The Oni, a Japanese Reader

Book excerpt: ★For Upper Beginners Learning Japanese ★ Living in shadows and the in-between world of dreams and reality, yokai thrive in Japanese imagination. What are yokai? They are monsters, ghosts, unnatural beings, and even sentient household items. Yokai can be harmless and amusing, or they can be terrifying. Now you can learn about yokai and read stories about them while polishing your Japanese. ♥ ABOUT THIS VOLUME With their horned heads and foul behavior, the Japanese oni has often been compared to the ogres in the Western tradition. But in Japan, oni are everywhere. Traditional tales, children's songs, and proverbs are full of references to them. In this way, not only will this book help you enhance your reading ability, but you'll also increase your Japanese cultural literacy. FEATURES Includes three essays or stories Each story is presented in three formats: 1) Sentence-by-Sentence with definition and commentary below 2) Japanese only (to test your reading ability) 3) English translation (to confirm your understanding) The Sentence-by Sentence section of each story presents a small chunk of the Japanese with furigana over the kanji and a complete glossary of all the words; important grammatical patterns are pointed out and explained in plain English A link to download sound files for the stories is provided (for no extra charge) on the last page of the book Each story has a slow and normal speed recording of the Japanese read by Yumi STORIES INCLUDED 1 Oni Part One 2 Oni's Descendants 3 Namahage WHO IS THIS FOR? This book is designed so that both those fairly new to Japanese and those in the intermediate stages can equally find value. The ideal level, however, is for the upper beginner, somewhere around the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) N4. If you are learning Japanese and are fascinated by yokai and traditional tales of old Japan, buy now to begin studying now.