Stories of the Japanese Prefectures (Absolute Beginner Book Club)

Onto week 3! Remember, if you are still catching up feel free to ask questions in the threads for the earlier weeks. We make separate threads to make this easier to do and there will usually be people watching those threads who will answer your questions.

Alternatively, join in with the current week and you can always catch up on earlier chapters later!

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My book arrived! I took the advice of Belthazar and emailed Kinokunia Sydney and they ordered it for me.

Cuuute! I will get a head start on week 4 and jump in there.

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Posting a little early this week. Hitting some more familiar territory for many of us now with Narita Airport and Tokyo landmarks.

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Onto week 5:

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Week 6 thread!

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Week 7 thread.

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Week 8 thread. Remember the old threads are still open for questions if you are catching up. Alternatively jump back in on the current week and you can go back to the earlier chapters later!

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Week 9 thread.

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Week 10 thread is up!

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Week 11 thread is up!

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Week 12 thread is up:

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We are onto the penultimate week - week 13!

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I’m slowly but surely making my way through this book (currently on Ehime prefecture!) but wanted to share my gratitude for it even if I never quite catch up to the book club schedule.

It’s so much fun recognizing WK vocab in context, and the repetition of phrases – while probably maddening for more advanced readers – is really reinforcing my learning. The lack of kanji is pushing me to remember readings and improving my ability to parse individual words and phrases. It’s been a real さいばい of reading progress! :drum:

Thanks Micki for organizing and to everyone contributing vocab and posts!

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Final week thread is up! Will put up some polls in this thread later.

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Wrapping up!

We reached the end of the book! Thanks to everyone who contributed to make this a fun book club: to everyone who asked and answered questions, shared their translations, added to the vocab sheet or shared insights into the places we were reading about.

For me, I enjoyed lots of little insights into Japanese food, culture and nature. I found some of the pages harder than I expected. Like before with these books sometimes the lack of kanji can make the text a lot more challenging to read. There were also pages where the topic demanded a lot of unfamiliar vocab which was more challenging. Hopefully the vocab sheet and discussion helped readers get through the trickier bits.

Overall I thought this was a good fit for Absolute Beginner Book Club and I hope you enjoyed reading along.

Some polls to wrap up!

How would you rate the book overall?
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How do you rate this as a book for those trying to read their first book in Japanese?
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What wildlife would you most like to see?
  • Wild animals in Hokkaido
  • Crested Ibis on Sado Island
  • Deer in Nara
  • Mudskipper fish in Saga
  • Manta and whale sharks in Okinawa

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What culture would you most like to see?
  • Nebuta festival in Aomori
  • Namahage in Akita
  • Manzai in Osaka
  • Awa dance festival in Tokushima

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What would you like to eat/drink? (Choose up to three)
  • Cherries from Yamagata
  • Natto from Ibaraki
  • Senbei from Saitama
  • Street food from Yokohama Chinatown
  • Echizen crabs from Fukui
  • Cider from Gunma
  • Basket clams from Lake Shinji
  • Sanuki udon from Kagawa
  • Oranges from Ehime
  • Line caught tuna from Kouchi
  • Castella cake from Nagasaki
  • Mango from Miyazaki

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Where would you like to visit? (Choose up to two)
  • Goshikinuma lakes in Fukushima
  • Toshugu shrine in Nikko
  • Tokyo Tower and Skytree
  • Mirages in Toyama
  • Thatched houses in Gifu
  • Nagoya castle
  • Byodo-in Phoenix Hall in Kyoto
  • Tottori sand dunes
  • Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima
  • Karst plateau in Yamaguchi
  • Onsen in Ooita

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I enjoyed reading this - I think the pace was just right for ABBC, and it would probably have been repetitive to read more. I don’t have a lot of local knowledge of Japan so this was a nice way to learn about the different regions, even though their focus seemed to be on agriculture!

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This just finished, but I just got my copy today. :sweat_smile: Thank you for the work you all did to help me read it. :slight_smile: The book looks great. :slight_smile:

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Hi everyone! I want to thank you all for the opportunity to take part in this book club :cherry_blossom: I haven’t been very active online, but offline I’ve been doing my studying and it’s been so rewarding! Even though it was probably the most difficult book I’ve ever read, I kind of miss ploring through the pages one very small piece of understanding at a time… :sweat_smile: :see_no_evil: I will definitely read along next time too. Thank you for all your effort! Next time I won’t be nearly as shy on the community part :innocent: :wink: See you around!

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I read the pre-reading pages each day this week, and next week I will do another chapter or two. I had also ordered the Hunter vs. Hunter book which was just started last week, but the prefectures one is much more my speed. It is so much like what I read in English as a child.
Thank you all for the work that you did with vocab lists and such.

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Bump. I bought this book when this was first posted, started reading it then had to go in to vacation mode to prepare for a 14 day road trip around Hokkaido in August. I’ve been to all 47 県 - staying overnight, some sightseeing in each minimum, & have lived in 7. I plan to read this book & all the info posted by everyone here will be very helpful.

In Hokkaido I had to make a pilgrimage to the giant claw because of this post Pilgrimage to the Giant Crab Claw Statue in Monbestu, Hokkaido & was excited like a little kid to see it. “OMG I’m finally here!” I mentioned to another tourist, “I’d be scared of the crab connected to that claw” & she replied, “Crab feast.” She wins. Yes, the moon was in perfect position in the claw; I didn’t photoshop it in to place.

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