JP-JP dictionary on Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Wow, does anyone know if Paperwhites bought from the US store have Daijisen too?

Bokusenou Wrote:Wow, does anyone know if Paperwhites bought from the US store have Daijisen too?

TheVinster and kodorakun said that they were able to download a free Japanese dictionary. kodorakun said it was daijirin, but maybe meant daijisen as shown in the photo.

Can someone confirm that the Japanese dictionaries are downloadable and functional on the US Paperwhites after successfully linking accounts?

If so, I might go ahead and get a Paperwhite when they are back in stock.

chamcham Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:Wow, does anyone know if Paperwhites bought from the US store have Daijisen too?

TheVinster and kodorakun said that they were able to download a free Japanese dictionary. kodorakun said it was daijirin, but maybe meant daijisen as shown in the photo.

Can someone confirm that the Japanese dictionaries are downloadable and functional on the US Paperwhites after successfully linking accounts?

If so, I might go ahead and get a Paperwhite when they are back in stock.

Ah, OK, well I would be thrilled if it had any kokugo dic...Twitter users seem to say the Japanese Paperwhite has Daijisen J-J and Progressive E-J dics.

I hope they are! It would be great to have something even better to get after my Kindle 3 wears out.

Good news. The kindle does have a J-E dictionary. It's called Progressive (the one that Mac OSX uses).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hondamarlboro/8059404656/

It is FREE.

Read this blog entry for more details:
http://daisukeblog.com/?p=1921

chamcham Wrote:Good news. The kindle does have a J-E dictionary. It's called Progressive (the one that Mac OSX uses).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hondamarlboro/8059404656/

That says E-J though. Can it go both ways?

Bokusenou Wrote:

chamcham Wrote:Good news. The kindle does have a J-E dictionary. It's called Progressive (the one that Mac OSX uses).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hondamarlboro/8059404656/

That says E-J though. Can it go both ways?

On OSX, it is both ways even though it is labelled J-E in the dictionary application.

NOTE: On second thought, the blog pics show that it is only E-J

chamcham Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:

chamcham Wrote:Good news. The kindle does have a J-E dictionary. It's called Progressive (the one that Mac OSX uses).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hondamarlboro/8059404656/

That says E-J though. Can it go both ways?

On OSX, it is both ways even though it is labelled J-E in the dictionary application.

NOTE: On second thought, the blog pics show that it is only E-J

Oh, oh well. Having daijisen is still pretty cool.

A few questions...

Is it possible to display pdfs or text files on the paperwhite? Are those dictionaries usable on pdfs/txts too?

I've successfully linked my amazon.com and jp accounts together and was able to buy/download free english books from the jp store to the PC kindle application. However, japanese books don't seem to work.

On amazon.jp the kindle app only seems to be available for android/ipod/iphone, so I guess the pc app doesn't support japanese? Even though I've read on some blogs it does.

Does anyone know if pc support is planned?

apirx Wrote:A few questions...

Is it possible to display pdfs or text files on the paperwhite? Are those dictionaries usable on pdfs/txts too?

I've successfully linked my amazon.com and jp accounts together and was able to buy/download free english books from the jp store to the PC kindle application. However, japanese books don't seem to work.

On amazon.jp the kindle app only seems to be available for android/ipod/iphone, so I guess the pc app doesn't support japanese? Even though I've read on some blogs it does.

Does anyone know if pc support is planned?

I have a Kindle 3, but I've had no issues displaying Japanese txt files after I converted them to mobi. Pdf files are kind of tiny unless you zoom in, so I usually convert those to mobi. I haven't tried converting files to the new Kindle Format 8 yet, but I think they take up more space.

As for the kindle app, it's nice, but you don't really need it. Using the usb cord which comes with the kindle is more than enough to put files on it.

apirx Wrote:A few questions...

Is it possible to display pdfs or text files on the paperwhite? Are those dictionaries usable on pdfs/txts too?

I've successfully linked my amazon.com and jp accounts together and was able to buy/download free english books from the jp store to the PC kindle application. However, japanese books don't seem to work.

On amazon.jp the kindle app only seems to be available for android/ipod/iphone, so I guess the pc app doesn't support japanese? Even though I've read on some blogs it does.

Does anyone know if pc support is planned?

I don't know how often the pc app is updated.
What exactly do you mean when you say it doesn't work with Japanese?

Do the letters look like dots, asteriks, or gibberish?
If so, it could be a browser font issue.
Make sure your browser font/encoding is unicode (utf-8).

So if I buy an American Paperwhite I can now properly display Japanese novels and use the J-J dictionary just as I could with the app? If so I may get one. At the very least I'm getting a PS3 this month if it's on sale.

By the way if anyone dabbles in taking the DRM off of their Japanese books, maybe we can do each other a favor. Drop me an email if interested.

chamcham Wrote:I don't know how often the pc app is updated.
What exactly do you mean when you say it doesn't work with Japanese?

Do the letters look like dots, asteriks, or gibberish?
If so, it could be a browser font issue.
Make sure your browser font/encoding is unicode (utf-8).

If I check out a English book at the Japanese store or at the .com store, i can choose to directly download it to the pc app.

If I check out a Japanese book, the pc app download option doesn't show up and it tells me I have to add a compatible device to my account in order to buy/download this book.

It then lists the compatible devices: A kindle (not sure if every kindle), the android kindle app, the iphone app, and the ipad app. (none of which i have access to, my version of android is not compatible with the android app : D)

I just wanted to try the dictionaries/functionality on the pc app before buying a paperwhite. But I'll guess I'll ask a friend with an ipad.

apirx Wrote:Is it possible to display pdfs or text files on the paperwhite? Are those dictionaries usable on pdfs/txts too?

