There are also several fun and free picture book apps available on smartphones as interactive stories and games. You can simply search デジタル絵本 (digital ehon) in your App Store and select one. The book includes the most well known Japanese folktales, stories that have been told to generation after generation of Japanese children.

Here are 17 well-known Japanese short stories (and short story collections) to add some fun to your bookshelf! Once you can read each katakana character—no matter how slowly—move on to the next section about typing katakana. Learning to Type Katakana Just keep in mind that because of this, some steps may seem counterintuitive. They may even seem slow compared to other methods, but everything has been carefully selected to get you to the finish line faster and more efficiently. We'll talk more about that later. One of Japan’s most famous contemporary female writers, Banana Yoshimoto (which is her pen name; her real name is Mahoko) has been lauded countless times for her portrayal of eccentric, albeit relatable, characters. This popular short story collection, also available in English, can be a good option for comparison when you run into difficulty with understanding a word or sentence. V-Reader has a host of free texts by famous Japanese authors. In these texts, you can tap most of the vocabulary words on the screen to see (and hear!) the Japanese pronunciation and an English translation. Yes, it’s a little glitchy and has some trouble with given names and place names, but if you’re looking for an easy way to get your Japanese reading done, this app is your friend.

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This spare, lyrical collection features the well known short story “The Dancing Girl of Izu,” which tells the story of a melancholy student who sees a dancing girl, much improving his spirits. 10. “Lizard” by Banana Yoshimoto I know I do, but since travel isn’t always possible, watching Japanese films, and especially reading Japanese books is the next best thing. Habit generally means 3-6 weeks of doing something regularly. And you should start now, because in six weeks you'll be needing to utilize this habit a lot more. Beginning Japanese Grammar

There’s probably 400 or 500 stories here, so that’s enough to read one every day for a year plus. If you do that, you’ll surely get better at reading Japanese. Remember, it’s all about consistency if you want to get better! We'll be referencing it going forward, but just know that creating your own content and schedule is totally fine and doable. You'll just need to make sure you maintain your pace to keep up. Or, for some of you, make sure you slow down so you don't burn out! Buying Mittens,” written by Mari Takabayashi and illustrated by Kuroi Ken, is another famous children’s story and has a simple plot and basic vocabulary. Kowai!” is aimed at young readers, so there’s furigana that accompanies kanji and occasional pictures will help readers with the context of the novel.The hundreds of stories featured here have minimal kanji and lots of helpful audio accompaniments. Read the story first, then listen and read along! While graded readers have become more popular for language learners in many languages, they're still relatively new in Japanese, so unfortunately there are fewer options available than you can find in English or Spanish, for example. That said, there are a couple of great options we think will fit the bill for any Japanese student looking to learn to read and improve their overall language ability. I've mentioned it a few times before, but let's talk a bit more about what extensive reading is, as doing so will give us an idea of how best to use graded readers for studying. Extensive reading is a language-learning strategy where learners practice by reading longer, simpler texts, as smoothly as possible without stopping to look up unfamiliar vocabulary or grammar. Most people go into a textbook with zero knowledge and wind up spending a large chunk of their time looking up words they don't know. How much of a sentence is vocabulary? Depending on the length, it's easy to answer "more than 80%."