Mii-chan’s Mom is busy today, but they don’t have any milk left in the fridge. Luckily, Mii-chan is old enough to help – it’s time for her first errand alone. Author: 筒井頼子（つつい よりこ） Illustrator: 林朝子（はやし あさこ） Publisher: 福音館書店 Length: 31 pages This is a picture book intended to be read to and with children from ages 3 to 5. I found the story very cute and Mii-chan is so brave about her first errand. The colour pencil illustrations help with understanding what’s going on and felt very nostalgic to me. All characters are hiragana, but the spacing makes it clear where a word ends and another starts ..read more

In 2023, I started working full time and thus had less time to read compared to 2022. In addition, I also started preparing for the JLPT N1 and tried to read novels in Japanese that would challenge my reading comprehension accordingly as well. In this post, I’ll be sharing my personal highlights of Japanese book I read this year and I’ll also provide links to each book in case you want to check them out for yourself. Before we dive in, a few notes: Some of the books on this list have already been reviewed in more depth on my blog, and I’ll be providing links to those reviews as well in those ..read more

A soul enters the afterlife, where it is told that it has no further to go from there. Whoever this soul was, it was responsible for something bad in their previous life and thus won’t be reborn. But fortunately, the soul is given a second chance by being sent back to earth once more to continue to live the life of Kobayashi Makoto, who has just died by suicide. Author: 森 絵都（もり えと） Publisher: 講談社（こうだんしゃ） Content Warnings: suicide, bullying, underage sugar dating (enjo kōsai) Length: 275 pages The soul now has to settle into the life Makoto left behind. There are his family members, who consta ..read more

A soul enters the afterlife, where it is told that it has no further to go from there. Whoever this soul was, it was responsible for something bad in their previous life and thus won’t be reborn. But fortunately, the soul is given a second chance by being sent back to earth once more to continue to live the life of Kobayashi Makoto, who has just died by suicide. Author: 森 絵都（もり えと） Publisher: 講談社（こうだんしゃ） Content Warning: Suicide Length: 275 pages The soul now has to settle into the life Makoto left behind. There are his family members, who constantly are preoccupied with anything but their ow ..read more

Are you ready to discover the fascinating world of Japanese short stories? Reading in a foreign language is one of the most effective ways to improve but doing it for an extended period can also be exhausting, especially when you need to grasp new grammar and vocabulary at the same time. Short stories offer a perfect compromise. With their selfcontained plots and concise length they will sharpen your Japanese without overwhelming you. And being able to finish a story aimed at native speakers in one afternoon can also feel like a great accomplishment. What I personally really like about short s ..read more

Mayu likes to read romance and to draw manga. Just like the protagonists in her favourite romance shōjō manga, she would like to have a boyfriend (かれし). So she just starts drawing him. Author and Illustrator: ふくどめマリア Publisher: NPO多言語多読 NPO Tagengo Tadoku Length: 16 pages This short manga is written and drawn especially for Japanese language learners, but is read right to left and vertically in the typical manga style. It contains largely textbook sentences with the usual です/ます-verb endings and furigana on all kanji. For some of the speech bubbles you will also encounter in parts the colloqui ..read more

Due to a traumatizing incident in her childhood, Hinako is living a secluded life in a harbour town and often struggles with her will to live. The ocean she sees every day has been both threatening and eerily fascinating for her ever since and from its depths emerges (literally!) the yōkai Shiori who wants to eat her. Author: 苗川 采（なえかわさい） Publisher: KADOKAWA Length: 162 pages Shiori is mysterious, dangerous and surprisingly straight-forward in telling Hinako she needs to stay alive so that Shiori may one day feed on her. Until then she will fiercely protect her. But Hinako still has her doubt ..read more

Yōkai are Japanese spirits and haunting creatures from Japanese folklore that can be harmless as well as malicious. This booklet introduces you to several of them. Author: 品川恭子（しながわちかこ） Illustrations: マット・マイヤー Publisher: ジャパンタイムズ出版 Length: 12 pages I personally always enjoy a good ghost story, especially now that it’s getting darker and spookier this month. Learning about an unfamiliar culture by looking at our folk tales and exploring what we warn our children about is probably fascinating in every language. However, Yōkai being unique to Japan definitely ensures that there’s always somethi ..read more

In 1937, the Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo published the serial novel “Detective Boys” in a youth magazine. In this story, his already established private detective Akechi Kogoro is teaming up with a gang of curious boys to first solve the mystery of a black demon before going against a phantom thief. Author: 江戸川乱歩（えどがわらんぽ） Length: ca. 100.000 characters Link: https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001779/files/56669_58756.html 少年探偵団 is actually the second part of the series. However, as is common practice with children’s detective stories, everything that happens beforehand is explained and ..read more

The star of the Genki textbooks, Mary, visits a 100 Yen shop together with Yui. The concept is fascinating to her and she spends time looking at the various items she finds. Author: 坂野永理（さかのえり） Illustrations: 宇田川のり子（うだがわのりこ） Publisher: ジャパンタイムズ出版 Length: 12 pages This short book about 100 yen stores can be read just after completing the second lesson in the Genki textbook. The simple vocabulary, repetition and use of simple direct speech statements makes it a very beginner friendly reading material for learners of other textbooks as well. As shown in the pictures below, the text in this bo ..read more