From the specs on Staples.com:

Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively;
HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion

I already pre-ordered it. Really excited about this.

I noticed today that Amazon.com's behavior has changed when you try searching for something in Japanese. It now returns "search results" and lists your search below, although I don't think these results have anything to do with the actual search. Before when I tried to look stuff up in Japanese on Amazon.com, the system wouldn't recognize it at all, so it would seem that Amazon.com is moving toward better integration with Amazon.co.jp.

In a related vein, you can also buy ebooks in other languages from Amazon.com. Not sure how long it's been this way... maybe a year? You can even get some of these books from the lending library. Since I have a Prime account, I was able to check out Harry Potter in French from the lending library. This, and the fact that there are now nearly 20,000 French books in the Kindle library, leads me to believe that eventually there will be less hoops to jump through when obtaining Japanese ebooks. Actually, it looks like as of now, there are around 500 Japanese books for sale at Amazon.com.

One thing I noticed regarding delivery, as others have mentioned, that if I wanted to buy a Japanese book (e.g., Jin-n mappa-), the only place I could have it delivered was to my Paperwhite. (The links to other Kindles on my account-- touch, computer, cloud--were grayed out).

I have a Kindle Paperwhite and love it for reading English books. I would like to use it to read Japanese light novels via the technique stated in this thread. I have some paper-bound light novels and the text is really too small for my poor eyesight. It would be great if I could enlarge the text on the kindle. Is there any consensus on whether this is safe to do at this point? Has anyone here gotten letters/account wiped by Amazon?

Also are there any other ways to get/buy light novels in text format which would probably work just as well as you could use the kindle or rikaisama to read them.

PotbellyPig Wrote:I have a Kindle Paperwhite and love it for reading English books. I would like to use it to read Japanese light novels via the technique stated in this thread. I have some paper-bound light novels and the text is really too small for my poor eyesight. It would be great if I could enlarge the text on the kindle. Is there any consensus on whether this is safe to do at this point? Has anyone here gotten letters/account wiped by Amazon?

Also are there any other ways to get/buy light novels in text format which would probably work just as well as you could use the kindle or rikaisama to read them.

The photo I posted in an earlier reply is from the Japanese Kindle Paperwhite.
Since Japanese books are in native Kindle format, I'm sure you can adjust the screen size.

I'd like someone to confirm in this thread, that they successfully purchased a Japanese book on their US Kindle Paperwhite. If so, I'm definitely getting a Paperwhite for this holiday season.

chamcham Wrote:The photo I posted in an earlier reply is from the Japanese Kindle Paperwhite.
Since Japanese books are in native Kindle format, I'm sure you can adjust the screen size.

I'd like someone to confirm in this thread, that they successfully purchased a Japanese book on their US Kindle Paperwhite. If so, I'm definitely getting a Paperwhite for this holiday season.

I can confirm that it's possible to purchase Japanese books onto an English kindle Android app, if that helps. There was no J-E dictionary though, only J-J and E-J.

Right now you can buy any books available for the kindle on Amazon.co.jp and have it delivered to your tablet with the Kindle app. I did notice that Japanese books/comics can't be delivered to desktop computers with the kindle app. Also, to be able to use the desktop app with any other books I had to merge my .us and .jp Amazon accounts.

delta Wrote:Right now you can buy any books available for the kindle on Amazon.co.jp and have it delivered to your tablet with the Kindle app. I did notice that Japanese books/comics can't be delivered to desktop computers with the kindle app. Also, to be able to use the desktop app with any other books I had to merge my .us and .jp Amazon accounts.

I understand that it works. But can Amazon bust you when you put in a false Japanese address in that dialog that pops up? I don't want my account wiped.

PotbellyPig Wrote:I understand that it works. But can Amazon bust you when you put in a false Japanese address in that dialog that pops up? I don't want my account wiped.

I've always backed up all my books with Calibre just in case (my account gets pirated, Amazon's servers go down, I become a believer in Sony's readers, the worst happens on Dec 21st and I'm left with my Kindle and solar charger... ). So if you really wanted to try, that's always an option. That way if, for some reason, Amazon decided you were bad, you'd be inconvenienced but still retain the books for which you'd paid.

Anyway, just another option in case you get impatient waiting to see what happens to others over the next few weeks.

PotbellyPig Wrote:Also are there any other ways to get/buy light novels in text format which would probably work just as well as you could use the kindle or rikaisama to read them.

The best way to get light novels so you can read them using extensions like rikaisama is to buy them from the Amazon Japan Kindle store, break the DRM, then massage the ebook into HTML (not sure how exactly you would do that, but it's most definitely possible, likely with Calibre). At that point, you can just open the files in Firefox or Chrome and read away with popup translations.

I've in fact read a bit of Durarara!! like this a year or two back (I luckily found an HTML download of volume 1), but relying on rikaisama is not good for your kanji/jukugo learning, so I stopped.

Small Update:

The kindle android app was made available for my version of android today (my phone was previously listed as incompatible) and I successfully installed it and bought the first Zero no Tsukaima novel from the Japanese kindle store with my European credit card. I am reading it right now on my phone.

Also there is a email delivery service, where you can send compatible files (e.g. txt) to an email address (e.g. your_username@kindle.com) and the files will be delivered to your device. I managed to send a few txt novels I've obtained elsewhere to my phone. But the text doesn't render vertically for txt files : (

edit: also, furigana aren't rendered properly for txt files.

apirx Wrote:I managed to send a few txt novels I've obtained elsewhere to my phone. But the text doesn't render vertically for txt files : (

edit: also, furigana aren't rendered properly for txt files.

http://a2k.aill.org/text.html