As a lot of you know I’m hard at work learning Japanese. This I do at the adult education center in The Hague. In more than 20 lessons you learn a lot of important things about the Japanese language. Next week I’m attending my last class in Japanse 2, at the moment I should be able to introduce myself, ask what the price of a product is and purchase it, order food and drinks in a restaurant and many other things.
On top of this I should be able to read and write hiragana and katakana (= kana, two syllable writing, a Japanese syllabary). This last subject is something I feel I could improve on and I practice often. But sometimes I forget to practice! And this is why I decided to look for books that are written in Japanese, preferably in kana. Kanji is a step too far for me, although I do recognize quite a few characters already because I came across them here and there. Still I feel it’s important to know kana well, before I start focusing on kanji.
Last week I ordered a book at the webshop Japan is fun. I’d noticed this book before and when the store indicated that everything was 50% off, I decided to buy it.
A few days after ordering I received the book! The book is titled ohayou (おはよう), which translates into ‘Good morning’. What stands out about the book is that the colors of the illustrations are very pretty. Light, but also cheerful colors were used. It also doesn’t have a lot of words in it. It’s a children’s book, but for people who have just started to learn the Japanese language it’s a good book to start off with. The book is mainly written in hiragana. If you’d like the book yourself, I’ll help you find it by providing the ISBN: 4-902097-02-8. The author’s name is Sakai Yousuke and the illustrations were made by Sakai Yousuke and Kimu. I have to say it was sometimes a bit of a struggle to read, but I love a challenge! This is my first Japanese storybook, which fits my book collection well! I do of course have Japanese study books. But those are entirely different.
The webshop Japan is fun was supposed to close, but remained open. The website is: http://www.japanisfun.nl/
