Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers

Read Real Japanese

by Michael Emmerich (Editor), Hiromi Kawakami, Otsuichi

Long-awaited by teachers and students, Read Real Japanese Fiction presents short works by six of todays most daring and provocative Japanese writers. The spellbinding world of Hiromi Kawakami; the hair-raising horror of Otsuichi; the haunting, poignant prose of Banana Yoshimoto; even the poetic word-play of Yoko Tawada whatever a readers taste, he or she is sure to find something of interest and value in this book, suitable for students at the intermediate level and above.
As in real Japanese novels, the text on each page runs from top to bottom and from right to left. Each double-page spread features translations of all the difficult passages. In the back of the book, moreover, is a built-in Japanese-English learners dictionary and a notes section covering issues of nuance, usage, grammar and culture that come up in each story. Best of all, the books comes with a free audio CD containing narrations of the stories, performed by a professional voice actress.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Language, Japan, Fiction, Short Stories, Unfinished, Textbooks

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2008

About the author

Michael Emmerich’s scholarly interests in Japanese literature range from the classical, court-centered prose and poetry of the Heian period to the popular printed fiction of the early modern age, and on from there to the prose fiction of modern and contemporary times. His engagement with the literary products of these diverse periods is informed by a sensitivity to the material and visual forms that writing takes, and by an academic commitment to translation studies with its potential for approaching literature in a manner relatively unconstrained by linguistic and temporal boundaries, both among and within nations. His book The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (Columbia University Press, 2013) examines the role that translations of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) into early-modern and modern Japanese, and into English and other languages, have played in creating images of the tale over the past two centuries—reinventing it as a classic of both national and world literature. He is currently working on a project that explores the concept of “translation” as it relates to Japan and to various forms of the Japanese language.

In addition to his many publications in English and Japanese on early modern, modern, and contemporary Japanese literature, Emmerich is the author of more than a dozen book-length translations of works by writers such as Kawabata Yasunari, Yoshimoto Banana, Takahashi Gen’ichirō, Akasaka Mari, Yamada Taichi, Matsuura Rieko, Kawakami Hiromi, Furukawa Hideo, and Inoue Yasushi. He is also the editor of two books for students of the Japanese language: Read Real Japanese: Fiction and New Penguin Parallel Texts: Short Stories in Japanese.

Emmerich’s research has been generously supported by a number of grants, including a Fulbright Scholarship and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies. He was also the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University’s Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, from 2008-2009.

Emmerich received a BA from Princeton University. After completing research in Japanese literature studies at Ritsumeikan University in Tokyo, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University. He was a member of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies department at UC Santa Barbara before joining UCLA in 2013.

Reviews

[Maryana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful study material for Japanese language learners! *screaming sugoooooi!*
In addition, this was a great way to sample writing from a few contemporary Japanese authors. Some impressions:

God by Hiromi Kawakami

Nothing like going on a picnic with an old-fashioned, polite bear god - written in a very simple but dreamlike language, I think I’m ready to call this story a piece of magical realism. Despite the quiet gentleness of this story, there was something almost ominous about it. Planning to read A Snake Stepped On and some other Kawakami’s short stories, you can find English translation in Record of a Night Too Brief.

Long Ago, in the Park at Twilight by Otsuichi

Somewhere in between classic horror and cliché horror, this piece was very short, but atmospheric.

The Parrot Meat Market by Shinji Ishii

A fable-like short story with a plot. Even though I admire the author’s use of similes, sometimes it’s too much. Just not my cup of tea, I guess.

Mummy by Banana Yoshimoto

Probably my favourite from this collection, this is an unsettling and thought provoking short story. Quite impressed with Yoshimoto’s art of interweaving lyrical and colloquial languages. Her Kitchen and The Lake left me with some mixed feelings, so I wonder whether I missed some important nuances in her writing back then. After reading this story and thanks to the editor’s notes, I’m inclined to read another novel of hers.

One Hundred Stories by Kaoru Kitamura

A fun piece with mystery vibes and great writing, my younger self would really appreciate this.
The concept of a story within a story is amazing.

To Pun by Yoko Tawada

A delightful word play! It seems that it is not possible to find this short story in print and here it was published on special request as Tawada uses this story for her spoken word performances only. What an admiring use of language - time to crack open some of her novels.



