JET Tales: stories from rural Japan
This website is a record of my experiences in the JET Programme as an AET (Assistant English
Teacher) in two Japanese public high schools.
Lagniappe: books (for the hungry little
bookworm in all of us...)
history |
language |
literature |
culture |
travel |
etc.
Useful links:
the japan page: from Kodansha (book publishers) International
Peek - A - Book NooK: a used (English language) bookstore in Hiroshima
which will ship to anywhere in southern Japan
amazon.com Japan: for ordering books in Japan
History
- Hiroshima by John Hersey
Paperback: 152 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.44 x 6.87 x 4.19
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 0679721037; Reprint edition (March 1989)
- Japan: A Modern History by James L. McClain
Hardcover: 512 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.37 x 9.51 x 6.40
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393041565; (November 2001)
- Japan : A Documentary History : The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present
by David J. Lu
Paperback: 410 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.13 x 8.19 x 5.23
Publisher: M.E.Sharpe; ISBN: 0765600366; (November 1996)
- Sources of Japanese Tradition
by Wm. Theodore De Bary (Compiler), Donald Keene (Editor), George Tanabe (Compiler),
Paul H. Varley (Editor)
Paperback: 506 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 8.28 x 5.33
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ISBN: 0231086040; 0 edition (May 15, 1964)
- Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa*
by Yukichi Fukuzawa, Eiichi Kiyooka (Translator)
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.96 x 7.95 x 5.38
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ISBN: 0231083734; (August 1983)
[*the face of the 10,000-yen bill]
- Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb
by Ronald T. Takaki
Paperback: 212 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.56 x 7.94 x 5.04
Publisher: Back Bay Books; ISBN: 0316831247; reprint edition (August 1996)
- War Without Mercy by John W. Dower
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.10 x 9.20 x 6.12
Publisher: Pantheon Books; ISBN: 0394751728; (April 1987)
- Letters from the End of the World: A Firsthand Account of the Bombing of Hiroshima
Toyofumi Ogura Kisaburo Murakami (translator) Shigeru Fujii (translator)
Paperback, 208 pages, 140 x 210 mm. ISBN: 4770027761
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Japan's Comfort Women: The Military and Involuntary Prostitution During War
and Occupation by Yuki Tanaka, Susan Brownmiller
Paperback: 212 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.45 x 9.18 x 6.14
Publisher: Routledge; ISBN: 0415194016; (March 2002)
- The Comfort Women : Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the
Second World War by George L. Hicks
Paperback: 303 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.70 x 8.20 x 5.46
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393316947; Reprint edition (October 1997)
Culture
- Chrysanthemum and the Sword : Patterns of Japanese
by Ruth Benedict, Ezra F. Vogel (Introduction)
Paperback: 324 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.95 x 8.26 x 5.59
Publisher: Mariner Books; ISBN: 0395500753; Reprint edition (June 1989)
- Sources of Japanese Tradition
by W.T. Debary, William Theodore de Bary (Editor)
Paperback: 406 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.95 x 8.31 x 5.34
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ISBN: 0231086059; 0 edition (May 15, 1964)
- Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
Hardcover: 154 pages, 132 X 189 mm. ISBN: 4770027311
Publisher: Kodansha International
[for those who want to learn about "the Way of the Warrior"]
- Geisha by Liza Crihfield Dalby
Paperback: 347 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 8.30 x 8.36
Publisher: University of California Press; ISBN: 0520204956; Reprint edition (October 1998)
[from amazon.com
"In the mid-1970s, an American graduate student in anthropology joined the ranks of
white-powdered geisha in Kyoto, Japan. Liza Dalby took the name Ichigiku and
apprenticed in the famed Pontocho district, trailing behind "older sisters" bemused
by this long-legged Westerner intent on learning their arts and customs. In Geisha,
this observant ethnographer paints an intoxicating picture of the "flower and willow
world" to which she gained entry."]
