Japanese for Busy People Series

• Author: Association for Japanese Language Teaching
• Review by Johan
• Rating: 5/5
  

I have gone through the "Japanese for Busy People" series, and it was great. It's made for grown-ups who want to speak a mature language, both for business and in their spare time.

The books consist of about 20 chapters each. Every chapter starts with a dialogue and continues with vocabulary, grammar, excercises and a test. In the evening course I attended we had one lesson a week, and did one chapter in the book in two lessons, which I thought was a reasonable pace for an evening course.

There are two versions, a romaji (English characters) and a kana (Japanese characters) version. I would recommend going for the kana version, as I regret buying the romaji version. It was easier with romaji in the beginning, but then it took a looong time to learn kana properly.

The first book starts with the very basic "Hi, how are you" and gets you to the very basic level of knowing katakana, hiragana and around 80 kanji. The next two ones takes you further towards intermediate level. I can strongly recommend them for adults focused on the spoken language. But as mentioned in the forum, it is not very academic and strict in learning exact rules and grammatical terms if that is what you like.

• Japanese for Busy People I  (Get it at Amazon UK, US )
• Japanese for Busy People II  (Get it at Amazon UK, US )
• Japanese for Busy People III  (Get it at Amazon UK, US ) 

There are also many other titles from Kodansha, but I haven't tried any of them. For instance:

• Japanese for Busy People I - Workbook  (Get it at Amazon UK, US)
• Japanese for Busy People II - Workbook   (Get it at Amazon UK, US)
• Japanese for Busy People I - Video    (Get it at Amazon UK, US)
• Japanese for Busy People II - Video   (Get it at Amazon UK, US)

Japanese for Everyone

• Author: Nagara Susumu
• Publisher: Gakken (Get it at Amazon US , UK)
• Review by: Tony
• Rating: 5/5 

Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar

A practical guide to the mastery of Japanese

• Author: Rita L. Lampkin
• Publisher: Passport Books, NTC Publishing Group (Get it at Amazon US , UK)
• Review by Tony
• Rating: 5/5

This is the most useful grammar reference text I have used.

The first section (about a third) of the book describes the various tenses and moods of Japanese verbs. A verb conjugation is described as consisting of a stem, a base and an ending-- the stem being all but the last syllable of the dictionary form, and the base being a syllable with the same starting consonant as the last syllableof the dictionary form (so if the dictionary form ends in ku, for example, it is one of ka, ki, ku, ke or ko). The endings are varied; for example, one "Base 1" (-a) ending is "-nakute mo ii [desu]," which is translated as "It's OK not to ...," and one "Base 2" (-i) ending consists of the variants of "-masu." Every ending is illustrated with one or two sentence examples.

The second section consists of short summaries of various grammar topics, sometimes labeled by the part of speech being discussed (e.g. "Particles" and "Adjective endings"), sometimes labeled by functions (e.g. "Comparisons" and "Asking and Giving Directions"). These are clear and well illustrated.

The index is also very helpful (e.g. "just [+ verb]" leads one to the forms "-ta tokoro desu" and "[informal conjugation] + dake"), but it would be even more helpful if it were two or three times as long. 

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All about particles

• Author: Naoko Chino
• Review by johan
• Rating: 4/5
  

This handy little book by Naoko Chino covers a lot about particles, the small things that bind together the Japanese language. I haven't used it that much, but sometimes find myself browsing through it just for fun. It's easy to read, and small enough to bring around.

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Japanese Verbs at a Glance

• Author: Naoko Chino
• Review by Johan
• Rating: 4/5 

Another small book by Naoko Chino, this time covering verbs, verb endings and the modifiers that enables you to say what you want. Easy to read.

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Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar

• Author: Yasuko Ichikawa
• Review by Johan
• Rating: 3/5

Ouch. I bought this way too early. It covers a lot, but is way to advanced for the beginner. All examples are taken from real media, therefore it may be suitable for the intermediate to advanced student.

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 Naoko

• Author: Keigo Higashino
• Review by star[k]night

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Naoko is a black comedy about an everyday salary man's wife switching bodies with their little girl. But there is a huge twist.

 Black Rain

• Author: Masuji Ibuse
• Review by star[k]night

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Black Rain is a painful but beautiful book that describes the horrific events on the bombing of Hiroshima.

 Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan

• Author: Eiji Yoshikawa
• Review by star[k]night
  

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In the final decades of the 16th century, the Japanese shogunate is crumbling: As rival warlords jockey for position, their armies ravaging the land, Western ideas and weapons threaten traditional ways.

The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

• Author: Eiji Yoshikawa
• Review by star[k]night 

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The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War-Kyoto in the twelfth century was a magnificent city, but crime, disorder, and lust were rampant. The people were abused by the nobility, while the armed Buddhist monks terrorized court and commoner alike. In despair, the Emperor called upon the Heike and Genji clans to quell civil disturbances. Although the clans succeeded, they quarreled over the spoils of war and plunged the country into a century of warfare.This novel describes the rise to power of Kiyomori of the Heike clan during this turbulent time. From a youth sunk in poverty, Kiyomori eventually rose to become the Emperor's Chief Councillor. Although he was a gentle, enlightened man, he left a trail of bloodshed and ruin in his wake. The strange twists of Kiyomori's fate are the core of this epic novel. The Heike Story is a modern translation of a Japanese classic. Its atmosphere, narrative power, pageantry, and poetry will enthrall English readers and provide an entertaining introduction to an important source of Japanese culture.

 OUT

• Author: Natsuo Kirino
• Review by star[k]night 

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A woman who is so desperate to leave her family would do just about about anything - even KILL.

The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa

• Author: Yasunari Kawabata
• Review by star[k]night

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In the 1920s, Asakusa was to Tokyo what Montmartre had been to 1890s Paris and Times Square was to be to 1940s New York. Available in English for the first time, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata, captures the decadent allure of this entertainment district, where beggars and teenage prostitutes mixed with revue dancers and famous authors. Originally serialized in a Tokyo daily newspaper in 1929 and 1930, this vibrant novel uses unorthodox, kinetierary techniques to reflect the raw energy of Asakusa, seen through the eyes of a wandering narrator and the cast of mostly female juvenile delinquents who show him their way of life. Markedly different from Kawabata's later work, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa shows this important writer in a new light. The annotated edition of this little-known literary gem includes the original illustrations by Ota Saburo. The annotations illuminate Tokyo society and Japanese literature, bringing this fascinating piece of Japanese modernism at last to a wide audience.

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