Japanese English

Meet the magical, mystical, and miraculous! This exceptional guide is not for the fainthearted, bringing you up against fire-breathing dragons, shapeshifting beasts, and much, much more... How do you create a chimera? Can you spot a kappa from a kraken? Why do banshees scream at night? Did...

The Book of Tea (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō is a long essay which examines the role of chadō (Teaism) in the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life. The author explains Teaism as “a philosophy founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence”. Originally written in English for a western audience, the essay deals with the spiritual traditions of Zen and Taoism, as well as the secular side of tea in Japanese life.

Whisky Rising: The Second Edition is the most up-to-date, comprehensive resource on Japanese whisky. This fully updated guide by whisky authority and Japanese whisky expert Stefan Van Eycken takes you on a tour of some of the most coveted whiskies in the world. Japanese whiskies have become some...

Master real spoken Japanese in the next 30 days with this innovative, story-based immersion course, and learn to sound like a native when you speak. Just listen to one chapter per day, complete the exercises, and watch as you start saying exactly what you wanted to say!

No Longer Human (1948, Ningen Shikkaku / A Shameful Life / Confessions of a Faulty Man) was an attack on the traditions of Japan, capturing the postwar crisis of Japanese cultural identity. Framed by an epilogue and prologue, the story is told in the form three notebooks left by Ōba Yōzō, whose calm exterior hides his tormented soul. Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.

General Douglas MacArthur's bloody campaign to defeat die-hard Japanese forces and liberate the Philippines “I shall return,” General Douglas MacArthur promised the Filipino people following the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Philippines in spring 1942. The people there believed...

While intensely attentive to its own tradition, Japanese literature has also embraced the outside world, particularly the influence of China. Beyond this, Japan boasts a powerful literary culture, made up of cultivated reading publics, both aristocratic and bourgeois, literary salons, specialized presses, authoritative judges of talent who cultivated and celebrated particular writers and styles, and a canon consisting of classics. This Very Short Introduction traces the rich history of Japanese literature from its beginnings over a millennium ago to the present day.

Winner of the 2024 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award Finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award and the 2025 PNBA Book Award “Spare, beautiful and richly layered, The Liberators is dazzling.” ―Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage “A piercing, patient debut by one of our...

No number has captured the attention and imagination of people throughout the ages as much as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Pi—or ? as it is symbolically known—is infinite and, in The Joy of pi, it proves to be infinitely intriguing. With incisive historical insight...

The Imperial Japanese Military had invaded Shanghai on August 13, 1937, rapidly reducing the once-prosperous city to a pile of burning rubble after three months of brutal urban combat. Countless blazing fires raged throughout the city, some of which had been caused by the fighting, but most had been set by the retreating Chinese Army in a futile effort to stall the Japanese invaders.

Want to learn Japanese for professional reasons? Then take your Japanese to the next level with Learn Japanese: Ultimate Guide to Speaking Business Japanese. You will learn how to communicate in business environments and make a great impression.

We’re constantly trying to improve and master new skills, and the Japanese language is no exception. A skill that can help open important doors in business and tourism, knowing Japanese will lead you towards a huge number of opportunities in life that will be worth every second dedicated to your studies.

On a cool summer evening in 1977, Mayumi Inaba hears a forlorn cry carried by the breeze of Tokyo’s Tamagawa River. She follows the sound to find a newborn kitten, just the size of her palm, dangling from a fence, abandoned. Overcome by tender affection, she takes the cat back to the small apartment she shares with her husband and christens her Mii, and so begins an ineffable bond.

Hanuman is an outstanding scholar, a fearless warrior, and the ideal lieutenant: intelligent, totally committed to his master, selfless and humble. Born into the Vanar tribe, a clan of the upa-devatas (demi-deities), he represents the four best-known divine attributes akhand brahmacharya...

WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations. Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is...

In these 11 stories, the individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, the fantastic, the alien - and through it, find a way to liberation. The Lonesome Bodybuilder is the English-language debut of one of Japan's most fearlessly inventive young writers.

With 30-Day Mastery: Word Order Wizardry you'll learn through example and context, just like native speakers do! The magic of learning through story is that your main focus is actually not on memorizing anything.... You concentrate on understanding and enjoying the story! As you're listening, you will find that the different words, and the instances in which they are used, will begin to lodge themselves subconsciously in your brain.

With 30-Day Mastery: Confident Kanji, you'll learn through example and context, just like native speakers do! The magic of learning through story is that your main focus is actually not on memorizing complex rules...you concentrate on understanding the fundamentals and on enjoying the story! As you're listening to the story, you will find that kanji characters will begin to make more logical sense, thus making your learning more organic.

There’s no place on Earth a flat kid can’t go! Join Stanley on his third exciting adventure in the renowned Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures series! Stanley and his brother, Arthur, are such huge fans of the movie star ninja Oda Nobu that they decide to send him something even better than...

China and Japan have cultural and political connections that stretch back 1,500 years. But today, their relationship is strained. China's military buildup deeply worries Japan, while Japan's brutal occupation of China in World War II remains an open wound. In recent years, less than 10 percent of each population had positive feelings toward the other, and both countries insist that the other side must deal openly with its history before relations can improve. Ezra Vogel's China and Japan examines key turning points in Sino-Japanese history.