Japanese Reader Collection Volume 1: Hikoichi Paperback – February 22, 2013

This series is virtually perfect for students of Japanese who have Hiragana and Katakana memorized but know few or none of the Kanji. The stories are from traditional Japanese folklore, which means they're interesting and clever, and most of it is presented in Hiragana, with Furigana for each Kanji character. I think there may be some sparse Katakana, but for the most part it's Hiragana.It's not only an excellent way to improve your Kana reading, it's also invaluable for improving vocabulary, something recorded language courses like Pimsleur and Rosetta sorely miss. Reading new words in context of an interesting story assists greatly in visualizing and remembering them. In this sense the formatting of the book too is excellent:Every page has the Kana at the top (with Furigana above whatever Kanji characters appear,) and phrase-by-phrase translations in Romaji (English phonetic) at the bottom of the page. Which means you can check a given word's translation instantly - a big, big help when you're using an e-reader like a Kindle or Fire, because you're thereby spared the necessity of doing endless page-flips to get to some general glossary located far from the page you're on. It's right there where you need it, but below everything else so you don't "cheat" with inadvertent glances while you read.In the third volume of this series the author inexplicably omits the Furigana completely, which makes that third book (and presumably those subsequent to it,) useless to anyone without a large number of Kanji memorized. I'm currently at something like 28, total. Hopefully that odd decision will be corrected, but this and Volume 2 are indispensable for beginning-to-intermediate Japanese students looking to move from "stare-at-each-character" reading to fluid sight-reading of Kana and, eventually, Kanji. Just an excellently-conceived and -executed series with clever, interesting short stories.

This is a very good book for beginners, and by beginners I mean those who are familiar with hiragana, katakana I more than 100 kanji. Why did I mention kanji? Simply because when I started to learn the Japanese language, I tried to read it and it became a disaster for my self-confidence. So I waited for some time and studied hard so today I can open a book which claims to be for beginners and not to fall into depression when I realize that I can read it at once.Stories in this book are very lightly written, and if you had mentioned knowledge you will find unknown words, but you won't be so much disappointed in yourself - especially because you can mark those words, and study them after. There is a dictionary, and even some words, like Japanese phrases you can't translate literary, are translated not so good, the dictionary itself is of a great help. And those Japanese phrase I'm talking about are things someone who is not so much beginner will recognize and understand, so it is not a big problem.Another bonus is free audio you get with a book, which is always good to have.

I don't think this book is bad for its price. The two stories are rather short, but that was to be expected.The kanji do tend to be a bit small, but I didn't have trouble reading the words I knew. (Granted, I've got two years of college Japanese under my belt and I'm studying Chinese on my own now, so I've got some experience with Chinese characters - which makes it easier to read them when they're small.) For the first story, the furigana (small letters written above kanji to show pronunciation) were as easy to read as the rest of the story. However, they were less clear in the second story (or parts of it) and might be difficult for somebody that's new to the syllabaries to read. The vocabulary lists gave romaji (these, Latin letters), too, though. So that should clear up any problems.Now, while I say the kanji are small, keep in mind that I mainly use my iPod Touch for Kindle books (although I think they look a little small in the screenshots that have been put up of a Kindle, too, but that might just be the screenshots - I don't have an actual Kindle). I loaded it on my laptop just to see how it looks, and the kanji are perfectly legible there. So I think this is really more about the device you have than the book itself. Also, while I can't find a way on the Kindle for PC, I can enlarge pictures (which is what the Japanese text is as I write this) on my Kindle for the iPod Touch. And, while the kanji wasn't always the clearest, they, and the furigana, always became legible if it wasn't earlier.My main complaints about the book are overuse of furigana and how the book was arranged, but these don't really affect the book itself much. Since furigana is provided in the section that lists the vocab under the sentences, I think it should have been left out of the Japanese only section: that way you can practice remembering how to read the kanji; plus, furigana can simply be distracting if you already know the kanji.

It's great to have a book like this available for the Kindle. Japanese Reader Collection Volume 1: Hikoichi contains four stories about--you guessed it--a man named Hikoichi, a clever gentleman who outsmarts people in interesting ways. Each story is short but entertaining, and each is presented three times: once in Japanese with English notes at the bottom (these explain almost every Kanji and vocabulary word in the text), once in Japanese with no notes, and once in English. The notes are concise but very helpful, and there is an extensive glossary at the back of the book, which helps when reviewing words, etc. All in all, this book is a great way to practice reading real Japanese rather than relying on dry reading passages, and the stories and the different forms (Japanese w/ English notes, Japanese only, and English only) they are presented in make it easy to read each story multiple times, which is great for language study

Ottimo libro

Plus qu'un fantastique ouvrage, très bien fait avec furigana associés, vocabulaire et lien pour un support audio, une rencontre fantastique avec les vendeurs. Seul bémol pour moi, les traductions sont en anglais. Malgré tout, je recommande.

I bought this book in paper version and find it very easy to use. There are three versions of each of the four stories - an English summary, a full Japanese version and a Japanese version with vocabulary under the text. Vocabulary and text are on the same page so they are easy to cross-check.This is for beginners as the stories really are quite simple, all kanji have hiragana and all words are translated, even simple ones. If you're only just starting to read, though, it does give a sense of accomplishment to be able to do it yourself. The stories are short and amusing so it isn't a chore to get through them painstakingly, like you might find with other books. It feels like a good place to start. The kanji and hiragana are also very big and clear.Book arrived quickly and in excellent condition.

El libro está bien organizado para avanzar poco a poco en el aprendizaje del japonés. Quizá le añadiría alguna explicación gramatical

This book is really useful for those wanting to improve their Japanese reading skills. Japanese text with meticulous explanations of everything. Definitely worth purchasing.