Illustration by Masashi Shimakawa

*Please note this edition is for Japanese language learners (the stories are in Japanese with some notes in English, but not entirely translated). Star rating is for the edition of this book. The rating method for the stories themselves is not quantitative, but qualitative through the comments above.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the best Japanese resource I've come across yet. Six actual contemporary Japanese short stories, in actual Japanese text. Finally. No bullshit textbook dialogs, no ridiculous all-hiragana children's stories. This is the real deal, but handled in such a way that it's not impenetrable for the intermediate Japanese student. There are furigana readings the first time you encounter any kanji, there are rough translations of tricky parts on the opposite page, there's a full dictionary in the back, and there are end notes with extensive grammar explanations. Not to mention the CD that comes with the book, which has audio of every story (as read by actress Reiko Matsunaga). You can follow along as you read (which can be tricky, since it's read at full speed), or just listen to the stories on their own. This is a considerable help when working on one's listening skills.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention the most important thing: the stories are all really good.

Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anything more in a book like this. I can't wait to read the nonfiction one.

[Jonathan Peto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this eons ago, but I wasn't committed enough and kept stopping and restarting with the first story over and over again. Finally, last November or December, I started in ernest. I couldn't have done it without the translation of complex passages though. I love the audio narration too and will use it to revisit these stories again, hopefully with much less reliance on the translation and notes.

The stories, including the first one, were enjoyable or very enjoyable. In the first one, by Hiromi Kawakami, the narrator takes a walk with a bear who speaks and lives in a nearby apartment. Other bears in the story world don't live like this, it seems, but most people don't pay much attention to it. The second to last story by Kaoru Kitamura is a horror story about a male college student escorting a girl home from a party. I'm not ready for it yet, but I want to check out more of Kitamura's and Kawakami's writing in Japanese.

[Carolyn]

Czytanie Yoko Tawady w oryginale odebrało mi 5 lat życia

[Carola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Earlier this year I already reviewed Read Real Japanese Essays . The Fiction version has the same set-up as that book, so I won't get into that again (check the Essays review for that). The structure of the book just works, and it's awesome for students of Japanese, the end.

Anyway! Let's get into content. While I enjoyed Essays, Fiction was infinitely more interesting to me. It's so enjoyable reading Japanese literature in Japanese (makes you feel like you actually accomplished something in your studies, haha), and Michael Emmerich's (the editor) selection of short stories is spot on.

I am sure many J-lit enthusiasts are familiar with Banana Yoshimoto and Hiromi Kawakami, and possibly Otsuichi and Yoko Tawada. If you aren't, check them out! And then this collection also has Shinji Ishii and Kaoru Kitamura, who are a great addition and authors I definitely want to check out in the future.

As for the level of Japanese, the stories in Fiction were more readable than the essays, in my honest opinion. I (N2) breezed through most of them without any problem.

Hiromi Kawakami - God
Typical Kawakami. After my disappointment with Manazuru , this was nice. Not my favourite, but I enjoyed it all right. It's not the easiest story in the book, but Kawakami's style is quite straightforward and if you feel you're ready to read real literature, this shouldn't be a big challenge.

Otsuichi - Long Ago, in the Park at Twilight
This story was a bit of a disappointment. I like Otsuichi, his style is properly creepy, but I do not think this was a masterpiece. Short and easy to read though.

Shinji Ishii - The Parrot Meat Market
Ohhh this one was weird. I have no idea what to think about it, but I think I enjoyed it?? I guess? It's interesting enough. This was one of the more difficult stories in the book.

Banana Yoshimoto - Mummy
This story was really weird. Well done, Yoshimoto, well done. I can't quite pinpoint if it's what I expect of Yoshimoto or not. Anyway, I enjoyed it (more than most of Yoshimoto's things I've read lately).

Kaoru Kitamura - One Hundred Stories
I realllly liked this story. The language is simply and straightforward, and a very easy read. The plot was fun! A better horror story than Otsuichi's, tbh (sorry, Otsuichi). This story definitely made me want to check out more by Kitamura.

Yoko Tawada - To Pun
This story is literally everything that is wrong with the Japanese language (so I say, with love). It's really short, not even two full pages, and it's surprising. I really enjoyed it and it made for a perfect final story to end the book with. I'm also quite curious about Tawada's other works now. I had only vaguely heard of her and had no idea she writes in both Japanese and German, which is just all the more reason for me to check her out.

