Japanese English

This ten-session course builds a basic understanding of the Japanese language for a visit to Japan as a tourist. The focus is on words and phrases that can be put to use on a visit to Japan as well as underlying basic vocabulary such as greetings, introductions and numbers. Topics covered include many common tourist situations including restaurants, directions, questions, shopping, hotels, travel, museums and many scenarios that are common on a trip to Japan. This is an ideal way to build the language skills you need before visiting the unique and enthralling culture of the islands of Japan.

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.

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...

When her cozy hometown is visited by death, Emma's investigative skills are enlisted by a secretive ghost. But with the uncooperative spirit holding so much back, and with the handsome local doctor pressing Emma for answers, will she ever get to the bottom of the case? Or will the Hollow be forever haunted by the secrets of the past?

A classic memoir of self-invention in a strange land: Ian Buruma's unflinching account of his amazing journey into the heart of Tokyo's underground culture as a young man in the 1970's When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo in 1975, Japan was little more than an idea in his mind, a fantasy of a...

Experience peace, clarity, and renewal—one mindful breath at a time. Step into the forest. Slow down. Breathe deeply. This is the invitation of Shinrin-Yoku, the ancient Japanese practice of forest bathing—a gentle, sensory journey that helps relieve stress, calm the mind, and restore emotional balance. In this immersive audiobook, you’ll explore the healing power of nature and learn how to bring its rhythm into your everyday life.

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...

Published in 1980 by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Pnball, 1973 is the second book in the "Trilogy of the Rat" series. It is preceded by Hear the Wind Sing (1979) and followed by A Wild Sheep Chase (1982), and is the second novel written by Murakami...

Dionne Brand, author of the Griffin Poetry Prize-winning collection Ossuaries, returns with a startlingly original work about the act of writing itself. On a lonely wharf a clerk in an ink blue coat inspects bales and bales of paper that hold a poet's accumulated left-hand pages—the unwritten...

The sixth book in the phenomenal, bestselling series, translated from Japanese, Before I Knew I Loved You asks the irresistible question: what would you do if you were offered the chance to go back in time? In Before I Knew I Loved You, Toshikazu Kawaguchi takes us back to the warm heart of the...

The 19th century saw the rise of one of the largest, most powerful empires of the modern era. The sun never set on the British Empire, whose holdings spanned the globe, in one form or another. Its naval supremacy linked the Commonwealth of Canada with the colonies in South Africa and India, and through them, trade flowed east and west.

In late 1944 the Allies invaded the Japanese-held Philippines, and soon the end of the Pacific War was within reach. But for the last 150 American prisoners of war still held on the island of Palawan, there would be no salvation. As soldiers, sailors, and marines were herded into shallow air raid shelters, Japanese soldiers doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. By the next morning, only 11 men were left alive - but their desperate journey to freedom had just begun.

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.

Welcome to Beginner Japanese. Master the basics of Japanese conversation! Start speaking Japanese in minutes, and learn key vocabulary, phrases, and grammar in just minutes more with Beginner Japanese. Our native Japanese hosts break down all the sentences, grammar, and more in a simple, easily understandable way!

Five women come together at a New Year's Eve's party after decades apart, in this thrilling story of desire, revenge and courage, based on a brave group of Australian and British WWII servicewomen Burma, 1945. Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy: five young women in search of adventure, attached to the Fourteenth Army, fighting a forgotten war in the jungle. Assigned to run a mobile canteen, navigating treacherous roads and dodging hostile gunfire, they become embroiled in life-threatening battles of their own. Battles that will haunt the women for the rest of their lives.

In the fall of 1943, during some of the Pacific theater's bloodiest battles, the United States and Japan pulled off a diplomatic coup—the exchange of civilians caught on the wrong side of the battlefield after Pearl Harbor. Nearly fifteen hundred Allied civilians trapped in Asia, mostly Americans, sailed through dangerous waters to an Indian port city where they were traded for an equivalent number of Japanese immigrants and their families sent from the Americas. The fate of the more than ten thousand Americans left behind rested on the success of this endeavor.

In this sweeping WWII family saga inspired by true events, a daughter waits. In 2004, 40-something Luce Vanderveer is driven to uncover the lost childhood of her elderly father. She knows that Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in 1942. Families were torn from their homes and imprisoned in brutal concentration camps. Starvation, forced labor, and silence about the past left deep scars across generations.

ONE OF THE NEW YORKER'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Told against the backdrop of the Korean War as a small Appalachian town sends its sons to battle, The Caretaker by award-winning author Ron Rash ("One of the great American authors at work today" —The New York Times) is a breathtaking love...

Amid the rubble of post-war Tokyo, inside the grand Tsubaki house, a once-noble family is in mourning. The old viscount Tsubaki – a brooding, troubled composer – has been found dead. When the family gather for a divination to conjure the spirit of their departed patriarch, death visits the house once more, and the brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi is called in to investigate. But before he can get to the truth, Kindaichi must uncover the Tsubakis' most disturbing secrets, while the gruesome murders continue ...