Japanese Short Fiction

Looking to step up your Japanese before that big trip next year? Are you getting prepared for an interview with a recruiter in Tokyo? Maybe you’re tired of reading the subtitles on the latest anime! No language is easy to learn without practicing - even if you know all of the rules and have watched the videos - you’ll still have trouble. Diving into interesting material (such as stories) can be the difference between mastering a language and never leaving the basic level.

You may have found the best teacher in town or the most incredible learning app around, but if you don’t put all of that knowledge to practice, you’ll soon forget everything you’ve obtained. This is why being engaged with interesting learning material can be so essential for somebody wishing to learn a new language. Therefore, in this book we have compiled 20 easy-to-follow, compelling, and fun stories that will allow you to expand your vocabulary and give you the tools to improve your grasp of the wonderful Japanese language.

Short Stories in Japanese for Intermediate Learners has been written especially for students from low-mid intermediate (ACTFL) level of Japanese. Mapped to B1 and approaching B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when listening, and most importantly, enjoyment!

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.

In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: 'rokuro-kubi', whose heads separate from their bodies at night; 'jikininki', or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless 'mujina' who haunt lonely neighbourhoods.

We’re constantly trying to improve and master new skills, and the Japanese language is no exception. A skill that can help open important doors in business and tourism, knowing Japanese will lead you towards a huge number of opportunities in life that will be worth every second dedicated to your studies.

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, was an Irish writer known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. His book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, comprises two parts, the first being the "Kwaidan Proper" and the second, "Insect-Studies", which consists of an essay each on ants, butterflies and mosquitos. According to the author, most of the folk tales and ghost stories in the first part were translated from old Japanese texts. The themes encompass resurrection, sacrifice, magic, and the realm of dreams.

Discover Japanese classics! This book contains four different short stories to introduce beginners to Japanese literature.

At turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki's singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.

A new collection of stories from the cult author of Terminal Boredom: A philandering husband receives a bestial punishment from a wife with her own secrets to keep; a music lover finds herself in a timeline both familiar and as wrong as can be; idle high school students find adventure in another dimension but aren't all that impressed; a misfit band of space pirates discover a mysterious baby among the stars; Emma, the Bovary-like character from one of Suzuki's stories in Terminal Boredom, lands herself in a bizarre romantic pickle.

Contos de guerreiros japoneses revelará aos seus ouvintes os mais preciosos valores japoneses: disciplina, lealdade, dedicação, perseverança, auto sacrifício, humildade e devoção. Tal arcabouço ético e narrativas envolventes recebem a ilustração de Shusui Okakura e outros artistas, fazendo ecoar da forma mais bela o passado e a memória japonesa.

From the unique standpoint of an American woman who married into a Japanese family and has lived in Japan for more than 30 years, Rebecca Otowa weaves enchanting tales of her adopted home that portray the perspective of both the Japanese and the foreigner on the universal issues that face us all - love, work, marriage, death, and family conflict.

Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is one of Japan's most beloved writers and poets, known particularly for his sensitive and symbolist children's fiction. This volume collects stories which focus on Miyazawa's love of space and his use of the galaxy as a metaphor for the concepts of purity, self-sacrifice and faith which were near and dear to his heart.

Originally published in 1922 and translated by Takashi Kojima, this classic short story was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, about the murder of a samurai. Told from the perspective of multiple witnesses.

Una preciosa colección de cuentos de realismo mágico venidos del Japón tradicional, zen e intimista. Cuentos de tradición oral que han pasado a lo largo de los siglos de la boca de las abuelas a los sueños de sus nietos y nietas, siempre de corte fantástico, siempre con enseñanzas profundas y siempre portando la esencia de la identidad japonesa a través de su tradición.

Based on Japanese literature and foldlore, Kwaidan contains 17 stories. The story of Loichi, the blind biwa player who was called to perform for the dead; of Muso, the journeying priest who encountered a man eating goblin; of the samurai who outwitted the ghost of a dead man. All these plus 14 other spooly tales are included in this collection.

Strange Obsession is the story of the gorgeous young supermodel Amrita Aggarwal. Within months of her arrival in Bombay, she is the envy of its beautiful people. Then, one day, she attracts the attentions of a mysterious woman called Minx. As the months pass and the demands of her unwelcome suitor grow, Amrita's life turns nightmarish....

A dream I wish to have in the night most often isn’t about dating a Hollywood star or making a great hit song. It’s not about my parents saying to me with tears, “We were wrong. We’re sorry”, either. It’s about numbers. I once saw a woman on TV who won four million dollars by the lottery with the numbers she had seen in her dream. Shortly after that, I myself saw numbers in my dream and began to buy a lottery ticket with those numbers.

下巻は、様々な雑誌に寄せたエッセイや、シナリオ応募から小説家デビューまでを綴った連載など。こうして作家・湊かなえは誕生した！　ファン待望の、ベストセラー作家の初エッセイ集！

滋賀県愛あふるるエッセイ。琵琶湖が何県にあるのか知らない人が実は多い、「千葉」や「佐賀」とよく間違えられる、比叡山延暦寺があるのは京都じゃない――