I have finished reading 沼田まほかる's novel 「彼女がその名を知らない鳥たち」. Reading this book took me a long time, but even though I struggled to go through some parts of it, I enjoyed reading it. I know that some passages were above my level, and even if I could follow the story and most of the dialogues without problems, I..
Book review: Asahi Keywords 2019
At the beginning of every year, Asahi publishes「Asahi Keywords 朝日キーワード」, a book that introduces key notions that help to understand the news in all usual domains, from politics to social matters, economics or culture. Published in January 2018, this year's edition is entitled 「朝日キーワード2019」and summarizes the year 2017 (this is a little confusing...). This book aims..
Book review: 『豆の上で眠る』by Kanae Minato
In 湊かなえ's novel, the reader is invited to blink into a family's untold secrets, but before we know it, we find ourselves sharing the protagonist's emotions and feeling unexpectedly involved in her story. While personal tragedy and family drama give the novel its deepness, the mystery and quest for the truth make it a real..
Book review: 『噓を愛する女』 by Etsu Okabe
I finished reading the first novel of my 2018 reading challenge (read one novel in Japanese a month in 2018). I chose a very short one to begin with: 「噓を愛する女」by 岡部えつ（おかべえつ）. To summarize briefly the story, Yukari (由香里), a successful working woman pushing 30, is living with her boyfriend Kippei (桔平), who does not seem..
Book review: 『パラドックス13』 by Keigo Higashino
Review 「パラドックス13」(read: サーティーン) is a novel by famous crime author Higashino Keigo. Contrary to what we may expect, 「パラドックス13」does not deal with crime and investigation, but with science-fiction. At least, an SF element gives the context in which the characters will evolve but we won't know much about the scientifical phenomenon that stroke the Earth on..
Reading notes: 舟を編む, part 5 and Review
Finally, the last chapter of 舟を編む! As I haven't taken many notes for this chapter, I will also write my review of the novel in the same post. Reading Notes 血潮が凍る The missing word on the fourth galley proof is 血潮・ちしお which means both "spurting blood" and "hot blood" or "hot-bloodedness". Hence Majime's joke 「血潮が凍る事態です」..
Book review: 『嘘をもうひとつだけ』 by Keigo Higashino
「嘘をもうひとつだけ」is the 6th book of the Kaga series 加賀恭一郎シリーズ by Higashino Keigo. If you are not familiar with this series, it features detective 加賀恭一郎 Kaga Kyoichiro and is composed of 10 books. The first novel of the series was one of the first novels written by Higashino Keigo (「卒業」was published in 1989*) and the last one..
Some last listening exercises before the JLPT
The Korean publisher Darakwon has an interesting series to practice the listening part of the JLPT. It is called 新일본어 능력시험 청해 콕콕 찍어주마. It exists for every level, but N4 and N5 are grouped in the same series. I only have the N2 book for listening, which is called: 新일본어 능력시험 청해 콕콕 찍어주마 -N2..
Book review: 日本語能力試験、模試と対策 by ASK Publishing
If you are learning Japanese, you may have come across ASK Publishing's books more than once. They have published a lot of material to study Japanese, with some really good methods to take the JLPT. Their most famous series is certainly the So-matome series, which prepare test takers for any level. They also published 多読ライブラリー, which a..
Korean resources: “日本語ジャーナル” by publisher Darakwon
A short review of the magazine called 일본어 저널. This magazine is a Korean monthly publication for Japanese learners.
Japan travel guides
In this article, I compare French, Korean and Japanese travel guides.
Book review: 『私が彼を殺した』by Keigo Higashino
This is the 5th novel of the detective Kaga series by Higashino Keigo. If you are not familiar with Higashino Keigo, he is certainly the most famous contemporary Japanese writer of mystery and detective novels. His books are systematically translated into Korean, but sadly, there are only a few translations available in English or French.....