[linjitah · Rating 2 out of 5]

So... I finally finished this confusing book.

To be honest, I found the short stories quite uninteresting. As a result, I lost the motivation to continue reading them in both Japanese and English. Although having an English translation alongside the Japanese is helpful, it can also be distracting. The presence of the English translation causes me to pause frequently and it takes me longer to read the Japanese. In the end, I've given up and read Japanese pages with a dictionary. It would be better if the book had the translation notes integrated into the stories as footnotes or included in the text, instead of being located on another page AND at the back of the book.

I understand that the editor was attempting to incorporate a diverse range of literary works and styles, but I couldn't help but think that adding more widely-known Japanese stories would benefit learners. Some of the stories in literary fiction have a sophisticated style that can be challenging for native speakers to read, let alone learners. Before, I used to read novels in pure Japanese, and it was much simpler and more satisfying than some of the stories I encounter there.

The story about God is my least favorite and it comes first! It was written in a minimalistic but not at all easy style, filled with specific vocabulary. Not my thing.

I somehow liked Otsuichi's work because of its style but I don't know... All of these texts are not for intermediate learners.

Anyhow, I am glad I finished the book. In the future, I guess I will stick with using only native content.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really whetted my appetite for getting into Japanese literature. It has a good cross-section of authors and stories. The format made it very easy to read the stories with large font with furigana over kanji and translations of most phrases on the opposite page. It also has a dictionary at the back, but I never used it as it was generally easy to guess the meaning of a word from the translation. The CD was good to listen to. The thing that I found the most helpful were the translation notes given at the back of the book. They brought out subtleties in the Japanese text and described grammar points. I really hope that more books are produced in this series in the future.

[Lidian · Rating 4 out of 5]

日本語をまだ理解しなていることは分かった...がすでに知ったけど :D
各の物語が楽しいだけじゃなくって,一つ一つを読んでぐんとレベルアップみたいな感じってちょっと感動した (ちなみに一番好きな物語が百物語だった）。素敵な,　面白い, 貴重な経験だった。 オススメ!
I learnt that I still don't know that much japanese but like I already knew that :p going from not understanding too much in the first story to understanding a bit more of the second story and then fully understanding entire passages of later ones was incredibly satisfying (maybe studying actually works?????). The stories themselves are also super interesting and the perfect length-- together with some other studying I feel like I've at least gotten much much faster at reading. Only halfway through this I decided to get the essays/non fiction version of this, which I'm sure will be just as valuable.

[Yasamin Seifaei · Rating 1 out of 5]

این نظری که دارم میدم واسه نسخه ی ترجمه ی فارسیشه

واقعا نمیدونم مشکل از من بود یا ترجمه، تقریبا هیچ چیز درست و حسابی ای از داستان ها نفهمیدم
یه جا متن رسمی بود یه جا محاوره ای، یه جا معلوم نبود چی بود!
یه جاهاییش هم انگار سانسور شده بود، و اگه همینطور باشه، نمیدونم چرا وقتی داستان کوتاهی رو سانسور میکنن چاپش میکنن؟ چیزی ازش نمی‌مونه که!

به هر حال چون به خاطر ترجمه هیچی نفهمیدم از داستان ها، یک ستاره میدم

[Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

[Tiger Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely AMAZING! I couldn't recommend it more. It contains stories of all genres and all levels; no matter what type of person you are you're surely going to find something that interests you in this fantastic book! The glossary of words at the end and the bilingual translations are of great help too, especially in order to understand idioms or certain nuances which I hadn't managed to grasp even after years of learning Japanese.
Some of the texts are really difficult, but the entertaining narratives make learning kanji a thousand times more fun and interesting than your average grammar book. This is definitely an excellent example of how real language learning in context pays off; Even after the first narrative I already felt my level of Japanese had gone up and I was getting much more comfortable at reading.
The author has done a fantastic job, and I'll certainly be buying the Read Real Japanese Essays too!

