I have a LOT of english written books about japanese to purchase : would you know a really good bookshops in Nagoya ? I mean it's known to be one of the largest city in japan so there must be something like a library exclusively devoted to books for learning japanese . Otherwise a huge bookshop will do it .
I'm currently searching for instance
-Breaking into Japanese Literature
-Genki, I and II
- the Kodansha Classics (Dict. of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns, especially All About the Particles, Dict. of Verbs, Dict. of Adj. and Adv.)
- Japanese for Everyone.( which is not minna no nihongo)
- reading manga I and II
-japanese in mangaland
- The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast
-13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese

I lived near Nagoya for close to year while I was on exchange in high school. This was over 3 years ago so I can't remember the names of stores anymore - but there is hope! If you go to just about any major bookstore in Nagoya (or at least one big enough to have a section dedicated to English books) you will find the books you are looking for.

I think there was one near Meieki (Nagoya Station) but I can't remember exactly where anymore. Sorry! Hope that helps...

I'm a bit baffled about why you would need all those books at once, but I would imagine most of them are available from Amazon.co.jp, at a discounted price.

Sorry for not answering your original question.

Kinokuniya would probably be the only bookstore to have a significant number of books on Japanese written in English. Like Jimmy said, just use Amazon.co.jp.

How long would it take through Amazon ?
I mean I have to get them quickly to cram during the rest of my holidays.....I can't wait 1 week .
And what about the credit card ? I never got my international credit card accepted in japanese shops ... Everytime I want to buy something I need to go to the post office ATM to withdraw some cash ....
As amazon.co.jp is a branch of amazon maybe it works but I don't know.

Please don't call it "amazon.jap."

Amazon usually delivers within about 4 days for books that it has in stock, and provides free shipping for orders over 1500 yen. They accept credit cards (they have always accepted my American credit cards), and tor books that are sold directly by Amazon, they also offer the option of paying in cash by COD (when the package is delivered) or in advance at any major convenience store.

In any case, please calm down. Japanese can't be learned in a giant hurry.

my mistake ....
thanks !

here is the info you're looking for.

go to the denny's in sakae. there is a bookshop near there called maruzen. or jyunkudo... i think the name is now jyunkudo, but maruzen is still written on the wall. it's right next to the foreign food store. there is also a KFC near the store,... so ask for either denny's or KFC to get you close to the store.

on another note... you do realize you're looking to buy around 1-2 years worth of study material, right?

yeah I do realize .... let's say I intend to do it really 24h a day as khatzu says ....I'm dead serious about it so I need to have various stuff... with the Nintendo DS , some games , mangas I already read in english ,manuals on mangas and japanese litterature, podcast , animes , various manuals for getting sentences I like , my challenge dictionnary , my homestay family,etc... this won't be a chimera anymore. But I need good stuff for that : when you want to do it 24h a day it never must be a chore .

and I want to know what I buy .... It's very likely that I will spend a whole day in bookshops to buy things I REALLY like . That's why I'm half pleased by Amazon.Cause I never said I will buy everything on the list , I just said I'm looking for them....

thanks for the store!

well, i think you should look into minna no nihongo. it's a pretty great text for beginners. it forces you to learn kanji, where as genki never forces the issue. you should also look into the blue j-bridge book. it's a fantastic series that treats japanese in a pretty mature fashion. both of those books are better than genki (i used genki I and II and though i liked it, i think the other books i've mentioned would have been better in the long run).

I already have Minna no nihongo....
I'm not starting from scratch.... I have already done RTK1 , I'm currently at the lesson 40 of Minna no Nihon go II , I began reading manga in japanese a month ago etc....
What I'm aiming at is more like becoming REALLY serious about japanese . Right now there is still a difference between leisure time /study . I want this border to disappear : 24H a day japanese.
And I already put a lot of MNN in my SRS. It's not (yet) exhausted but it's not enough.

