Want to read Japanese books and novels? We outline a method to help get you started - and build your Japanese listening skills along the way.
Jan 3, 2022 • Subscribe
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Books: Reading Murakami
By Jonathan Clements. Almost everything that is written about fiction is either reception (what the reader thought of the book) or production (an occasional making-of about the author…
10 Japanese Literature Books To Read This Halloween
In the spirit of spooky season, it’s time to delve into the mysterious, the unsettling and the downright terrifying.
10 Japanese Literature Books For Your Autumn Reading List
If you're looking to add some spice to your autumn reading and wish you could travel to Japan this fall, let the pages of a book take you…
Listening/reading log #13 (October 2020)
I’m writing this a few days before possible absolute freakout time here in the States. We’ll probably be okay though. And if we aren’t, then we aren’t. Let’s…
Listening/reading log #30 (May 2022)
Aaaagh. That describes the last two months. I’m somehow simultaneously worked to hell and behind on my work. Makes me miss my government job a little bit, when…
Listening/reading log #27 (January 2022)
Well, that wasn’t the start to the new year I wanted. But work piled on as usual. Fuck all this talk about “work/life balance” and de-stressing. As far…
Listening/reading log #28 (February 2022)
Time for the end-of-month post a bit late again. But what a fucking month it was. The invasion of Ukraine isn’t something I’ve commented on here or elsewhere…
Listening/reading log #24 (October 2021)
Late again. I’ve been going through shit as usual, but that’s no excuse. All the more reason for me to post. First up: music. Juice (Ryo Kawasaki, 1976)…
Listening/reading log #23 (September 2021)
I’m tired. Do you ever feel like you keep walking even though you have no strength left, just because you have to? Maybe that’s the human condition. But…
Listening/reading log #18 (March 2021)
Sorry for the short break between posts and for not being very active in general lately. I’ve had a mountain of work to get through since the beginning…
Listening/reading log #20 (May 2021)
Damn, 20 of these posts. This feels like a landmark somehow, though that should really be marked at 24 instead, shouldn’t it? I don’t have anything special planned…
Listening/reading log #19 (April 2021)
Another month gotten through somehow. And no matter how much else I have to do, I’ll keep going here on the site. For now, let’s get to the…
Listening/reading log #14 (November 2020)
Well look, it’s December already and cold as fuck suddenly. I like winter better than summer, but that still doesn’t mean I like below freezing temperatures. I’m not…
Listening/reading log #29 (March 2022)
Usual apologies for the extremely late post. Otherwise, as far as the news goes, the world is even more fucked than ever. With impending doom coming ever closer,…
Listening/reading log #26 (December 2021)
Sorry for the late post again; work has been drowning me, but every time this kind of rush happens it gets easier to deal with. Maybe this is…
Listening/reading log #31 (June 2022)
Everything is shit and we’re all doomed. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the music and the posts from around the community as usual,…
Listening/reading log #22 (August 2021)
Another month spent watching the world fucking burn. I mostly spent it working, and the parts I didn’t I spent mostly watching anime and doing other degenerate kinds…
Listening/reading log #21 (July 2021)
Another month has passed. Two months in this case, since I skipped June. But I guess I picked a good time to return. Since many of us are…
Listening/reading log #17 (February 2021)
Sorry for being late this month, work and all that. I’ve been doing these posts long enough now that I had to look up which number this one…
Listening/reading log #12 (September 2020)
No, I didn’t forget — the monthly recap is here. And this marks a full year of them. It’s weird to think, I had the idea for this…
Listening/reading log #16 (January 2021)
Here’s the usual month-ending post. One day early because of my very inconvenient schedule coming up, but if anyone posts anything astounding today that I end up missing,…
Listening/reading log #25 (November 2021)
Turns out 2021 was a fucked year too. How about that. Just as we get to the end of it, we’re beaten down by yet another virus variant.…
Listening/reading log #15 (December 2020)
We’re at the end of the year, finally — now for 2021. Not that changing the year by one number makes that much of a difference in reality,…
Why Should You Read Books?