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I did not like all of the stories, that really isn't the point of this book. It's a nice introduction to contemporary Japanese fiction in a user-friendly format that helps you increase your ability to read authentic Japanese independently. I prefer this format (translations for tricky sections on a facing page with a full glossary in the back) to side-by-side translations because I think it encourages the reader to try to figure out the meaning on their own. I actually like that the glossary is in the back (as opposed to having all words defined on the page they appear) because it makes you think twice about whether or not your really need to know the definition of a specific word to keep reading or if you can make a reasonable guess and keep moving without stopping to consult the glossary and losing the flow of the story.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

as a person who absorbs information through reading, this book was honestly my saviour among all the children's fairytales written in hiragana. i found the stories brilliant as well - 6 stories, from really touching ones to really scary ones (a hundred stories, im looking at you). japanese text, vertically, from right to left, as it usually is in actual books in japanese, on one side, english translation to phrases on the other. like, for me personally there is virtually no better way to learn japanese, since just plowing through books and endlessly looking up words (as i did when learning english and spanish) did nothing for me and left the meaning unclear. long story short, a very good resource, if you like to read!

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was super interesting to read and a great Japanese learning tool. I didn't care for all of the selections, but it introduced me to some Japanese writers. The English translations were very helpful and the notes in the back explain various expressions and grammar points. CD recording is a bonus for listening practice. Five stars because it's such a good resource for English speakers learning Japanese.

[Victoria Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a nice review, but bloody page lost it. So here I summarise: Loved it, esp the story, 神様.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

tl;dr Mixed bag in terms of story choices. I didn't care for most of them. (Content warning for Yoshimoto Banana's story in my review below.) Otherwise the quality of information here was really good. But definitely N2 level. Not at all necessary, of course, for your studies/collection, but could be interesting to read nevertheless.

Not tl;dr:

This was definitely one of the more better graded readers that I've read, at least in terms of quality, not necessarily story choice (I'll get to that lol). The right-hand pages have the Japanese text, and the left has the English for each corresponding page of Japanese text. The translations themselves are very literal, so not proper localization. Think of it like an in-between step of translation. You're getting more of a break-down of the Japanese rather than fluid and complete sentences. I will also mention that not all sentences are translated. Overly simple ones, like 'I said,' or 'I don't know,' or certain parts of sentences are not translated.

There are additional explanations in the back of the book which were very useful and appreciated. I can't recall this being standard for graded readers, and definitely not for bilingual books. To not just get a translation (albeit, a broken English, literal one) and dictionary, but also explanations of particular grammar or vocabulary was great to see.

However, some of the additional explanations got a little repetitive. On the one hand, that could be nice for reminding you the meaning of certain grammar constructions or patterns, but on the other, it's space taken up that could've been used to explain something else. (The sheer number of times の・ん＋だ・です was explained was...excessive. It's a beginner grammar construction, I feel like for a book that is clearly more advanced, unless there was something especially unique or difficult to understand with that grammar, it should not have been mentioned as often as it was.)

For the most part though, I found the explanations either nice in confirming what I thought or interesting in teaching me new things. This did make a need for two bookmarks though, so I could flip back and forth between the story and its translation and to the grammar/vocab explanations.

Story wise, as with pretty much all graded readers, you either don't like any of them or get a mixed bag, and I suppose it's fortunate this one was a mixed bag? But yeah, really hit or miss with the stories for me here.

The first story is about the narrator's time with a bear. It was okay, but completely forgettable for me. (I actually had to look it up for this review. ^^; )

The second story wasn't bad, a bit of horror at a children's playground.

The third was just boring to me. I know there are literary things at play here, how these authors are masters of their craft of language, but even with famous English tales, a boring story is a boring story. It got a little heartfelt for me at the end, but was otherwise one I didn't enjoy.

The fourth one was one I actually DID like in terms of literary style, but I have to give a potential content warning here for dubious consent (of sex and kidnapping), and assault. It made me really uncomfortable, and probably not for the reasons the author intended. I did not like this story either. :/

The fifth story was by far my favorite. (Honestly the only good one in the bunch.) A young woman doesn't want to fall asleep, so she and a male companion tell spooky stories to stay awake. Definitely an engaging story, and one you'll want to read more than once to catch things you'll miss. ;)

The last story is the shortest, and I think best summed up by its title: かける. ^^; Hilarious, if not aggravating, but purely in a language learning way. Y'all will know what I mean when you read it xD

The audio quality was crisp and easily understandable. I wasn't entirely in love with certain parts of the narrator's stylistic choices, but overall she did a great job. Probably the best in sound quality from graded readers I've read.