I don't know this blue bridge though : could you tell me more about it ?

thanks for the advice!

If you're serious about Japanese, start reading some. You'd be surprised how much you can actually read if you keep an open mind. Going through two textbook series (Genki and JFE) after you've already gone through one sounds like torture and won't really get you very far.

There's a Kinokuniya near JR Nagoya as well. Just ask at the info counter in the station, (the tourist counter), and they can show you where it is on a map. It's in a mall-like thing near a department store a few stories up. As Kinokuniyas go, it's a little on the small side.

If you can get to Tokyo sometime, the Kinokuniya in Shinjuku next to Times Square (I think that's Takashimaya Times Square, but I can't remember for sure.) is awesome. 7-8 floors of books.

ISTR that there's a good English language bookstore in Kyoto, which is only 40 minutes by Shinkansen, but it'd probably be cheaper to just use amazon.co.jp in Japan.

But yeah, if you've done MNN, don't bother with Genki. Genki isn't a bad textbook for a classroom setting, but I don't think it's the best book for self-study.

It's not about the lessons ....I thought I could find other interesting sentences for my SRS....
I also heard that Genki was really different from MNN... I've read about so many books that I have trouble now to remember clearly : Is genki written in romaji or something like this ? some guy in my classroom told me something about genki and kanji but I forgot.

I think at your level you should really be mining "real" japanese. Why don't you mine the manga you're already reading? It seems bizarre to me that you would buy these textbooks to mine sentences.

If you want a good mining workout, check out Kanji in Context. The sentences are more complex than the ones you'll typically find in intro textbooks. I still say you should just mine from real life, especially since you're in a Japanese environment already.

It depends on where you're at, language-wise. If you haven't gone J->J yet, then I'd try Kanji Odyssey. It's a nice kanji vocab expander. If you're J->J, and already have the basic kanji down, you can go for KIC, but KIC won't give you full English translations like K.O. will.

If you're looking for grammar to mine, there's always Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar. It's a good book. The sentences are dull, but they illustrate certain grammatical points... but it's all basic stuff.

Genki isn't in romaji-- that's the Jorden book. Genki has chapters in the front, and then it has kanji chapters in the back. The chapters in the front use hiragana/katakana/limited kanji, and the chapters in the back are kanji supplement lessons for each chapter. The first few chapters center on hiragana/katakana, then it goes into readings with kanji in them.

There's also the dictionary of basic Japanese sentence patterns, if you're interested in that sort of thing, and the dictionary of basic Japanese grammar, too.

I'd skip the last two books on the list. If you're doing AJATT, then you already know the most effective way to learn a language-- immersion.

Ok thanks for all those precious advices!!!
but concerning the last two books they're on AJATT website.... Anyway I intend to look closely at all those books before buying them ... If there are several precious tips I can afford myself to buy them . Not for the general philosophy , as you said once you're doing AJATT you have a good grasp on it , but for tips . I have read reviews on Amazon and they mention some interesting tips .

>suffah
yeah I'm already mining my manga and the real environment . But for the manga I think I'm still too slow in reviewing so it's not as fun as it should be...Maybe my sentences are too long or I'm still lacking vocabulary or both of them so right now it's not as efficient as textbooks sentences designed for a certain level ....That's why I want to buy those manuals about manga (I think explainations about some casual expressions proper to manga could improve a lot my speed ) , try to gain some extra vocabulary , etc....

I'll give some examples that come from Hikaru no GO ( of which I'm a huge fan so basically I know by heart the meaning of 80% of the sentences )
ちょっとプロになる？棋士の高みを知っているのか？忍耐。努力。辛酸。苦汁。果ては絶望まで乗り越えてなおその高みに届かなかった者さえいるんだぞう
for this one for instance Akira is shouting at Hikaru because he's too easing going about the pro status , how much effort it involves : hence a list : patience , effort , desperation , amertume ,etc.... I really get the meaning of the sentence but the fact remains there are 4-5 "difficult" word of vocabulary of wich I have to learn the yomikata and the kanjis .... So logicially I fail 2 out of 3 times or at least it takes me time .... So it's not as fun as my others decks ... I noticed when you slow down just a little It becomes a bore while when it's quick reviewing is more like a game .


