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There are a lot of bilingual readers available as well on Amazon.
Japanese Stories for Language Learners: Bilingual Stories in Japanese and English (MP3 Audio disc included) https://www.amazon.com/dp/4805314680/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YhEyCbZJE56CT
That are cheap and have vocab etc. I have this one and it's good for basic reading comprehension. Manga can only take you so far before you plateau.
Are you looking for basic info on everything or specific types?
I’d recommend the Just One Cookbook blog because she has detailed instructions and step by step photos for everything.
These are books I have :
Recipes of Japanese cooking is a dual Japanese-English book with recipes in both languages and covers a variety.
Japanese Soul Cooking is good for curry and ramen, and fried things
Japanese Hot Pots has a ton of soup variations
Actually, his book points out that the donors did give a lot to the hospital and had a much shorter than average wait. Great book: https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Police/dp/0307475298
I’m an organ donor and believe in it, but the system has been manipulated at times.
One Cookbook
Morimoto's Japanese Home Cooking
Fair warning that Japanese home kitchens bear no resemblance to kitchens in America, if you're american. They often have just one burner, and a broiler/small oven, and not much more.
Wrist locks have three problems:
- Most people don't understand them.
- They can't be done "naked"
- You can't train them live.
The first problem is caused by the other two. People try to teach them in a naked manner (e.g. the way Aikido trains) and when people see them demonstrated, they see the overly compliant way of demoing it.
As someone that has used wrist locks in a live situation, I'll tell you that they work. I didn't study aikido, but I studied an art that included aikijujutsu.
There's a part in the book Angry White Pyjamas where the guy is out with instructors and they get into a bar fight. During the fight, the instructors use punches and stuff, and the writer asks why they didn't just use the Aikido stuff that they were training in. The instructor responds that an important thing that is missing from Aikido is the atemi waza, or striking techniques, which existed in Aikijutsu.
That's where the second problem lies. People THINK you can just grab a wrist and do a technique, but the reality is that you need to use striking to create the opportunity that makes the wrist attackable or controllable.
The last part is that you can't train them live. I was at a seminar (not aikido) years ago, where we were working on wrist locks. One of the instructors went to show my partner something about a wrist lock and just snapped in on hard. It was a dick move to say the least. Thing is, wrists don't heal that well, and my buddy's wrist wasn't that good for at least a year after that.
Aikido was good back in the day because all the people that were training in it had backgrounds in other arts, so they understood what violence was. Unfortunately you have people taking it as their first art, and it's not that useful without other context. They will never apply it right in a fight because they don't know what a fight is.
What country are you in? Some countries can't use the link I provided you have to use your country's Amazon site. But if you are in the US use this link: https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Japanese-90-Days-Becoming-ebook/dp/B014RTDPBA?ie=UTF8
There should be the option to get the Kindle (free) or paperback (not free). Click the Kindle link and check out on the right (this is how it appears on desktop it may be different for mobile)
If that doesn't help let me know.
Edit: a word
I highly recommend Japan: The Cookbook. It is a pretty large book that’s absolutely full of Japanese recipes!
Try a book that has both languages in it so you can compare them. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Stories-Language-Learners-Bilingual/dp/4805314680 This way you can try and read the Japanese but easily fall back on English if you need. I'm not specifically endorsing this book. There are lots like this that you can search for based on language ability.
I didn't really have a choice in my approach. When I started learning, I was living in Japan and neither the internet nor any electronic gadgetry existed yet. Pointing a smartphone at something and having it do the work for me wasn't an option. Similarly, lugging a ginormous 1600 page copy of Nelson's around with me for daily life wasn't an option either.
I also quickly saw that for verbal interactions carrying around and constantly referring to a paper dictionary wasn't practical, so I decided that I was going to get through daily life without leaning on the crutch of a dictionary.
I think where many learners get hung up is through developing an over-dependence on dictionaries and electronic "cheats" such as Rikaichan, google translate, etc that may seem like marvelous expedients in the moment but which through over-reliance on them turn out to have a hobbling effect on their ability to function without them.
Similarly, a habit of stopping to look things up also has the effect of hampering the development of the ability to read smoothly and quickly. How many times have you seen people warning each other that there isn't time to actually read the text selections on the JLPT reading comprehension section and that there is only time to skim the text? Complete horseshit, as there is more than ample time for anyone who has built up reading skills through sufficient reading without stopping to look things up.
I have all of those cookbooks and quite like them. Of that list I think Washoku is probably my favorite.
Japan, The Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu is probably more inline with what you are looking for I think though.
But really, as someone who cooks Japanese food a lot, I think you won't go wrong with any of those.
Japan: The Cookbook, perhaps?
https://www.amazon.com/Japan-Cookbook-Nancy-Singleton-Hachisu/dp/0714874744
I bought this during Amazon's BF weekend sale based on some recommendations and it seems very good. Admittedly, I haven't cooked from it yet, but have browsed through it a few times it is full of traditional Japanese cooking recipes and techniques (read: not Americanized Japanese food).
The 日本語文型辞典 (at least, the Japanese version of it) has been around for a while, right? I remember swearing by it when I was in grad school.
>I was learning back when none of these internet resources were available at all, other than EDICT.
Those were the days. I have fond memories of looking up kanji in the New Nelson and using the EDICT addon for JWPce.
My motivation has been rock bottom for a couple of months now. I was kind of taking it easy before I was due to go on holiday for a month, then covid ruined my holiday plans and I lost even more motivation. I've had Wanikani on vacation mode for a few weeks and I haven't touched Bra-ban in ages...
I decided I need to power through this slump and I've started reading Japanese Stories for Language Learners which I'm enjoying a lot. It's also still really nice to stumble across Japanese text online and be able to read it, even if it's something simple like this. It reminds me why I'm doing this.
