Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

California

Verses by a Former Ambassador

American Senryu

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Slight edge wear and spine crease. #paperback #japan #kimono #childrens #kids #juvenilefiction #livingbook #fiction #culture #japanese 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Suki's favorite possession is her blue cotton kimono. A gift from her obachan, it holds special memories of her grandmother's visit last summer. And Suki is going to wear it on her first day back to school --- no matter what anyone says.When it's Suki's turn to share with her classmates what she did during the summer, she tells them about the street festival she attended with her obachan and the circle dance that they took part in. In fact, she gets so carried away reminiscing that she's soon humming the music and dancing away, much to the delight of her entire class!Filled with gentle enthusiasm and a touch of whimsy, Suki's Kimono is the joyful story of a little girl whose spirit leads her to march --- and dance --- to her own drumbeat.

Suki's Kimono

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#nonfiction #memoir #hardcover #biography #nobu #japanese #translated 

a memoir

Nobu

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New York

Seventeen-year-old Ginny Park is about to get expelled from high school - again. Stephanie, the picture book author who took Ginny into her Oregon home after she was kicked out of school in Hawaii, isn't upset: she only wants to know why. But Ginny has always been in-between; she can't bring herself to open up to anyone about her past, or about what prompted her to flee her native Japan. Then, among the scraps of paper and drawings of Stephanie's stories, Ginny finds a mysterious scrawl that changes everything: The sky is about to fall. Where do you go?

The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart

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#hardcover #japanese #fiction #contemporaryfiction #nationalbookaward 

A Novel

WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations. Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo. Kazu's life in the city began and ended in that park; he arrived there to work as a laborer in the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and ended his days living in the vast homeless village in the park, traumatized by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and shattered by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics. Through Kazu's eyes, we see daily life in Tokyo buzz around him and learn the intimate details of his personal story, how loss and society's inequalities and constrictions spiraled towards this ghostly fate, with moments of beauty and grace just out of reach. A powerful masterwork from one of Japan's most brilliant outsider writers, Tokyo Ueno Station is a book for our times and a look into a marginalized existence in a shiny global megapolis.

Tokyo Ueno Station

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#paperback #historical #dualpov #fiction #historicalfiction #japanese #youngadult #war 

Pennsylvania

An "important" (New York Times Book Review), "extraordinary" (Booklist, starred review) novel of conviction, friendship, and betrayal, from Monica Hesse, the bestselling and award-winning author of Girl in the Blue Coat



"A must-read for fans of historical fiction." --Ruta Sepetys, #1 New York Times bestselling author



It's 1944, and World War II is raging across Europe and the Pacific. The war seemed far away from Margot in Iowa and Haruko in Colorado--until they were uprooted to dusty Texas, all because of the places their parents once called home: Germany and Japan.



Haruko and Margot meet at the high school in Crystal City, a "family internment camp" for those accused of colluding with the enemy. The teens discover that they are polar opposites in so many ways, except for one that seems to override all the others: the camp is changing them, day by day and piece by piece. Haruko finds herself consumed by fear for her soldier brother and distrust of her father, who she knows is keeping something from her. And Margot is doing everything she can to keep her family whole as her mother's health deteriorates and her rational, patriotic father becomes a man who distrusts America and fraternizes with Nazis.



With everything around them falling apart, Margot and Haruko find solace in their growing, secret friendship. But in a prison the government has deemed full of spies, can they trust anyone--even each other?



*Don't miss Monica Hesse's New York Times bestselling historical mysteries, Girl in the Blue Coat and They Went Left*

The War Outside

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#paperback #nonfiction #philosophy #japanese #swordwielding

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Master the ancient samurai art of iaijutsu with this expert martial arts guide.

To the Japanese, the sword is a spiritual weapon, possessed of a kind of divinity, a self reflective of the soul of its maker, owner, and user. Around its mystical powers has grown a centuries-old ritual and a fascinating, intricate discipline. This unique guide unlocks the mysteries of this ancient ritual practice, explaining the history and significance of swords in the samurai culture, and documenting the techniques of swordsmanship, as no other book in English does.

IAI: The Art of Drawing the Sword is a thorough examination of the traditional Japanese martial art of iaijutsu. Included in this volume are introductions to sword care and selection; general etiquette and the training uniform and gear; proper basic sword procedure; sword techniques and drills for practice and demonstrations; kata; and sword testing; as well as the story of the Chushingura (the 47 Ronin). Generously illustrated with black and white photographs and line drawings, IAI: The Art of Drawing the Sword is a storehouse of information for both the aspiring student and the experienced swordsman.