おまえの実力はこんなもんじゃないだろ？それよも遊んでんのか？遊んでるよ。だっておれ碁盤には九つの星があるだろ？ここ宇宙なんだそこにさ石をひとつひとつ置いてくんだ星をひとつひとつ増やすようにさどんどん宇宙をつってくんだまるで神様みたいだろ。おれは神様になるんだよこの碁盤の上で
in this one Kaga is a bit at lost with Hikaru as his force vary to prodigious extent (as it's either him the total beginner or Sai the millenar ghost go master who's playing) and Hikaru tells him he's just playing with a very beautiful metaphor about space and god which takes everyone aback....

将棋ならおまえの王将は５分で死んでるが囲碁だと１０ぶんはかかる 。 ５分だけ寿命が伸びたな
In this one a overconfident guy is already envisionning a easy victory as Kaga is supposed to be a shogi player and not a go player . Kaga tells him if it were shogi he would be dead in 5 minutes , but as it's go it will take 10 minutes . He just gained 5 more minutes of life .


My point is I love those scenes , I have strong memories around them , there is a magic for me . I perfectly understand the meaning . But as it's maybe too long I fail quite often on akanji or a yomikata . Sometimes it's just one of them . But if I divide them , if I take only sentences it won't make as much sense . I'm quite reluctant to destroy the magic .
so I wonder If I should learn really short sentences and lose the feeling or keep it this way keep the magic of a scene to the expense of reviewing ?

your opinion ? general opinion ? how long are your "expression" in general ? really short sentences ? now and then long sentences ? sometimes 2-3 sentences in a row when it's necessary to understand the situation ?

Don't rely on your knowledge of the translation of the manga too much. Honestly I think you'd be better reading off something you haven't read before. Translations of manga and anime generally undergo heavy to medium amounts of localization which change the meanings of things in order to make them more understandable to a general audience.

Well I tried a couple of mangas (especially Kochikame ) I never read and it was really painful .... Right now I'm not strong enough for this and I don't get much of it ... And I think it shouln't be boring . As I said previously you can't do it 24 hours a day if you find it exhausting .It must be fun . And read Hng is fun for me . Khatzu himself said he always begins by versions of movies ,etc... he knows perfectly in english or japanese .... Well I read a lot of manga but Hikaru no Go is a manga I read maybe 30-40 times . Basically I know every lines .

Furthermore I read those from scanlation teams which are paradoxically a lot more professionnal than editors ... As they're huge fan they put a lot of notes about their translation , they take their time , they're adamant about the quality as it's not a work but rather an obsession etc.... And well I'm still not enough good in japanese to really assess the level of their translation but I know every and each time I compare commercial versions and my favourite scanlation team version I find the scanlation is more pleasant and makes more sense ...
Just an example when Akira is utterly defeated by Sai through Hikaru the commercial version says "I'm before a invisible wall" while the scanlation says "I'm before a huge invisible wall ". and what does say the japanese version ? 見えない大きな壁が .
I give you this example because it's easy to grasp but I can't remember how many times I thought "god this sentence sounds bizarre" in the com version while the scan version was good . Deathnote also has been slaughtered.
So far when I compare all those scanlations with the japanese version it makes sense .....For sure it doesn't deplete the meaning of the sentence as each language has subtilities hard to translate but I think that right now I don't have to focus on subtilities : get as much vocabulary and a better grasp on how a sentence is working is the primary objective .... Within 3 months I plan to mix mangas I didn't read much and newspaper and within 5 months mangas I never read .

I'm more worried about the way I pick up sentences ... I'm almost sure I should divide them ....