As someone living in Japan with Japanese family, this basic recipe book was amazing because it offers so many recipes of common Japanese cooking staples, in both languages at the same time.
It teaches you the recipes, and helps you become accustomed to mentally converting amounts.
Lots of cooking Japanese food basics, as well as seasonal Japanese dishes.
I really can’t recommend this book enough.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Japanese-Food-Made-English-Tempura/dp/481633677X
I think you're the same guy I got into that back and forth over Prots with.
This is the same situation lol, everything I know comes from one book: History of Japan; and I just so happened to just read the part that talks about how Tendai and Shingon Buddhism subsumed Shinto cults, which only re-emerged somewhat artificially in the 19th century as part of the birth of modern Japanese nationalism.
Some Catholic saints are absolutely Christianized pagan spirits and deities, though.
I have this. amazon link
It's a bilingual cookbook.
Nancy Singleton Hachisu has written a few books that sound up your alley (e.g. Japan: The Cookbook). She's originally from the US but has lived in the Japan countryside for many years after marrying a Japanese man, and her writing reflects her extensive learning experiences and research.
Might use Speak Japanese in 90 days to start instead of Tae Kim - any thoughts? The "in X time" title almost scared me off, but from the preview it seems pretty good I think.
The general plan it gives seems fairly simple: read grammar lesson with example sentences > book tells you which vocab/grammar flash cards to make for review > move on to next lesson. Repeat while reviewing old stuff regularly. I just don't know if the explanations themselves are actually good, haven't heard much about these books.
This book in particular I think an excerpt came through my news feed with either a bitcoin or Japan tag, then I saw who the author was, I'm a fan of his work, yadda yadda. Tokyo Vice is a great read, totally recommend it.
For other obscure books in the Amazon e-books (programming generally for me) I either do a search for something ("shell scripting" or something), then see what happens. Amazon isn't my #1 source for tech books, but their small author program has some good content.
The first uke's attacks were "good." The second one was just sticking his hand out there and getting thrown. The next couple do the same. People may take issue with the knife attacks, but head on over to /r/watchpeopledie and you'll see that a lot of knife attacks have that large movement. It's once they get a hit on the person that they start with rapid strikes.
The big issue with Aikido is that it really ignores atemi waza (striking), which is supposed to be a big part of what actually sets up throws. I believe it was in the book Angry White Pyjamas where the author is out with his instructors and some people try to fight them in a bar. The instructors prevail, but the author comments on their lack of actions that looked like aikido, specifically their use of striking. At that point the instructor says that in a fight, atemi waza is going to be 90% of your aikido to set up your throw or lock.
Tokyo Vice
ake Adelstein is the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, where for twelve years he covered the dark side of Japan: extortion, murder, human trafficking, fiscal corruption, and of course, the yakuza. But when his final scoop exposed a scandal that reverberated all the way from the neon soaked streets of Tokyo to the polished Halls of the FBI and resulted in a death threat for him and his family, Adelstein decided to step down. Then, he fought back. In Tokyo Vice he delivers an unprecedented look at Japanese culture and searing memoir about his rise from cub reporter to seasoned journalist with a price on his head.
https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-American-Reporter-Police/dp/0307475298
I'm reading this one right now....it had an interesting beginning, and a slow and boring middle, but I hope the last few chapters get fun again. It's about an Englishmans experiences in Japan while enrolled in a tough Aikido class for policemen. It's worth a read, I'd say....just for fun.
https://www.amazon.com/Angry-White-Pyjamas-Scrawny-Lessons/dp/0688175376
This is the book I usually recommend as a starting place. Very easy to read, doesn't require too much remembering of names and places as you progress, but is still very rigorous. (I emphasize this because there are many crap books on Japanese history out there.)
PS- "its first settlement" I've always loved phrases like this...
The term for live-in student in Japanese is "uchideshi". There are some places that offer an uchideshi program, both in and out of Japan, but before you consider any of these programs, I recommend reading Angry White Pyjamas (Amazon, Wikipedia).
You should be careful in selecting any program; there is plenty of room for cultural mix ups, either as a foreigner in Japan or in your home country with somebody who isn't Japanese.
Timeline wise: probably the duration of the prison stay. Rick visits Morgan in that apartment after Michonne enters the prison story and it seems after the apartment he left and found Eastmann. They seem to spend a few seasons of nature at the prison. I'd say 6 months or a little more. If you're doing it every single day it wouldn't be unbelievable. In angy white pajamas, the narrator goes from flabby to an aikido master in 12 months.
No necessarily BJJ related, but one is Judo related and the other is entertaining.
Last Summer I read Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice, right after Ronson's Psychopath Test, actually. The two are quite different, not just in subject matter; I found Ronson's neuroses endearing, while Adelstein's subtle narcissism sometimes nagged at me. I would say both are in the same ballpark though, page turner journeys on fascinating subjects, by authors with relatable voices.
I think that in the West the Zen sect is perceived differently than in Japan and China. I feel that in East Asia , Zen is not that radically different from other sects. I have never practiced it myself, but accounts of Chinese and Japanese monks that I read, show that life in a Zen monastery has very little of this 'crazy wisdom' Zen is famous for in the West. Most of it seems to be meditating , cleaning and eating (a little) , very much in line with what one would expect from life in a Buddhist monastery. Example : Eat sleep sit . Also, lay followers of those sects are quite similar to other Buddhists in their pattern of worship.
Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. Basically, an American Jewish guy from Missouri ends up on the biggest newspaper in Japan and covers the police beat in Tokyo. Totally unique perspective on Japanese culture and crime in Japan.
There is a book written about Zen monastery living similar to yours by Kaoru Nonomura (amazon) that I've been meaning to read. If you've read it: how closely related are your experience with the writer's?