While I know many of us struggle with tsundoku (積ん読)––buying mounds of books you never read––perhaps tondoku (止ん読)––starting a book or series and never finishing it––is an even graver crime. (Note: please see the last paragraph of this post regarding the word ‘tondoku‘) Sometime back I had read the first few issues of manga Inuyashiki (いぬやしき) by… Read More »
As part of raising my son bilingual Japanese, over the last few years I’ve spent a great deal of time reading him Japanese children’s books. I always recommend children’s books to people learning Japanese because typically no kanji knowledge is required, there is a so much culture to absorb, and they are just plain fun.… Read More »
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 »
While I do enjoy reading Japanese manga (comics) occassionally, I’ve spent a much greater proportion of my time either watching Japanese anime or reading novels. When I was young I wasn’t really into comic books at all, and as a result it takes me extra effort to follow and appreciate them. When I first started… Read More »
Cool Japan Guide, by Abby Denson, is marketed with the catchy subtitle: “Fun in the land of manga, lucky cats, and ramen”. Despite the fact I am pretty heavily into Japanese culture, I haven’t read a printed book on it in some time, so I was looking forward to reading this book. This 128 page… Read More »
There is something adventurous about picking up a book in a bookstore which you know nothing about except the title and cover page. It feels like you were dropped in the middle of an unknown country without a map, with nothing to go on but your own sense of direction. This is much how I… Read More »
In the process of writing this blog, one thing I’ve discovered is that I enjoy the challenge of translating from Japanese to English. To that end, I’ve decided to put out a call for translation requests. I’m open to translating anything including portions of Manga, TV dramas, movies, novels, or newspapers. The only requirement is… Read More »
Monocle is a magazine whose cover design has caught my eye now and then at the local bookstore, though usually when I leaf through it the topics don’t quite match my interests, with stuffy topics like world affairs. However, the cover of the most recent issue (#81) was a big picture of Doremon, the famous… Read More »
Recently I happened to stop by Kinokuniya, one of the better Japanese bookstores in San Jose. I wanted to buy a few things there to read, but since I had done practically no research before arriving I ended up picking up the first issue of Hiroya Oku’s “Dog House” base only on the cover art and some text which said something about robots… 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 »