Japanese English

Barbed wire, trenches, and machine guns are all elements of modern warfare that are mainly associated with the bloody carnage of World War One, yet they were all first used in combination 10 years earlier in a largely forgotten war that was fought in Manchuria and Korea: the Russo-Japanese War.

Undeterred by his untimely death on Earth, 15-year-old Mochizuki Touya continues to meander around in another world! After a series of misadventures, the young man has assembled a motley crew of adventurers, including the timid mage Linze, the feisty brawler Elze, the ever-hungry samurai Yae, and even the young archer Yumina, heir to the Belfast throne. Together with his party (and a divine white tiger), Touya sets his sights on the horizon, heading for the demi-human kingdom of Mismede! But all is not what it seems.

I spent my schooldays from junior high to college at a Catholic school not for religious reasons but for my mother’s vanity. She wanted me to attend the most prestigious school in Kyoto in order to brag about it. With no religious background, I encountered quite a few unfamiliar events at school that held Catholic ceremonies regularly. The school often celebrated the Mass, which was an entirely new and different culture to me and I hadn’t the slightest idea what they were doing. Christian students sat in the front row with white lace veils on their heads at the assembly hall. The priest...

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.

"Ryōma!" tells the life story of Sakamoto Ryōma, one of the great figures in the turmoil that engulfed Japan in the years before the 1868 Meiji Restoration. The novel is a masterwork by the prolific historical novelist Shiba Ryōtarō and has sold more than 24 million copies in Japan since publication in 1966—and still counting! The novel has everything: a winning main character, an action-packed plot, swordfights, and romance, but it is also a fascinating, easy-to-digest history lesson about Japan’s response to the shocking arrival of United States Commodore Matthew Perry’s “...

Seven cats weave their way through their owners’ lives, climbing, comforting, nestling, and sometimes just tripping everyone up in this uplifting collection of tales by international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa. Bursting with love and warmth, The Goodbye Cat exquisitely explores the cycle of life, from birth to death—as each of the seven stories explores how, in different ways, the steadiness and devotion of a well-loved cat never lets us down.

The Japanese Art of Shinrin-Yoku: A Woman’s Guide to Forest Bathing for Stress and Wellness Life today is fast-paced, chaotic, and often overwhelming—especially for women who balance careers, relationships, families, and personal growth. The demands of modern life can leave you feeling stressed, disconnected, and drained. But what if the solution to reclaiming your peace and well-being was as simple as stepping into a forest? Discover Shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of forest bathing. Rooted in centuries of Japanese culture and backed by modern science, Shinrin-yoku is a practice of...

"I just killed him...I just saved the world." Elizabeth Wayne escapes Ohio’s gray fog for Tokyo’s neon haze, hoping to outrun chronic depression and reinvent herself. As an English teacher, she treads polite classrooms by day. By night, she’s entangled in a CIA–North Korea conspiracy to silence a global pop icon. Racing Shinjuku’s shadowed backstreets, Elizabeth uncovers phantom footsteps, whispered voices, and memories bleeding into waking nightmares. Fusing mind‑bending suspense, unconventional plot twists, and a vibrant Japan setting, TALKING CURE delivers razor‑sharp ...

Hailed as a bold foray into new literary territory, Kawakami’s novel is told in the voice of a 14-year-old student subjected to relentless torment for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, the boy chooses to suffer in complete resignation. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate who suffers similar treatment at the hands of her tormenters.

Golden Gate is the 12th book in the New England Series set in a universe in which George Washington died at the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and…the Revolutionary War was lost. It is Empire Day, Sunday 8th July 1979. And the Golden Gate Project, the iconic totem of the new imperial regime in Government House, Philadelphia, is under attack, an attack that for all its supposed technological battlefield mastery, nobody in the British Empire saw coming and the consequences might be incalculable. Things had seemed to be going so well! The Russian foothold in the Alaskan lands has been ...

Start speaking Japanese in minutes, and grasp the language, culture, and customs in just minutes more with Lower Beginner Japanese, a completely new way to learn Japanese with ease! Lower Beginner Japanese will have you speaking with proper pronunciation from the very first lesson and arm you with cultural insight and other information to utterly shock and amaze your Japanese friends.

Our protagonist, an unnamed junior at a prestigious university in Kyoto, is on the verge of dropping out. After rebelling against the dictatorial jock president of the film club, he and his worst and only friend, the diabolical creep Ozu, are personas non grata on campus. For two years, our protagonist has made all the wrong decisions, and now he's about to make another mistake. He and Ozu are preparing for revenge—a fireworks attack at the film club's welcoming party for new members.

Acclaimed best-selling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he’s planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems.

Leave the pressures and demands of your daily life behind as you focus on the Zen within your soul. Zen and the Love of Nature takes you on a captivating journey from a single lotus flower to a rippling brook to the grandeur of Mount Fuji, giving a Zen perspective on the joy and beauty of our natural world.

A murdered princess. A buried secret. A spy with one chance to stop a war. 1975. The Empire of Japan never fell—and neither did its ghosts. When a royal assassination shatters the illusion of order, disgraced intelligence officer Major Suzuki Wataru is pulled back into the field. His mission: uncover the truth—or take the fall. In the decaying shadows of Manchukuo, Suzuki’s only ally is Lieutenant Park Ji-won, a sharp Korean operative with secrets as deep as the Empire’s own. Together, they follow a trail of betrayal that could fracture the global balance of power between Imperial ...

Are you currently learning the Japanese language and struggling to find some good material? Learning vocabulary through stories is a proven concept that has stood the test of time. This book has seven Japanese stories. Each has an engaging storyline that allows you to understand the Japanese culture better. Each story is also translated into English and has a vocabulary list that has been put into a nice table to help you to memorize the vocabulary from each story. So, what are you waiting for? Pick up your copy of Short Japanese Stories for Language Learners and level up now!

The newly crowned 16-year-old Grand Duke of Brunhild, Mochizuki Touya, is just starting to get the hang of managing a nation. What better way to christen his Duchy than to host a party with all the other royals in the region? Laughter! Fun! Pinball! But it's not all fun and games. Touya's search to uncover the truth behind the Phrase and Babylon brings him to the depths of the darkest forests and the caps of the snowiest mountains. Not only that, but new territory means new responsibilities, and soon enough, the eyes of the Vatican fall upon him.

In search of lost rune technology, Ainz heads for the dwarf country with Aura and Shalltear in tow. On his arrival, instead of a welcoming party, he’s greeted by an army of creatures known as the kuagoa, poised to lay waste to a dwarven city. In his quest to obtain the secrets of the runes and even the rune crafters themselves, Ainz may find himself facing not only these strange subterranean creatures, but also the most powerful race that calls the Azerlisia Mountains home—frost dragons!

Drawing on her own experiences as a hostess and adult film actor, Gifted—Suzumi Suzuki's first novel to be translated into English—offers a nuanced, frank, and intimate portrayal of the lives of a mother and daughter getting by (or not) in an industry rarely depicted authentically in literary fiction.

Listen to the key words and phrases in Japanese, then repeat, practise and refine! A relaxing way to pick up the language. All essential words and phrases for modern life in Japan are here with topics covering home life, work and school environments, shopping, food and drink, sport and leisure, transport, technology, and the environment. Great care has been given to represent modern Japanese culture and enhance your experience of Japan and its people, including food and drink, customs, celebrations, and festivals.