A bonus after reading “Rashōmon” would be to watch the well known Akira Kurasawa-directed masterpiece 1950 film afterward. 15. “Exploring Japanese Literature” translated by Giles Murray

Many Japanese learners and non-learners have been introduced to Studio Ghibli or Hayao Miyazaki films at one point in time. Just keep in mind that because of this, some steps may seem counterintuitive. They may even seem slow compared to other methods, but everything has been carefully selected to get you to the finish line faster and more efficiently. We'll talk more about that later. Personally, I love any book by Mari Takabayashi. The illustrations are beautiful, and although her books are written entirely in hiragana, the sentences are a bit more adult-like compared to other children’s books. But the vocabulary remains easy-peasy.

It might not be about laziness either. Beginning learners can get a huge boost from using the tools and texts I’m going to share here. Japanese parallel texts You probably know about newspapers for adults, but did you know about newspapers just for children? They tend to talk about slightly more cheerful things and are written in a much more simple fashion (easier kanji, easier words, easier everything), which is good for people who are still beginners of Japanese. There are some problems, though. Furigana is prevalent in a lot of them which kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. I’ll be sure to note these ones down as well as tell you of a workaround to get rid of the furigana when it’s there. Kodomo Asahi Although the sentence structure in “Night on the Galactic Railroad” is suitable for beginners, the book has some uncommon vocabulary like “expeditions,” “galaxy,” and “fossils”. The names of the characters are also foreign, so knowing katakana is a must. 3. “God of Bears” Finally, while I think it can be great to push yourself to complete something you're interested in, and really gratifying once you finish it, if you want to follow these guidelines then reading shouldn't be an extremely taxing activity for you. Instead, it's best to read things that are suited to your level, that allow you to relax and read comfortably without feeling the urge to look up every other word. Our Recommendations Like hiragana, we have a way for you to learn kanji that's way more effective than the traditional methodology (rote memorization). Thanks to that, it won't be as difficult as everyone says. It may even *gasp* be a pleasure to learn! Maybe.

This collection of short stories is focused on the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It contains six short stories centered around people who, while not directly affected by the physical devastation of the quake, find their lives forever changed in its aftermath. A great set of Japanese folktales, this is a collection of twelve popular folktales, written for children by Toshio Ozawa. Since fables do tend to have some strange words, it’s best to familiarize yourself with words and phrases like,In this guide you will learn how to narrow down kanji meanings and readings to the most important ones. You will learn how to use radicals and mnemonics and how to create an effective routine. Learn basic vocabulary. Practice these words with kana alone if the kanji is tripping you up. Many textbooks will introduce beginner level Japanese vocabulary with kana only, and then phase you into learning the associated kanji. Forcing yourself into kanji too early can detract from your kana mastery and vocabulary retention (which are both incredibly important). But, hey, if kanji doesn’t seem all that bad, go for it! If you've been using WaniKani, you've been using a "Spaced Repetition System" (a.k.a. SRS) this whole time! But you'll want to use something else for the vocabulary you find out in the wild. For this, we wrote a guide. In it you'll learn how to collect vocabulary and add them to your SRS. Thankfully, this is where graded readers come in! Graded readers are book series that feature a variety of stories sorted into different levels of difficulty, or "grades." For Japanese, this usually is determined by the vocabulary and grammar used, often corresponding to the 5 levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), but different publishers and organizations have different levels and definitions. Graded readers offer everyone, even Japanese beginners, fun stories to read. Not only is this an enjoyable, confidence-building activity, but it'll make your Japanese a lot better too! The book by Yasutaka Tsutsui is about a bratty but pretty average female high-school student named Makoto who suddenly finds she has the ability to jump through time. It’s beautiful, tragic and oddly nostalgic.