I like this book for a few reasons: the portable size; each chapter is usefully topic-based (At Home, At the Office, Shops/Restaurants, Leisure/Travel, Daily Life) and each chapter is filled with specific dialogues spanning two pages each. The conversations are ones you might actually need to know, the language is not stilted and the explanations are helpful and concise. Hiragana and Kanji are provided alongside the Romaji and English translations. For any book to grow with your increased language skills here, it really needs to provide you with the Japanese text in addition to the English text.

Yeah! I'm getting sleepy! One last one: Making Out in Japanese isn't just for players. The people writing the book (thankfully) assume that you'll actually want to do some talking before/after the hoped-for make-out session. So the phrases and vocabulary provided in this slim volume are pretty helpful for anyone who wants to just do some talking. I've seen these in several different stores.

And for a nice selection of books and magazines, including those of the arty variety, check out Libro at Parco.

P.S. If you're looking to buy some used Japanse textbooks, click on the SuperThanksForAsking link on the right.