IAI the Art of Drawing the Sword

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#paperback #fiction #africanamerican #adult #japanese #historicalfiction 

Indiana

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller! From debut author Asha Lemmie, “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.” —Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Nightingale Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.” Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin. The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything. Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

Fifty Words for Rain

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Was a gift. #paperback #manga #anime #fiction #japan #japanese #shounen #shounenjump 

Arizona

Kafka wants to clean up kaiju, but not literally! Will a sudden metamorphosis stand in the way of his dream? With the highest kaiju-emergence rates in the world, Japan is no stranger to attack by deadly monsters. Enter the Japan Defense Force, a military organization tasked with the neutralization of kaiju. Kafka Hibino, a kaiju corpse cleanup man, has always dreamed of joining the force and wants another shot at achieving his childhood dream of eliminating the kaiju. But how can he expect to fight kaiju when he suddenly becomes one himself?! Kafka hopes to one day keep his pact with his childhood friend Mina to join the Japan Defense Force. But while she’s out neutralizing kaiju as Third Division captain, Kafka is stuck cleaning up the aftermath of her battles. Now, thanks to a sudden eligibility rule change, Kafka has one more shot at realizing his dream. There’s just one problem—he’s suddenly turned into a kaiju! And even worse, he’s made the Defense Force’s neutralization list under the code name Kaiju No. 8.

Kaiju No. 8, Vol. 1

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Slight edge wear. Spine crease. #paperback #jasminetoguchi #aapi #childrens #kids #drums #taiko #juvenilefiction #fiction #japanese

Jasmine Toguchi Drummer Girl 

#japanese #kids #classics #foreignlanguage

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Daddy Long Legs & The Prince and the Pauper

Set of 2 Japanese Children’s books

#paperback #thirdorfourthgrade #classic #japanese #fiction #middlegrade

Minnesota

Sadako, hospitalized with leukemia, races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes in an attempt to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

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#paperback #fiction #chinese #historicalfiction #history #japan #japanese #ww2 

Florida

Shortly before World War II, a Chinese man, sent to Japan to recover from tuberculosis, meets a lovely Japanese girl and four older residents, in a story of passion and sacrifice

The Samurai's Garden

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#paperback #chinese #fiction #historicalfiction #japanese 

Has one mark on the side and slight jacket curling at the top. Otherwise excellent. Some other books in the series are available, DM if interested in a bundle!

 #hardcover #adventure #fantasy #japan #japanese #samurai #youngadult #historicalfiction #historicalfantasy #fiction

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Colorado

Tales of the Otori Book Two

Adopted by an Otori Lord, orphan Takeo rises to become a closely held member of the Tribe and finds his love for Maruyama heir Shirakawa Kaede challenged by dissembling clans and fractured allegiances.

Grass for His Pillow

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No marks. See pics 📸

 #paperback #nonfiction #youngadult #internment #japanese #wwii #america #homeschool

Q

Michigan

Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons and a dance band called the Jive Bombers who would play any popular song except the  nation's #1 hit: "Don't Fence Me In." Farewell to Manzanaris the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.

Farewell to Manzanar

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#japanese #japan #haiku #tradition #asian #paperback 

An Anthology

A highly distilled form of Japanese poetry, haiku consist of 17 syllables, usually divided among three lines. This unique collection spans over 400 years (1488-1902) of haiku history by the greatest masters: Basho, Issa, Shiki and many more, in translations by top-flight scholars in the field. Editor Faubion Bowers provides a Foreword and many informative notes to the poems.

The Classic Tradition of Haiku

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#hardcover #fiction #historicalfiction #historical #worldwar2 #japanese #romance #ww2 

From New York Times and internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende, an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during the Second World War. The Japanese Lover is a tender story that explores issues of race and identity, abandonment and reconciliation, and centers on two women: elderly, enigmatic Alma and her caretaker, the younger, devoted Irina, who is hiding a dark past. With an intricate, gripping plot that takes readers inside the US internment camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during the war, the novel captures both the horrifying acts and the beautiful deeds of which mankind is capable. Here is Isabel Allende at her masterful best.

The Japanese Lover

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#paperback #history #historyofjapan #japan #japanese #japanesehistory #nonfiction 

Its History and Culture

Beginning with its earliest known civilization (about 3,000 B.C.), "Japan: It's History and Culture traces aspects of Japanese religion, art, militarism, and agriculture and analyzes the social, political, and economic life of Asia's wealthiest nation. Richly anecdotal, this book casts fascinating sidelights on significant Japanese personalities, works of literature, and historic events, and the characteristic of the Japanese culture to adopt other's material for their own.

