Summary post
This is technically from yesterday, but I didn’t have time to post about them, so here’s a post today. A couple months ago, I ordered a few picture books from Japan, and they finally arrived!
I read all four of them, albeit extensively and not intensively, haha! I didn’t look up any unknown vocabulary or grammar. I figure I’ll get more enjoyment out of them if I reread them ever so often and gradually understand more.
I realized after ordering these that I bought a lot of books with a blue/water theme. Maybe reading 大海原と大海原 was subconsciously affecting me? 
あおのじかん
I really enjoyed these pages. How many of these colors can you read? I think I could figure out 12 (and could partially read many of the others). My favorite was たいせつなボタンのいろ, haha.
This book has no kanji at all, which made it the hardest! The art is absolutely gorgeous, though, and it's a delight just simply flipping through it.
終わらない夜
This one was a lot easier. Lots of kanji, all with furigana, and relatively simple grammar. I bought this one because the surreal art appealed to me.
海とそらがであうばしょ
This book had very little kanji (the only three I remember seeing are 海, 魚, and 日), but I had an easier time with it than あおのじかん because I knew more of the vocabulary, and it also used a lot of the ます form, which I have more practice reading. The art is gorgeous, and the story is cute.
新宿御苑の木語り
This is the only one of the four books that was actually made for adults! Ironically, it was also the easiest. There's no furigana, but I knew most of the kanji, and there's also English text accompanying the Japanese! It's also very light on grammar. I bought this book because it was written and illustrated by the hairdresser for many wrestlers from Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and DDT Pro-Wrestling, and Chris Brookes, one of the wrestlers, actually proofread the English for her. The author made this book after three months of rehab after she had a stroke that took away her ability to use her right hand or right leg. Now she likes to take photographs of the trees at Shinjuku Gyoen and paint them.
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