For me, a big part of any language book's usefulness is based not only on content, but portability and durability as well - I'm always on the go, and I've had more than one book fall apart in my bag, and very often two or more weigh it down and take up way too much space on a crowded train. That said, this book ROCKS! Okay, so it - like all other books of Japanese idioms - is not always up to date, and you will need to try these on a friend to see if they're still in vogue or old enough to sound awkward... but the volume is there, with many hundreds of idioms, categorized by usage situation as well as romnji alphebetization. There is a whole lot of information in this book, and used properly will go far toward giving you a more natural turn of phrase in casual conversation. But here's what puts the package over the top - it's tiny, and it comes in a plastic slipcase! You can put this book in your pocket! It's a bit bigger than a deck of cards, and the plastic means you can drop it, kick it, throw it in a shopping bag and it'll be none the worse for wear. Also, the spine does not crease easily, which is another thoughtful touch. If you need it to be portable, this is truly the best study guide available.

Getting bogged down with grammar? Then this books for you. A great way to add some fun to your japanese study, this book presents japanese idioms clearly and precisely. The idioms are easy to look up and written both in kanji and romanji, complete with examples of usage in everyday conversation. Relevant for beginner to advanced level students.

This book can be indispensable to travellers on their way to the Land of the Rising Sun. Beginning with an easy to understand pronunciation guide, the book lists thousands of practical phrases in a multitude of contexts, from taking a taxi to getting a haircut to haggling for the best price in the shops of Akihibara in Tokyo.

The phrases are transcribed into the Roman alphabet ("romanized") in a way that makes each syllable easy to understand; each phrase is also written in the Japanese script to the side -- in case you just can't make yourself understood verbally, you can just point to the phrase you're trying to communicate to your Japanese friend.

The book also includes a respectably sized Japanese-English, English-Japanese glossary, and brief explanations of the Japanese writing system and grammar.

This book has greatly aided my facility with Japanese and I highly recommend it.

This book is pretty good. I like the fact you can stick it in your pocket. One thing I can't stand is books that are loaded with a bunch of "filler" space just to make it look like it contains alot of information. I think alot of authors could learn something from reading this book: That it doesn't have to be big to be complete. The material is presented immediately and in a clear fashion. It's hard to NOT understand the usage of all the different particles, pronoun usage, wa vs. ga, etc after reading this book.

This is a good book for those who forgot all the rules of basic Japanese. If you are a beginner, get a copy of this. However, this book briefly describes particles. Books I recommend are "All about Particles" and "Japanese Verbs at a Glance", both by Naoko Chino. They are more comprehensive on particles and verbs than "Japanese Grammar".

This is an outstanding primer on Japanese grammar. Its small size makes it easy to tote around in a coat pocket. The explanations are very clear, and you can easily get a "macro view" of any area of Japanese grammar.

This book is a dictionary that is catoragized in subjects not alphabeticly. There is no kana or kanji in here, instead there is some rediculous pronunceation. I have been living in japan for 6 months and bought this book to help me BUILD my vocabulry. Unfortantly it doesnt help you learn anything. I recomend this book for travelers not for anyone actuly learning japanese.

This book is good but it has two flaws. One the vocabulary is extremely English orientated. Basically they took a English vocabulary book and wrote 'near' Japanese equivalents for the words. For nouns this leaves out a ton of important Japan only cultural words. For adjectives and phrases there are forced translations like 'Thank goodness! - Arigatai.'

As mentioned before, there is no kanji except for in the index. Why this book was orientated towards travelers and why travelers might need to use words like "nuclear proliferation," and "unemployment compensation," is beyond me however.

There is another book called Japanese Vocabulary for Speakers & Readers ISBN 4-590-00706-1, I don't think it is printed in the US. In terms of volume, it is inferior to this title, but it is very Japan orientated and contains the actual kanji for each entry.

This book is superb. It has vocabulary for various diverse categories(e.g. "Animals", "Characteristics and social traits", "The hotel room", "Hardware", "The changing world", "Computers", and dozens and dozens more) and a brief but very useful English-Japanese dictionary at the end. Most importantly for a beginner like me, the pronunciation of every Japanese word in the book is given and the dictionary presents the Japanese translation of English in romanized letters and Japanese characters. Therefore, if you're going for the gold like me and trying to learn the spoken and written word, you have an excellent ... book to start with. It will take you awfully far for just a few bucks. *****Highly recommended.

I am an intermediate japanese student and this book was a welcome and fresh new way to learn some japanese. The first thing that struck me from thumbing through the book was just how many idioms we use every day but don't realize what they are! I only got this book a couple days ago and can already see its going to be critical for letting my japanese sound more natural and really blend in. I definately recommend it. It even has kanji and romaji so you can read it no matter what. Just to give you an idea of the common phrases we use that are dealt with in the book : cat got your tongue, stormed out of the room, be a fly on the wall, get your goat, tough as nails, etc. Hope you get the idea. enjoy it!

Foreign Japanese speakers know that some Japanese idioms are beyond comparison to their home languages. This book explains the Japanese idioms and finds closely equivalent English idioms for comparison and to aid your memorization. The Kanji sentence is written, and then a romaji pronunciation follows so you can understand the readings of the Kanji. Very handy, especially for those who read Japanese novels (shosetsu), Manga, or textbooks.

I just found out the very same authors and the very same publisher published this book 11 years ago under a different tittle "Japanese Grammar". These two books are extactly the same, except the "Master the Basics" adds one test at the beginning to test the readers' knowledge before they read the book and one at the end to test how much do they learn from it. If you think the tests are worth a few more dollars, get the "Master the Basics". If you don't, get a copy of "Japanese Grammar". They are both great to read, but the latter is a pocket-size book and comes with a transparent jacket.

"Master the Basics Japanese" by Nobuo Akiyama and Carol Akiyama, Barron's Educational Series, Inc. covers everything from self-tests, grammar, reviews. The Hiragana and Katakana character table is a plus. It's everything I need as a newbie

These two tapes are very easy to work with, clear Japanese voices, and good pauses to repeat stuff, but you need some Japanese skills first (for Level 2).

This book does not teach you how to read Japanese.
It teaches you how to speak Japanese pretty good.
I don't like books that don't teach Japanese characters.

I need more to learn Japanese Languag

I rented this package from the library because I really wanted to learn Japanese. I started off the first day by turning on one of the four cassettes and following along in the beautifully done 256 page workbook. They told me simple ways of learning Japanese and it was very easy. I would recommend this to anyone who really wants to learn Japanese and who has the time. If you don't have the time, I would suggest something shorter and at a more grueling pace. But I definitely give this two thumbs up!