Monthly Archives: July 2016

Japanese short story review: “Memoirs of a traveller” (ある旅人の手記) by Romo Mamiya (まみや ろも)

“Memoirs of a traveller” (ある旅人の手記) is another short story I recently found on the free novel and short story site 「小説家になろう」. It reasonably short, at around 8,000 characters, and is grouped in the “human drama” (ヒューマンドラマ) category. If you are like me, and haven’t heard of this word before, it basically means works that focus on… Read More »

Quick manga review: サイケまたしても (Psyche Once Again, “saike mata shite mo”) by Tsubasa Fukuchi

This manga was recommended by someone, so I decided to read through the first volume. At first, the plot seemed strongly reminiscent of a certain early 90s movie about a unique type of “time travel”, however as you read into the 2nd and 3rd parts you start to see there is much more depth to… Read More »

Japanese short story review: 「緩慢な表象と虚ろな幻想」”Unreliable Symbol, Hollow Illusion” by 藤村由紀 (Yuki Fujimura)

Recently I reviewed the site “小説家になろう” which is where you can find thousands of free Japanese novels and short stories of various genres. One thing I’ve realized (again) when looking for Japanese stories to read is that I’m quite picky about the types of stories I read. I try to stay away from things that sound too commonplace, like… Read More »

Unofficial translation: Japanese Novel “Witch of the Library” (図書館の魔女) [1st chapter]

Recently, I finished reading the first volume of “Witch of the Library” (図書館の魔女) by Daisuke Takada (高田大介) which I reviewed in detail here. Put simply, it is a pretty interesting hard fantasy (think Tolkien) book which requires a pretty high level of Japanese vocabulary and grammar to get through. Typically, I wait until I finish… Read More »

Japanese Novel Review: “Witch of the Library” (図書館の魔女) by Daisuke Takada (高田 大介) [1st book]

When searching for a new Japanese novel to read, I decided to peruse through the Fantasy section of Booklive (one of my favorite E-book sites) to see what was available. A few of the books looked pretty cheesy, but one of the book’s title and cover art intrigued me: “Witch of the Library” (図書館の魔女) by Daisuke… Read More »

Recommend reading list for Japanese learners

Recently a few people asked me if I could provide a list of suggested novels for Japanese learners who don’t have enough experience yet to tackle popular adult novels, like those from authors like Haruki Murakami. In this post I’ll try to address that question and provide some related thoughts. Knowing what type of reading material is appropriate… Read More »

What it’s like reading Haruki Murakami novels in their original Japanese

If you follow this blog you probably know that one of the main motivators for me to get serious about learning Japanese was because I am a big fan of the author Haruki Murakami and had a strong desire to read his novels in their original, untranslated, Japanese. When I meet people for the first time, the topic of… Read More »

Ways to describe style in Japanese

When studying a foreign language, just because you can understand something doesn’t mean you have the requisite vocabulary and grammar knowledge in order to summarize it and talk about it’s content critically. In my Japanese studies, I’ve found that it can be frustrating to describe in any amount of detail something I’ve just read (novel,… Read More »