- The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura, Soshitsu Sen
(Foreword and Afterword, XV, Grand Tea Master, Urasenke School of Tea)
Paperback: 160 pages, 110 x 182 mm, 8 B/W photos ISBN: 4770015429
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Office Ladies and Salaried Men : Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies
by Yuko Ogasawara
Paperback: 280 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.72 x 8.99 x 6.06
Publisher: University of California Press; ISBN: 0520210441; (June 1998)
- Speed Tribes: Days and Nights With Japan's Next Generation
by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Paperback: 304 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.73 x 8.00 x 5.28
Publisher: Harper Perennial; ISBN: 0060926651; Reprint edition (September 1995)
Culture: religion
- Religion in the Japanese Experience: Sources and Interpretations
by H. Byron Earhart (Editor)
Paperback: 336 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.56 x 9.29 x 6.35
Publisher: Wadsworth Pub Co; ISBN: 0534524613; 2nd edition (October 7, 1996)
- Religions of Japan in Practice by George J. Tanabe (Editor)
Paperback: 550 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.28 x 9.19 x 6.07
Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr; ISBN: 0691057893; (March 8, 1999)
- Shugendo : Essays on the Structure of Japanese Folk Religion
(Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, No 32)
by Hitoshi Miyake, H. Byron Earhart (Introduction)
Hardcover: 350 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.94 x 9.30 x 6.42
Publisher: Univ of Michigan Center for; ISBN: 093951205X; (July 2001)
- Bodhisattva of Compassion : The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin
by John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld
Paperback: 158 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.55 x 9.01 x 6.00
Publisher: Shambhala Publications; ISBN: 0877731268; (March 1988)
- The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture by George J. Tanabe, Willa Jane Tanabe
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press; ISBN: 0824811984; (July 1989)
- Underground by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum (Translator),
Philip Gabriel (Translator), J. Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Paperback: 366 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.88 x 7.92 x 5.26
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 0375725806; (April 10, 2001)
[gathered witness accounts of the 1995 sarin gas massacre in Tokyo's subways]
Culture: living in Japan
- Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program
by David L. McConnell
Paperback: 417 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.99 x 8.95 x 5.98
Publisher: University of California Press; ISBN: 0520216369; (February 2000)
- Japan Health Handbook, Revised Edition
by Meredith Maruyama, Louise Shimizu, Nancy Tsurumaki
Paperback: 352 pages, 128 x 182 mm
Index, bilingual glossary, bibliography, appendices ISBN: 4770023561
Publisher: Kodansha International
["The health bible for the foreign community." --The Daily Yomiuri
"Buy this book. Study it. Keep it handy." --Asahi Evening News]
- What's What in Japanese Restaurants: A Guide to Ordering, Eating, and
Enjoying by Robb Satterwhite
Paperback: 180 pages, 110 x 182 mm
29 b/w photos, index, glossary ISBN: 4770020864
Publisher: Kodansha International
- The Essentials of Japanese Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki
Hardcover: 160 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.58 x 10.51 x 8.52
Publisher: Kodansha International; ISBN: 0870409506; (December 1995)
- Japanese Family-Style Recipes
by Hiroko Urakami, Hiroya Yoshimori (Photographer)
Hardcover: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.57 x 8.22 x 9.28
Publisher: Kodansha International; ISBN: 4770015836; (July 1992)
Culture: foreigners' memoirs
- Hokkaido Highway Blues : Hitchhiking Japan by Will Ferguson
Paperback: 448 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.16 x 9.19 x 6.05
Publisher: Soho Press, Inc.; ISBN: 1569472343; (June 2001)
- Learning to Bow : Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce S. Feiler
Paperback: 321 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.88 x 8.24 x 5.48
Publisher: Mariner Books; ISBN: 0395647266; Reprint edition (September 1992)
- The Only Woman in the Room by Beate Sirota Gordon*
Paperback: 172 pages, 140 x 220 mm. ISBN: 477002732X
Publisher: Kodansha International
[*one of the writers of the modern Japanese constitution]
- A Far Valley: Four Years in a Japanese Village by Brian Moeran
Paperback: 264 pages, 140 x 210 mm Previously published as Okubo Diary. ISBN: 4770023014
Publisher: Kodansha International
["Brian Moeran ... first visited the Oni valley in Japan in 1977, staying there two years while
doing fieldwork for a doctoral dissertation in social anthropology ... returned eighteen months
later for another two years of further research. After a period as Professor of Japanese
Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, he now teaches
at the University of Hong Kong."]