Those example sentences you gave do seem extremely long. I found when I shortened my cards, it took less time to enter the card, the card was easier, I could review much faster, and I felt overall like I was still making lots of progress (a new vocab word for each card). Eventually, the deck I had made with long sentences and long answers on the back fell into disuse.

Now I just have one simple sentence on the front, with the reading and/or meaning of the word I don't know. I can create 30 new flashcards and review 30-40 old ones in about one to one and a half hours. These all come from the Kanji Odyssey books (great books by the way).

you mean there's only a SINGLE word you don't know in your sentences ? that's the way I' m putting sentences in my Minna no nihongo deck but obviously it's slightly different .... The mangas aren't designed for having limited vocabulary ,etc.... They talk casually so it's very rare that there is useful sentence which doesn't have at least 2-3 new words .
could you give me some examples ?

I was already aware my sentences were too long....but what I need to know is how long approximately they should be .... For sure it will come by practicing but if I had other examples it would give me something to build on . I'll adjust after that .

Yeah, when I use long sentences in review, with more than one kanji compound, I find I wind up failing them more often, because there are more chances I'll forget one of the words I'm testing. So now I use shorter sentences and try to keep it to one sentence -> one concept, one new word. I think it helps a lot.

And keep reading the manga. Just don't sweat about translating every single word. I read a lot of manga. I don't always get it completely, but I get the gist of it. But the more I read, the more I find I understand.

Yes, generally the sentences have just one single new word, or a new pronunciation even if I can infer the word. The reason this is possible is the way Kanji Odyssey introduces the vocab... once you have a small base, it keeps reusing the words that it used already, so as you progress through the book, each sentence generally only adds 1 new vocab.

この山は低いから、冬でも雪が降らない。In this sentence I didn't know 低い meant low/short (forgot my RTK...), so the back of my card was like this:

ひくい：low, short stature

Then the next sentence:
今日の株価は今年最低になった。 In this sentence, I knew the short kanji, but I didn't know the reading in this particular compound. Also, the 株価 word was new, although I understood the kanji, so the back of my card was like this:

かぶか：stock prices
さいてい

With this kind of thing, if I remember the one/two bits of new information easily, I don't even have to look at the back of the card, so I can fly through my reviews, but it is there if I need it.

So basically, 2001.Kanji.Odyssey makes it very easy to have 1 new bit of info on each successive card.

Yes, I agree with daniel. 4-5 new things are too much to learn in one sentence! I think 1 new vocab word/reading is plenty, one grammar point, etc.

I'm also a big believer in just reading. I try to spend an hour a day at a minimum just reading casually. No dictionary, no rikai-chan, just me and a book curled up in a comfy couch or bed. I think the dividends have been tremendous. I don't understand everything 100%, but I do understand what's going on. You still need to mine and learn vocab, but I think reading really does reinforce what I've learned in the past and my brain is really starting to get used to the language.

Also, for me personally, being able to read is the reason I started learning Japanese in the first place. It is still a few years until I reach the point where I want to be, but I find great joy reading what I do now.

Ok I've been to maruzen today....Basically I spent the whole afternoon there.
'Got most of what I was looking for ....

-JFE and Genki weren't that interesting though so I dropped them ... Same thing for "13 secrets for speaking fluent japanese" even if for this latter I think everyone should take a look a it .... It's just not worth buying . Ideally you should look at the 13 headlines , make a note of them flip through the pages and put it back on the shelves.

-I took 2 kodansha books on particles : a "dictionary of japanese particles" which seems really thorough on the matter (it's twice as big as "all about particles") and "how to tell the difference between japanese particles" (same author than all about particles : she wrote 4-5 books for kodansha ) which focuses on making a distinction between confusing particles .

-I took both Kanji odyssey books....I didn't plan to buy them until this morning when I read the topic about it ...Wise move .After reading them for half an hour they seem REALLY great while I didn't understand why" Kanji in context" made all this fuss .... Maybe I misread but it just seems to me like vocabulary for kanji while KO2001 gives sentences and in very progressive way with that . For those that are interested I must point out they don't have yet the third volume . Well there's still a long way before I deal with it but I'll have an answer about availability on monday .

