When I got to the end of the story, I also had a moment of “thanks, that was a downer.” 
And it’s not like every folk tale needs to have a moral, but I still find it fun to ask what the point of the story is. Doing bad things is bad! If you play pranks and throw someone’s fish out, their mum dies! So remember, kids: doing good things is also bad! If you try to make up for your sins, the guy gets beaten, and then you get shot and killed! Moral is… foxes just bring bad fortune? 
I recall enjoying the voice acting on the CD for the fox story and my son being very annoyed by it!
I read 注文の多い料理店 yesterday. It’s level 3 of the graded readers.
That’s exactly why I thought I did not understand the end.
If the fox is dying, what do they want us to learn?
I would love for the author to tell me that. “Don’t sneak into other peoples’ houses even when you’re doing something nice, stupid.” Or maybe he was inspired by American History X.
I just ordered my first Graded Readers book (Level 4) the other day and it comes tomorrow! I’m super excited.
@anna_harumaki @Omun This is exactly the reason I have stopped investing emotionally in fairy tales, sometimes they are just plain sad. I guess it could be said that the moral of the story is that good deeds can be misunderstood. And the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And karma will come to get you. Really the story managed to really hit all of those. Bad things brings bad, and good things can turn bad, and karma will still get you in the end.
Very true. Maybe the story is just to remind people of 有為. (a word that always has me struggle to find the right wording for the meaning when it comes up for me on FloFlo 
)
Hello! So as expected, my books came today! Volume 1 of Level 4. The first book I read was 「雪女」. It took me about 25 minutes to read the full thing, but it was really good.
It was pretty sad, and sort of gave me Greek mythology vibes. Like with Orpheus and Eurydice. Anyone else?
I finished Volume 2 of level 1 and i am starting Vol. 3. So far there has been no major problems and really love the graded readers and how they use some of the new vocab from other stories as well.
I have tried to get all the new words into a Anki deck but i have a problem. when ever i try to use Anki i always end up missing a day then 3 then a week and quit. I know anki is a great tool to learn and i keep trying to use it but to me it feels like torture and every time i load it up and see the reviews i have to do it demotivates me.
What to do what to do… Just keep reading and looking up stuff after? it will get probably harder in later levels…
You can always only add words that you encounter repeatedly. More important words that you’re likely to encounter in general reading, and leave the more story-specific words by the wayside for now. 
I’m sure there are those that disagree, but I personally feel like you gain more ground by consistent, and frequent exposure, even if it feels “imperfect.”
I can worry about how it’s technically wise to add every unknown word to some kind of SRS system. But I also know that I hate doing that with a passion, and it would cut down on how much I actually read, or would push me towards burn-out if I force myself to do it anyway.
SRS-ing is important, yes, but getting loads and loads of exposure, and enjoying what you’re doing is important, too. 
A “perfect” study method isn’t perfect if it’s such a drag and a strain that you don’t end up doing it.
If Anki starts to feel like torture, I’d stop using it. (well, I did!) To me, I found I would spend too much time maintaining the decks and not enough time learning.
I decided that Wanikani (and now Bunpro) is probably enough SRS… anything more common you’ll eventually learn just by natural exposure. WK really just covers kanji words, though, so it isn’t perfect. Take care not to over SRS - it’s a decent enough memory hack, but I think WK is already starting to tread into the “too much” territory. SRS will tend to crowd out other important activities - I had month long stretches where I mostly just kept up with WK and I think it led to poor retention of some of the content due to lack of exposure in the real world.
If you encountered unknown vocab in your graded reader, go back and re-read it the next day and see if you remember… if not, maybe it will solidify itself with a little repetition. With enough content the really important words (and grammar points) to remember will stick. The graded readers are sort of an SRS system in their own right - since they are a walled garden of limited vocab and grammar.
Coming back to say I’ve finished Level 4 Volume 1’s book number 2:「永井 隆 ~原爆の地 長崎に生きて~」
This story actually made me tear up towards the end. What an amazing person!
Okay, so I finished all the books in Level 4 Volume 1 today. I really liked the range of stories it gave, and it really succeeded in making reading Japanese fun and not intimidating. I want to read all of Volume 2 and 3 as well, but after that, what books do people usually move onto since this is the highest level? The short stories are really nice and encouraging, and I’m a bit nervous about starting on novels and other Japanese books that don’t keep Japanese learners in mind. The whole point was to be able to read smoothly and without having to look anything up, and that was the best part about reading these books. I want to do that but not have to resort to books for children either. Is there a happy medium?
I think you’re worrying too much - I stopped using graded readers after just level two and I was trying to read native things even before that, so if you’ve completed all of level four you’re probably in a good position to get stuck in.
Why don’t you look at some of the sample pages from the various clubs? Take a look at the sample pages from コンビニ人間, generally regarded as the easiest pick the Intermediate Club have done so far. If that’s too much, then I’m afraid you are probably looking at children’s books, but personally I’ve really enjoyed the ones I’ve read, and the absolute beginners’ club has done some non-fiction ones.
Below the コンビニ人間 level I would highly recommed Zenitendou, read by the Beginners’ Club. It was pretty entertaining and very readable, and it’s essentially six short stories, so much less intimidating than a full-length book.
Otherwise, check out the upcoming absolute beginners’ book, or (and I’m biased here) join Kitty Detectives!
I like the “Magic Tree House” books in Japanese. They are really easy grammatically for native material, but contain a huge amount of vocabulary to build on. Its a very high volume of material for a fairly low cost.
Thanks to both of your suggestions will definitely look into both of those!
@Radish8 yeah I guess I’m worrying too much. I tend to do that because I always ended up not going through the book when getting too frustrated with looking so many things up. But yeah I should just go for it.
Look into the Aoi Tori Bunko book label. They are books written for Japanese middle school aged children.
Thank you for this! Seems like other people recommend reading these when transitioning to novels.
Finished level 1 and now I am re-reading a few of the free graded readers before going to level 2 which should be soon.