- The Roads to Sata: A 2,000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth
Paperback: 304 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.90 x 8.42 x 5.77
Publisher: Kodansha International; ISBN: 1568361874; Reprint edition (June 1997)
- Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth
Paperback: 340 pages, 142 x 212 mm ISBN: 1568361483
Publisher: Kodansha America
[*sequal to above]
Language
- Kodansha's Concise Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary
Paperback: 480 pages, 128 x 182 mm ISBN: 4770028490
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Japanese for Busy People Volume I (Kana Version Text)
Association for Japanese Language Teaching (AJALT)
Paperback:256 pages, 182 x 257 mm ISBN: 4770019874
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Japanese for Busy People Volume II (Kana Version Text)
Association for Japanese Language Teaching (AJALT)
Paperback: 296 pages, 182 x 257 mm ISBN: 4770020511
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Making Out in Japanese by Todd Geer, Todd Geers, Erika Geers
Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co; ISBN: 4900737097; Reprint edition (May 1988)
- A Handbook of Common Japanese Phrases
Sanseido John Brennan (translated and adapted by)
Paperback: 320 pages, English/Romaji index, Japanese index, 128 x 182 mm.
ISBN: 4770027982 Publisher: Kodansha International
- How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder
by Charles De Wolf
Paperback: 128 x 182 mm, 144 pages. ISBN: 4770028598
Publisher: Kodansha International
- All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words
by Naoko Chino
Paperback: 128 pages, 128 x 182 mm. ISBN: 4770027818
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Kodansha's Elementary Kanji Dictionary
Paperback: 546 pages, 128 x 182 mm. ISBN: 4770027524
Publisher: Kodansha International
["a compact, up-to-date, practical kanji dictionary. ...includes all 1,006 Shin-kyoiku Kanji,
the core kanji taught to all Japanese elementary school students. Knowing these kanji, the
student can recognize over ninety-percent of Chinese characters appearing in the daily
press."]
- Tuttle Kanji Cards by Alexander Kask
Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co; ISBN: 0804819459; Cards edition (February 1995)
- Wicked Japanese for the Business Traveler by Howard Tomb
Paperback: 64 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.28 x 6.01 x 4.01
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; ISBN: 0894808621; (November 1991)
Literature
- Chushingura by Donald Keene (Translator)
(Translations from the Asian Classics)
Paperback: 183 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.53 x 7.98 x 5.32
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ISBN: 0231035314; 0 edition (May 15, 1997)
- The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu, Edward G. Seidensticker (Translator)
Paperback: 1118 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.10 x 9.22 x 6.08
Publisher: Random House (Paper); ISBN: 0394735307; (September 1983)
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
by Sei Shonagon, Ivan Morris (Translator)
Paperback: 419 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.99 x 7.93 x 5.35
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ISBN: 0231073372; 0 edition (May 15, 1991)
- Kwaidan : Stories and Studies of Strange Things
by Lafcadio Hearn
Paperback: 182 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Shokai Inc; ISBN: 4925080326; (June 2002)
- In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio Hearn
Paperback: 256 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.63 x 7.20 x 4.37
Publisher: Unknown; ISBN: 0804809658; (January 1971)
- A Haiku Journey: Basho's The Narrow Road to a Far Province
by Matsuo Basho Dorothy Britton (translation and introduction) Shiro Tsujimura (illustrations)
Paperback: 128 pages, 132 x 189 mm. ISBN: 477002858X
Publisher: Kodansha International
- The Narrow Road to Oku Matsuo Basho Donald Keene (translator)
Paperback: 188 pages, 140 x 226 mm full color w/ 41 color illustrations ISBN: 4770020287
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Anthology of Japanese Literature from the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
by Donald Keene (Editor)
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.28 x 8.23 x 5.39
Publisher: Grove Press; ISBN: 0802150586; (December 1988)
- From the Country of Eight Islands
by Hiroaki Sato (Photographer), Burton Watson (Translator), Watson Sato
Paperback: 652 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.68 x 8.24 x 5.41
Publisher: Columbia University Press; ISBN: 0231063954; 0 edition (May 15, 1986)
- Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse, John Bester (translator)
Paperback: 304 pages, 110 x 182 mm. ISBN: 087011364X
Publisher: Kodansha International
["the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that fell after
the bombing of Hiroshima."]