Japan

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#hardcover #fiction #historicalfiction #historical #worldwar2 #japanese #romance #ww2 #isabelallende

Ohio

Illinois

World Languages

Genko Yoshi Paper, 100 Pages

Traditional Japanese manuscript paper. Template squares allow for correct spacing of characters.

Genkouyoushi Notebook for Japanese Writing

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#hardcover #historicalfiction #japanese #romance #fiction 

Slight edge wear. Tape to spine. Ex-library with noted markings. Stamp to top edge. #paperback #momotaro #middlegrade #childrens #kids #japanese #folktale #adventure #action #juvenilefiction 

Percy Jackson meets Hayao Miyazaki in this critically acclaimed contemporary Japanese folktale about a boy who discovers his latent powers on a quest to save his father.



Xander Miyamoto would rather do almost anything than listen to his sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Stedman, drone on about weather disasters happening around the globe. If Xander could do stuff he's good at instead, like draw comics and create computer programs, he might not be counting the minutes until the dismissal bell.



When spring break begins at last, Xander plans to spend it playing computer games with his best friend, Peyton. Xander's father briefly distracts him with a comic book about a samurai warrior named Momotaro that springs out of a peach pit. Xander tosses it aside, but Peyton finds it more interesting.



Little does either boy know that the comic is a warning. They are about to be thrust into the biggest adventure of their lives a journey wilder than any Xander has ever imagined, full of weird monsters. To win at this deadly serious game they will have to rely on their wits, courage, faith, and especially, each other. 



Praise forXander and the Lost Island of Monsters:



"With phantasmagorical environments, flying white rats, a fire-breathing bird, a giant, a snow demon, and other creepy things, there is abundant action. This retelling of a Japanese folktale celebrates courage, friendship, and pride of heritage, while featuring unforgettable characters and leaving readers eager for the next installment in this new series." -Booklist



"A breathless retelling of the Japanese legend of Momotaro, this is an Asian version of Percy Jackson; adventure fans will be waiting for more." -- Kirkus



"Though the story of Momotaro is familiar to every Japanese child, Dilloway seamlessly weaves necessary background information into the fast, action-filled plot. Xander, a Japanese American boy, hardly knows the legend himself, so readers learn along with him. Xander's candid and straightforward first-person narration will instantly resonate with middle grade readers, as will his story's themes of self-acceptance and friendship. Yoon's comic-style illustrations evoke Xander's talent for drawing and bring welcome visual interest for reluctant readers. This fast-paced fantasy adventure with a foundation in Japanese culture is perfect for fans of Percy Jackson." -- School Library Journal

Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters

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#hardcover #Japanese #language #kanji #education 

Utah

The 1,850 Basic Characters and the Kana Syllabaries

Master the Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese and youll be able to read a Japanese newspaper. Included in this excellent book, a classic which many generations of students of Japanese have relied on, are the first 881 essential characters as prescribed by the Ministry of Education. Each include their most practical readings and definitions, as well as illustrative examples and demonstrations of stroke order. Readings and definitions for the 1,850 characters adopted by law for use in Japaneese newspapers are included in the second part. Practical and efficient, Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese achieves its ambitious goal: simplifying the Japanese language for Western readers.

James D. Hodgson

American Senryu

Chieri Uegaki; Stéphane Jorisch (Illustrator)

Suki's Kimono

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa

Nobu

Chesil; Takami Nieda (Translator)

The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart

Yu Miri

Tokyo Ueno Station

Monica Hesse

The War Outside

Darrell Max Craig

IAI the Art of Drawing the Sword

Asha Lemmie

Fifty Words for Rain

Naoya Matsumoto

Kaiju No. 8, Vol. 1

Debbi Michiko Florence; Elizabet Vukovic (Illustrated)

Jasmine Toguchi Drummer Girl

Jean Webster

Set of 2 Japanese Children’s books

Eleanor Coerr (Editor-In-Chief); Ronald Himler

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Gail Tsukiyama

The Samurai's Garden

Gail Tsukiyama

The Samurai's Garden

Lian Hearn

Grass for His Pillow

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston; James D. Houston

Farewell to Manzanar

Faubion Bowers (Editor)

The Classic Tradition of Haiku

Isabel Allende

The Japanese Lover

Scott W. Morton

Japan

Isabel Allende

The Japanese Lover

Reissa Roni

Genkouyoushi Notebook for Japanese Writing

Isabel Allende

The Japanese Lover

Margaret Dilloway; Choong Yoon (Illustrator)

Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters

Florence Sakade

A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese