Learn Japanese Today

I had a ridiculous 13 hour-day at the paper, and I’m just super tired. But I could never get tired of this book.

Today I’ll be reviewing one of the great Japanese ehon (picture books), Hyakumankai ikita neko by Yoko Sano. The title of the book means “the cat who lived 1 million times,” and the story follows him through his lives with different owners. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll cut right to the chase.

Ease of Use:  8.5

I think most of us could figure out how to read a picture book, but for those of you who can’t, there might be something to help you if you don’t understand what’s going on…(hint: pictures). Oh wait, that was more of the answer than a hint. Use the pictures to guide you’re understanding and make guesses, then try to only use your dictionary after you’ve read the whole page. I’ll be writing an article about getting the most out of children’t books tomorrow.

Authenticity: 8

１００万回生きたねこ is one of the better children’s books for you to read, as it still uses a decent amount of kanji. Many children’s books use no kanji at all, and learning the hiragana for a word that’s normally written in kanji makes you equally illiterate as far as that word is concerned. So this is good. Another good thing about children’s books is that they are usually designed to teach kids to read, which means they can teach you how to read too. In order to do this, these books often use a very basic vocabulary without any fancy show-off words, which is exactly what any Japanese student needs. Don’t get used to the spaces and abundant hiragana though, the real world is a scary, unspaced, and kanji-filled place.

Quantity of Knowledge: 5

It’s a children’s book. Gimme a break. It’s just really short, it isn’t especially devoid of learning compared to other children’s books, it’s just short.

Price：5

The best way to get this book is to buy it when you’re in Japan. I got mine new for 1400 yen ($13), but if I shopped around I probably could’ve gotten it down to 1000 ($9.50). I saw it in the states at Mitsuwa, my local Japanese marketplace, but it was around $20, and this kind of overpricing isn’t uncommon for Japanese books sold in the states. You can buy it at amazon.co.jp for 1450 yen new and 850 used, but then you have to pay for shipping too, so it’s tough. If you’re school/town has a library with East Asian books in it, you should raid it for children’s books. They’re really hard to get anywhere else.

Fun: 10

I think this is kind of a misuse of the fun category, but I don’t particularly care. The book isn’t so exciting that you want to read it again as soon as you finish it, but it does have a really nice story, and I get a lot of satisfaction from reading a really good story entirely in Japanese. I think you will too.

Overall: 7.8/∞

You don’t quite get the bang for your buck as far as knowledge/$ with this book, which is way I don’t feel like I can score it higher, but you do get something more than just language skills. You get a story you can play back in your head any time you want or tell to others, and you get the satisfaction of feeling like a kid again as you struggle your way through a picture book. It’s really a beautiful experience. I promise you it’s worth the money.

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