- The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima, Ivan Morris (Translator)
Paperback: 262 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.62 x 8.01 x 5.22
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 0679752706; Reprint edition (October 1994)
["A fictionalized account of the actual torching of a Kyoto temple by a disturbed Buddhist
acolyte in 1950"]
Literature: contemporary fiction
- The Elephant Vanishes : Stories
by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator)
Paperback: 327 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.73 x 8.01 x 5.21
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 0679750533; Rpt edition (July 1994)
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator)
Paperback: 607 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.10 x 7.96 x 5.22
Publisher: Vintage Books; ISBN: 0679775439; (September 1998)
- Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction
Alfred Birnbaum (editor)
Paperback: 312 pages, 113 x 182 mm ISBN: 4770016883
Publisher: Kodansha International
- The Cape and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto
by Kenji Nakagami, Eve Zimmerman (Translator)
Paperback: 192 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.58 x 7.01 x 5.03
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press; ISBN: 1880656396; (September 1, 1999)
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (Translator)
Paperback: 152 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.55 x 7.22 x 5.01
Publisher: Washington Square Pr; ISBN: 0671880187; Reprint edition (March 1994)
- House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
by Yasunari Kawabata, Edward Seidensticker (Translator), Yukio Mishima (Introduction)
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.47 x 7.18 x 4.50
Publisher: Kodansha International; ISBN: 0870114263; Reissue edition (February 1994)
- Shogun by James Clavell
Paperback: 1210 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.75 x 6.78 x 4.18
Publisher: Dell Books; ISBN: 0440178002; Reissue edition (June 1, 1976)
- Modern Japanese Literature : An Anthology
by Donald Keene (Editor)
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.15 x 8.14 x 5.32
Publisher: Grove Press; ISBN: 0802150950; (December 1989)
- The River Ki by Sawako Ariyoshi, Mildred Tahara (Translator)
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.74 x 7.18 x 4.35
Publisher: Kodansha International; ISBN: 0870115146; Reissue edition (July 1982)
Travel: guides, maps, etc.
- Gateway to Japan, Third edition
by June Kinoshita & Nicholas Palevsky
Paperback: 808 pages, 128 x 188 mm, maps, b/w photos, index ISBN: 477002018X
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Japan: A Bilingual Atlas
Paperback: 128 pages, 150 x 212 mm, 51 color and b/w maps, index. ISBN: 4770015364
Publisher: Kodansha International
[a must-have for foreigners who want to drive in Japan]
- Tokyo City Atlas: A Bilingual Guide (Revised Ed.)
Paperback: 124 pages (84 color), 151 x 212 mm. ISBN: 4770028091
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Lonely Planet Japan (7th Ed)
by Chris Rowthorn, John Ashburne, Sara Benson, Mason Florence
Paperback: 944 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.50 x 7.25 x 5.07
Publisher: Lonely Planet; ISBN: 0864426933; 7th edition (November 2000)
- Lonely Planet Kyoto (2nd Ed)
by Chris Rowthorn, Mason Florence
Paperback: 272 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.69 x 7.26 x 5.06
Publisher: Lonely Planet; ISBN: 1740590600; 2nd edition (December 2001)
- Hiking in Japan: A Detailed Guide to 35 Routes by Paul Hunt
Paperback: 208 pages, 128 x 182 mm, 35 maps ISBN: 0870118935
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Old Kyoto: A Guide to Traditional Shops, Restaurants, and Inns
by Diane Durston, Donald Richie (foreword)
Paperback: 240 pages, 128 x 182 mm ISBN: 0870117572
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Exploring Kyoto : On Foot Through the Ancient Capital
by Judith Clancy
Publisher: Weatherhill; ISBN: 0834803836; 1 Ed edition (October 1997)
Miscellany
- Small Spaces: Stylish Ideas for Making More of Less in the Home
by Azby Brown, Yoshio Shiratori (photography)
Paperback: 96 pages, 228 x 277 mm, 44 pages in full color. ISBN: 4770020848
Publisher: Kodansha International
- Classic Bonsai of Japan
Nippon Bonsai Association/John Bester (translator)
Hardcover: 188 pages, 257 x 364 mm 130 color & 70 b/w photos, 40 illustrations
ISBN: 4770014333
Publisher: Kodansha International
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