I would absolutely say this book is for more advanced students of Japanese. If you have a complete 100% solid grasp of N3, this would be a real challenge for you. I would put this more on an N2 level. This can be a nice resource to not just get reading/listening practice in, but also see how sentences are broken down, which can help deepen your understanding in the language. Not necessary to include with your studies, but I don't think it'd be a waste either.

Despite my complaints, I would say this was overall a quality book and I'm glad I read it. I'm definitely interested in the non-fiction edition, and will just be crossing my fingers the essays there will be more enjoyable for me, haha.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars: solid overall with some strengths plagues by other issues. You may consider it merits a higher score if you can overlook it's flaws (which to you may just seem like nitpicks), or if more of the stories resonate with you than they did me.

The passages were a bit hit or miss for me, I enjoyed 2 out of 5 of them quite a lot (神様 & 百物語), while 2 others were pretty forgettable, and the final one was so short that I'm going to consider this a collection of 5 stories rather than 6. All-in-all that's that's more than adequate for a learning resource that is ultimately an introduction to Japanese lit, and more interesting than your standard textbook dialogues.

The voice actress was superb, however -- and I feel bad saying this, considering the high quality VA -- I would have really appreciated if some of the stories had a male VA instead of, or in addition. IMO any language resource, especially one like Japanese which is relatively gendered compared to English, should strive to offer both male and female VA's so that all learners can practice listening comprehension and shadowing speech. Whether they choose to have half and half done by each, or every passage performed by two VA's, either would be okay so long as both are included in some capacity.

I was a huge fan of the translator's notes/explanations in the back -- most every clause and grammar usage within was explained within these notes, as well as some cultural background to why he decided to translate passages a certain way -- this commentary is absolutely gold for someone learning a language through literature. In truth, this may be the biggest selling point for this book and what sets it apart from other bilingual japanese books, I may even appreciate it more than the stories themselves.

As for the reading experience itself, the pages were really solid and felt amazing, the book also displays furigana over kanji the first time you see it and drops it any further time you see the same word. This is actually excellent as it trains you to read words while still giving you the opportunity to see it's pronunciation on first encounter. However, not having the vocab translations on the same page (like most other parallel texts - e.g. 'Breaking into Japanese Literature'), and having to flip to the back and search for vocab via alphabetic order without any category or section for each short story is extremely tedious, you will find yourself spending more time flipping between different sections of the book than you will reading; it's ultimately just quicker to use your phone to search jisho for unknown vocab, and at that point why even bother wasting paper on a borderline unusable section.

Do I think this is worth your time? Yes, but probably more-so if you have a particular interest in a Japanese fictional resource; as for a learner without a particular interest in this aspect of the language, or for someone who is happy to read tedious but better structured dokkai books, then this is still a decent resource but it also has enough issues stacking up against it that it's ultimately (and unfortunately) not a must-read. With that said, many of my criticisms could be fixed in a hypothetical revised edition, in so doing, Kodansha could potentially elevate this book to something I would consider an essential read for any Japanese student, regardless of if they're particularly into literature.

[Athirah Idrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5 stars

The only Japanese-English parallel text I've read is the Penguin Short Stories, so that's my standard to compare to and I dare say I had tremendously enjoyed this one a lot more.

First of all, let's talk about the layout of this book. The book is well structured, from the introduction in the Preface by the Editor up to the Notes and Glossary. Similar to the compilation by Penguin, the text in Japanese is placed side by side the corresponding English translation.

What I loved most about the book is not only the translation (which was very well done, btw), but more so the Notes that accompany each story. The Notes run from the opposite side from the back of the book, and they provide explanations on the grammar points in the stories. Not only are they clear and concise, the editor also made sure to include examples to illustrate how the grammar works.

It's obvious how much research and knowledge that was put into this and how well versed the editor is in both Japanese and English to be able to explain lucidly back and forth between the two languages without any confusion.

There are two things that set aside Read Real Japanese and the Penguin Parallel Text that make the former more superior in my eyes. Firstly, as mentioned, I was very pleased with both the translations and the helpful notes on grammar. I'm surprised the editor doesn't do more translation work for fiction because I think he not only understands the context, but is able to differentiate the delicate nuances in the Japanese language especially when it comes to their culture that dictates their social interaction. I think language learners of any levels can benefit from this book, especially if you're an English speaker. However, based on the level of grammar and details given, I think this would be best benefited by students of levels N2/N1. This can be a good 'refresher course' for N1/N2 as the editor explains why he translates in certain ways for trickier grammar points ie the subtle difference between は and が, that might be a little harder to understand for beginners. The furigana accompanying each new Kanji definitely helps too.

