Looking for easy to read Japanese books.

[Jodo Kast]

I just recently started studying Japanese (2 weeks ago) and I'm comfortable enough with hiragana to read it without the chart. I basically have no vocabulary (and don't know any kanji), so I'm looking for books written entirely in hiragana. What would you recommend? If possible, include links to amazon.co.jp or amazon.com (I prefer to shop with those 2).

[Doug M]

Greetings Jodo:

Forgive the delay. Here's my untested opinion. Untested because I haven't read these myself but I have seen them in many places, including Japanese bookstores in the US and of course Amazon. You can't forget the covers.

Look for books by author Peter Takahashi titled Jimi's Book of Japanese (or similar) they appear as children's books but I think you will find the content appropriate for any beginner. There is even one just for Hiragana, as you wish.

Here's a canned link to an Amazon search for the title Jimi's Book of Japanese (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=dp_searchBox_1/102-7649374-0809703?url=index%3Dbooks%26dispatch%3Dsearch%26results-process%3Dbin&field-keywords=jimi%27s+book+of+Japanese&x=12&y=12)

Best of luck and thanks for being the first official member to the new Japan-101 Community!