Untranslated Japanese books?

I was wondering if anybody knows where I can get some books in Japanese that haven't been translated. I read manga, but books can be so much more interesting.

Doese anybody know a good store in the United States for getting books like that? I went to the Borders near my house, and they didn't have any. But, I could go back and check again. ^^

Also, does anyone know of some good books that they would suggest for a beginner to Japanese? I have a Japanese penpal who said their favorite book is "Aozora" but I don't know if I'm good enough at Japanese to be able to read that yet.

There are thousands of books that have not been translated.

One good way for beginniners of Japanese is to read childrens books, ie, elementary school level books. Some even have furigana to assist the reader.

You could order from http://amazon.jp/, pay be credit card and have the books delivered to your home in the USA.

I did just what you are wanting to do. Getting a book that has subject matter
that interests you is good. First you will need to have Japanese characters
installed in your Windows XP. It is part of XP, just needs to be activated. Second
I would suggest a Kanji dictionary, along with the usual Japanese/English
dictionaries. I use �gThe Kanji Dictionary�h by Mark Spahn and Wolfgang
Hadamitzky. You don�ft need the dictionaries to order the book you want. I would
then go to Amazon.co.jp, then to –{ then enter your favorite author, subject, etc.
name in Japanese. Yahoo.co.jp auctions are good to se if something exists but
they will not ship to the US, so I don�ft buy there. I went to Amazon.co.jp and
entered my favorite singer�fs name and come up with 10 or 12 entries. I tried to
buy the first one, but was rejected because they would not ship internationally. I
just went down the line trying to buy each one until I found one that let me buy it.
If you are not particular as to the book, there are Japanese book stores in many
major cities, and some Japanese markets have them. I than scan the pages I
want to read into my computer, enlarge them then print them. This way I can
write on them without ruining the book. It is not as hard as it sounds.

Oh! That's a really good idea, enlarging/printing the pages so you can write on them... I'll hafta try that. ^^

I have another question. Do most of the books (besides elementary school level ones) have furigana, or is it just the kanji?

Oh! I just remembered the name of a store in my city that my friends told me about last year... I'll have to check there as well. ^^

Thank you guys for your help!

Do most of the books (besides elementary school level ones) have furigana, or is it just the kanji?

Most books don't have furigana except on difficult words/uncommon proper nouns.

Ooooh. Okay.

Thank you! ^^

Does anybody have specific title of books that they've read before and liked? I normally read fantasy, but anything that's not boring'll work, too. ^^

Kinokuniya Bookstore is hands down the best place to find untranslated Japanese books as well as Japanese music, movies, etc. Below is a list of the cities that have Kinokuniyas in North America.

New York City, New York
Los Angeles, California
San Francisco, California
San Jose, California
Seattle, Washington
Costa Mesa, California
Beaverton, Oregon
Edgewater, New Jersey
West Nyack, New York


As for what to read, I recommend anything by Haruki Murakami. For something short and sweet read Kitchen by Banana Fujimoto!

Thank you so much! ^^

I'll try to go there next weekend if I can. ^^

Thank you! ^^

If you would like to read original japanese haiku together with the romanization, a direct-translation, sense translations and explanation about puzzling points, you might check out the books at paraverse press. 99% of the haiku and 95% of the senryu in them have never before been translated.