Book reading is on the decline, at least in the US. According to Gallup (Jones, 2022), Americans read 3 fewer books in a year. The total percent of…
Japanese “Cat Books”
Anyone who reads Japanese literature has surely noticed the overwhelming number of books about cats. It’s not just a phenomenon of fiction in translation—there are a lot of…
Books: Japanese Drinking
By Shelley Pallis. Masaaki Watanabe’s anime series Bartender is part of a long tradition of TV shows about smart loners who help others in secret. Its leading man…
Books: Japanese Cinema
By Jasper Sharp. There are many paths one might take through the vast and varied terrain of Japanese cinema. Peter Cowie’s addition to the ever-expanding range of publications…
Japanese Book Guide : 27 Books You Ought to Read about Japan
Here’s a collection of books to help expand your knowledge about Japan. I’ve referred to these books for my various writing projects. This list skews toward history because…
Japanese Book Guide : 27 Books You Ought to Read about Japan
Here’s a collection of books to help expand your knowledge about Japan. I’ve referred to these books for my various writing projects. This list skews toward history because…
(Updated)Books Im reading Summer 2022
Since I haven’t fully finished all these books yet, this is just a summary or review on some of the ones I’m reading currently. I have a lot…
Boost Your Japanese Reading Level with These Sources
We’re all familiar with the language plateaus, the point where you feel like you’re not learning anything new. Which is probably great in the more advanced stages but…
Comfort Reading in Japanese
I was in the middle of reading 「熱源」, which won the most recent Naoki Prize, when the coronavirus began spreading, and suddenly reading a book in which the…
Celestial Method
Years after conducting a strange and mystical ritual as children, a group of friends reunite in their old town to regain long-forgotten memories, confront a supernatural force holding…
Books: Branding Japanese Food
By Jonathan Clements. In 2013, the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe took the remarkable step of appearing on YouTube to talk about Japanese food. He was addressing the…
Advanced Japanese Reading Practice with Side-by-Side Readers
Want Japanese reading practice with newspapers or essays? Here's how to level up your Japanese game with side-by-side readers.
Can Japanese Spot Foreigners' Japanese by Listening? (Tokyo)
Learn Japanese with Yuta: https://bit.ly/3s0iV18 Support me on Patreon: https://goo.gl/aiWNd5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatYuta Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatyuta/ Facebook: https://bit.ly/381qpHS Blog: http://www.yutaaoki.com/blog/
Reading list: independent Japanese animation
This is a work in progress (and probably always will be), but here’s a list of resources on indie animation in Japan. I will use a generous definition…
Celestial Method Review
Celestial Method is a show that can be watched in your spare time, and that's about it. TheOASG's anime review.
5 Books Lovers of Japan Need to Read
The following list of books are must reads for those who are interested in Japanese culture, anime, and manga. This list focuses on important events and sections of…
Read Manga in Japanese Update (Why I'm Done with Flashcards)
Blog Post: https://myhuangopinion.wordpress.com/2021/01/16/why-i-gave-up-on-flashcards-learning-to-read-manga-in-japanese-addendum/ An update on the series. Hopefully my handwriting is legible. Leave any questions or comments down below, or under the blog itself! Also, timestamps are probably…
Books: Cooking with Ghibli
By Helen McCarthy. Les Recettes des Films du Studio Ghibli by cook Minh-tri Vo, with photos by Apolline Cartier and film research by Claire-France Thevenon, is out now…
How to Read Japanese Folktales
Japanese folktales have layers that require some thought to fully understand. Of course, Grimm’s fairy tales and even the Bible require reflection too. Context matters for understanding any…
Books: Japanese Film and the Challenge of Video
By Jonathan Clements. Tom Mes’s new book begins in 2022 with Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car winning an Oscar, followed by a flood of gushing articles about how…
2021 Reading List (Japanese Literature & More…)
After my challenge to read 20 books of Japanese literature in 2020 – and absolutely smashing it – I took a short break over the winter holidays to…
Books on Japanese Culture and Society
This past semester I taught a class on Japanese science fiction and fantasy, and I was surprised by how interested my students were in learning more about the…
100+ Japanese Books under 200 Pages
Japanese literature excels at novellas and short fiction. RJL brings you a list of 100 Japanese books in translation under 200 pages, listed in alphabetical order by title.…
Overlord viewers who haven't read the books must be so confused
I can understand if some viewers don't recognize Hilma from the second season.
How to Read a Japanese Payslip
When payday comes around, it's important to know how to read a Japanese payslip to understand your earnings, allowances and tax deductions.
![Featured image for Vinland Saga S2 – 18 [The First Method]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230514/1684102121.60940.95044.jpg)
Vinland Saga S2 – 18 [The First Method]
Welcome all, to a (late) episode of Vinland Saga! This one was actually rather hard to write, for a variety of reasons. The episode was great but the…