Secondly, the selection of the featured short stories. I must admit initially I was sceptical. At first glance, these stories are all written by known authors who are recognized internationally, so I was afraid that they were chosen mostly because the editor is besotted with their fame or accolades. (premature judgment on my part which I was glad to feel justified to adjust as I was reading the book!) However, I'm pleased to see that the editor put in a lot of thought as to why he chose these stories and how they are arranged in the book, as he explained in the Preface. I particularly enjoyed 百物語 (One Hundred Stories) by Kitamura Kaoru and the last one かける (To Pun) by Tawada Yoko was just cherry on top! I have to say that these probably wouldn't be my first picks but the editor did a good job structuring the book this way and I can understand why he chose these particular stories.

Highly recommended!

[Jacob]

I've now read dozens of Japanese novels in translation, so it was SO great to finally read some literary fiction in Japanese. This is the first non-manga fiction I've read in Japanese and I loved it. Six short stories by contemporary writers. I enjoyed all of them, but my favorites were the stories by Banana Yoshimoto, Kaoru Kitamura, and Shinji Ishii. The Shinji Ishii story even made me cry on the cold morning I read it.

The page-by-page translation is extremely helpful and the grammar explanations in the back of the book were educational. I don't think this is a great book for beginners, but maybe? Am I still a beginner? idk. In my mind, this is a good book for folks with decent vocab/grammar foundations and who want to read, but are put off by the interruptions of looking up meanings and pronunciations.

[DaveD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great learning tool that I will continue to use to try to improve my reading ability in Japanese. I did find some of the stories quite strange, but it was nice to be introduced to Japanese authors that were mostly unknown to me. If you're around an intermediate level of Japanese, this is a good choice of book to read.

[El · Rating 5 out of 5]

بهترین مجموعه داستانی که بعد از مدت‌ها خوندم. عجیب و خوشمزه و اشتهاآور.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six short stories bound to delight tales of a bear on a picnic, mummified cats, Butcher's with naughty sons and frightening experiences in the sand box.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome, I really enjoyed the stories and read everything else in between, too. I wish they made more!

[Eloise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really hard (obviously) to read a book in another language and got fawking discouraged because I don't know SO MANY WORDS.
But I tried. And the first two stories were really interesting

[Azin · Rating 3 out of 5]

داستان های کوتاه از نویسندگان ژاپنی/نشر روزگار

مجموعه ای از ۶ داستان رازآلود و ترسناکِ ژاپنی..

[Izzati · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I have read a number of Japanese-English books of short stories by now and so this book surprised me in more ways than one. For one, it was not the usual parallel text style, with one page being in Japanese and the other in English. The English translation was done only for chosen sentences or parts of sentences. I suppose it was meant for readers with some Japanese competency, maybe JLPT N3 level and above. I wouldn’t say any of the stories were particularly difficult to read. And the book had lengthy Notes section for you to delve deeper into the nuances of the Japanese language and to understand the intricacies of the Japanese culture. There was also a dictionary section for you to improve your vocabulary.

I was also very surprised by the selection for this compilation by Michael Emmerich because I was not much of a fan of the stories in the other book (Short Stories in Japanese: New Penguin Parallel Text). I enjoyed almost all of the stories in Read Real Japanese: Fiction!

And here’s another pleasant surprise: The book was structured like a course meal. A food lover like me could not contain my squeal when I began reading the preface!

Soup Course
神様 (God) by Kawakami Hiromi – 3 stars
Just a woman spending time with her bear (yes, the animal, bear) neighbour.

Appetizer
むかし夕日の公園で (Long Ago, in the Park at Twilight) by Otsuichi – 5 stars
As can be expected from the same mind that brought us Goth, this one was dark, and I loved it! A story about something a kid found in the park’s sandbox.

Fish Course
肉屋おうむ (The Parrot Meat Market) by Ishii Shinji – 3 stars
A family drama, and a neighbourhood tale.

