Studying

I decided to pick up a few books I probably won't be able to find in the US. Even Amazon.com (as opposed to amazon.jp) doesn't carry these books. Therefore I decided to pick them up. They are a mix of vocabulary and JLPT test practice books.

Blue: Japanese Vocab Speed Master N1
Red: Japanese Vocab Speed Master N2
Dog (Green): Japanese Vocab Speed Master N3 (This is the one I am currently on which is why it has a cute book cover.)
Larger Green: Is a JLPT N5-N4 Grammar/Kanji/Vocab work book

This is the JLPT N4-N5 Book. 

This book is really good if you can read on train or in transit. I am not good at that but it's still good to carry around. It's not very big and has good problems and answers. (I also have the N3/N2 book, packed away). It has three problems per page and on the back of that page it has the answers and explanations. Each page has one Kanji, one Vocab and one Grammar problem.

Speed Master

This is one of the Speed Master books. It has a list of vocab in both Kanji with red furigana (the pronunciation of the Kanji) and the English answers written in red. It came with this handy dandy red thing so I can cover the answers and test myself. These books also come with CDs that has example sentences which are under some of the vocab. Vocabulary is separated by category, it has notes for polite words as well.

I picked these up mainly because I am not going to carry around my text book. Books in America are awkwardly big and I don't care to carry such a heavy thing in my back back. Why America doesn't like pocket editions, I have no idea. 



I am also not too fond of the text book we use in class but it is a very popular text book in America and Europe I hear.
There is more English than Japanese in the text book, so it is good for beginners. Vocab per chapter used to match up in early chapters, same with the kanji, but in later chapters and the second volume, they seem random and don't line up with the chapter theme. 
Japanese can be an intimidating language and the book does provide a fun, easy looking means to learn Japanese.
The good thing is, it does come with a work book and has a CD for the conversation parts.


If you are studying for JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), then there are a few options of books. Really, a few. If you want instruction, not just practice tests, then pick up these:

These pictures are the N3 level. (Beginner is N5, fluent is N1). The raccoon is always reading, monkey is grammar, owl is kanji, bunny is listening and chipmunk is vocabulary. The only down side is that these are thin text books. They aren't small pocket sized books unfortunately. I have not bought them but use them from the library. I currently work with N3 and N4 typically.

I can't really tell you how to learn a language nor what book works best. There are many books out there. "Learn Japanese in 60 days!" Well, that probably won't happen. It will be frustrating and you will hit walls that will force you to take a day or two off. It will be hard, and self study is very difficult. Keep at it, try your best and find what works for you!