“Humorous short story collection” by Endo Shusaku is one of the books I picked up at an Japanese grocery store in Orlando that just happened to have a rack of used books. At the time I thought it was from a different writer, but after discovering my mistake I decided to try reading it anyway.… Read More »
The Japanese are known for their video games, with a long line of classics like Street Fighter, Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, or even Dance Dance Revolution. While in the last decade or so the number of non-Japanese game companies has increased, the Japanese have continued to put out great quality games at a great pace, and… Read More »
This book I picked up at the same time as 影の現象学, and the two works are similar in that I misunderstood both to be fiction when in fact they were nonfiction academic books. This book is a collection of short essays from the mathematician and popular essayist Masahiko Fujiwara, whose parents were also popular authors.… Read More »
When I first saw this Manga in Book Off in New York I was a little hesitant to check it out. Not only was the cover drawn in an unappealing color scheme, but the story seemed to revolve around Buddha and Jesus – and it was clear this wasn’t a particularly serious work. But I had… Read More »
This book is one of the few I picked up in the used Japanese book section of a Japanese market in South Florida, along with this one which I reviewed the other day. My wife had shown it to me and said I might enjoy it, so I picked it up and looked it over.… Read More »
パラ読み – a quick perusal of written text – is an important skill that we take for granted with our native language. We can slow down and analyze word by word when trying to grasp content fully, and speed up when we just want to grasp the basic concepts. With a foreign language, the process… Read More »
In many ways studying a foreign language is like an adventure – besides the many new words and phrases one encounters, there is the content itself which usually comes from a foreign culture. So you never know what to expect, except that your experience will be different than things written or spoken in your native… Read More »
I recently had the opportunity to read through a few issues of the classic Manga series “Patalliro!”, created by Mineo Maya (魔夜峰央) and published by Hakusensha (白泉社). The experience was both delightful and challenging. One single book contains a few mini-episodes which cross over into many genres including science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, and spy, with frequent comedic… Read More »
In the internet age, one of the biggest challenges when studying a foreign language is picking the right study reference out of thousands and thousands of competing sites, books, and videos. Of course finding accurate and error-free material is a concern, but a bigger problem is whether the source is providing you with relevant information… Read More »
Before I dive into the review of Haruki Murakami’s first of three books of “1Q84”, I’d like to talk a little about my experience with this author to give you some background on where I’m coming from. I consider myself a avid reader, and have read many books over the course of my life, especially… Read More »