-I also bought breaking into japanese litterature ... Quite interesting ... Though to be perfectly frank I was more looking forward to study books on manga.... It turned out that they didn't have any of them : neither japanese in mangaland , nor reading manga , both of wich are mentionned on Khatzu website .... Just a book I never read or heard about .... something like grammar in manga .... Quite disappointing I must say .

-I don't uderstand also the good comments on "dictionnary of basic japanese sentence" pattern and "dictionnary of verb" .... From where I'm standing it just looks like another manuel except it deals only with grammar.... And even so I don't get why there are book about patterns and book about verbs while they deal exactly about the SAME thing ! well the dictionnary of pattern mentions something in the introduction about the 3 kind of sentences (noun-adjective-verb )but they didn't seem to make much use of it after that much ado about nothing even I must acknowledge I might have been hasty.... the dictionnary about verbs has just a first part about conjuguaison but that's it !after that it really looked the same to me . I find it quite misleading as I was expecting something like a glossary of important verb , or interesting rules , I don't know..... In fact I was looking for "making you japanese flow" .... But either I get myself misunderstood or they really didn't have it i didn't get it . Nevertheless when I read the comments about it it seems like making your japanese flow is the real stuff when it comes to patterns and communication . I don't know if it's the greatest in the power serie of kodansha as someone on Amazon says but the comment is quite convincing .

- Dictionnary of adjectives and advers looked way more interesting than its verb counterpart and so I bought it . It deals with stuff that rarely if ever tackled in grammar books and that "13 secrets for speaking fluent japanese" underlines : as soon as you put some adjectives and adverb in your speech it becomes more lively and interesting .And the fact is you don't have to spend much time in a classroom to be aware that everybody in a class talks the same way (maybe that's why I'm really considering dropping out....this is utterly boring sometimes) . That's where the synonym dictionnary and suffixe-prefix of 13 secrets is relevant and where this book is really useful .
Furthermore As I noticed that most student are really awkward when it comes to their place and use ,etc... I think it's definetely worth to be bought .
In the same idea I also bought : jazz up your japanese with onomatopea and japanese core words and phrases ... Both of them are just fresh air after thousand of dull sentences .It's not that difficult but I would say dictionnary of adverb and adjectives comes first and if you're beyond this step and already totally at ease with it then you can tackle with the bottomless stock of interesting words /expressions that those 2 books offer .

Final comment
Maruzen is a very good bookshop : big stock , very courteous sellers (well it's japan but it's still enjoyable) , and tasty classical music on top of that (which is quite a feat as even top notch shops in japan have a knack for playing absolutetly appalling j-pop) ! If I had to complaint only about one thing it would be the almost total illateracy of sellers in english (japan again...) which is slightly bothersome when you just have a title in english (and of course you can't type in the title by yourself .... ) and there is a problem with the ISBN ... The place is not very far : 2 stations from nagoya station (take the western exit at the train station and then it's to your left) until sakae (200 yens) on the hiroyoshima line (yellow line) and then a 10 minutes walk.
Now for those who are too shy to ask me how much it costed me .....lol.
Overall it costed me 18000 something yen .... As far as I'm concerned I had to choose between this and a seifun 18 kippu trip and I think it did the good choice.... I have already done one of those and it costed me 36000 yens and I really did the hard way cutting on every expenses (doing the travel from okazaki until hakodate in Hokkaido and going back only with normal trains within 4 days is really an unique experience but you'd better be genki....) . I'll do another one for the summer holidays but I think doing one of those japanese books shopping is as important as a trip and it's really cheaper . I only bought what tickled me , thrilled me , excited me and now I have tons of great stuff for my SRS. I think I'll post a review of all those books in 5 months .