Meat Course
ミイラ (Mummy) by Yoshimoto Banana – 5 stars
This was dark and so satisfying! There was a sexual part that I didn’t care much for, but overall still deserved a 5 star-rating.

Cheese Course
百物語 (100 stories) by Kitamura Kaoru – 5 stars
Okay, this one impressed me the most that it made me want to attend Waseda University, because why on earth did all great Japanese authors hail from there. I enjoyed a lot of these short stories, but this one in particular was my number one. It is about a boy and a girl exchanging horror stories. After each story, they had to turn off one light in the house.

Dessert
かける (“Kakeru”) by Tawada Yoko – 4 stars
A two-page fiction, but a plotless essay, rather than an actual story. The whole thing made full use of the word “kakeru” because in Japanese, the word has so many meanings and usage. This one was for the language lovers and the word nerds like me. Reading the Note by Emmerich made for an even better experience.

I rated this book and overall 4.5 stars, which is the best rating for Japanese-English short story compilation books I have ever given. I enjoyed reading Emmerich’s notes, because I could feel his passion and excitement about everything Japanese.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable learning resource for the student of Japanese, not least because of the careful and methodical way that the translators have rendered the parallel text - providing direct translations of difficult clauses and a painstakingly comprehensive set of translators’ notes and glossary at the back of the book (which is really its front).

But what I like about this better than the Penguin volume is that the stories themselves are simply much better and more approachable - making the experience of reading much less of a slog with an uncertain narrative payoff at the end.

Here the stories range from charming pastoral parables about otherness (Kawakami’s playful Kamisama) to chilling horror (Otsuichi’s and Kiamura’s offerings) and the delightfully short and punny Kakeru, which basically runs the entire gamut of meanings of the titular Japanese word - a story that, as the editors comment, must surely have been written for the express benefit of the Japanese learner himself.

The two meatier stories (Parrot Meat Market and Mummy) do hew closer to that meandering, freewheeling quality common to the Japanese short story, but they still maintain that compulsively readable quality that is important to maintain when reading a foreign text where the words come haltingly - the desire to read should, after all, be stoked by the desire to get better at reading but it is the desire to keep reading a rip-roaringly compelling story is key to the very exercise, after all.

I give this: 4 out of 5 light sources

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good:
The stories are short, interesting and not too difficult. On the right page is the original and on the left some translations. The only bits that are left untranslated will be easy enough to understand for the intermediate learner.

Meh:
Not sure how useful the notes are. They are in a separate section of the book so reading the story and reading the notes can't be done at the same time. And there are quite a lot of those annotations (taking a good 20-25% of the book).

On the other hand, those notes are helpful. It's an interesting way to review some grammar points after you're done with the stories I guess! Too bad that when I'm done with a story, I want to move on to the next story and that when I'm done with a book, I want to move one to the next book.

Bad:
The mini-dictionary containing every word used in the book. What a waste of space! We have Internet and anyway, 90% of the text is already translated (again, apart from the easiest stuff)!

Also that's only my opinion and a lot of people like audio, but I could care less about the CD. Less peripheral features and more content please!

All in all it's a really book to get started reading Japanese. Probably the best reader I've read so far.

[dinah chuuu · Rating 4 out of 5]

a nice collection of short stories in japanese, with furigana, a semi complete english translations, dictionary, and plot explanations.
if you are leaning/studying japanese, definitely buy it

[Frank Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already knew from reading the Penguin 'Short Stories in Japanese' and two novels he translated that Michael Emmerich's style of translating and writing really disagrees with me. Despite that, this reader (along with its non-fiction companion) remains the best (of the now 6) I've so far used. The grammar explanations are especially comprehensive and helpful, and Emmerich stacks a lot of extra example sentences in there, which I really appreciated.

Of the two 'Read Real Japanese' books, I probably like this one best because (most of) the stories in this book are way more interesting and enjoyable than the essays in Janet Ashby's non-fictional 'Read Real Japanese' reader (which, except for the one by Hideo Levy, were pretty pointless and boring) although I prefer Janet Ashby's more straightforward style of translating and teaching over Emmerich's.

The audio CD, as with the non-fiction version, is pretty challenging, because, while we are told in the introduction of the book that audio is supposed to be at "natural speed", it seems that the voice actress naturally speaks unnaturally fast.

Would definitely recommend.