--- product_id: 6654506 title: "Japanese Reader Collection Volume 1: Hikoichi" price: "NT$1027" currency: TWD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tw/products/6654506-japanese-reader-collection-volume-1-hikoichi store_origin: TW region: Taiwan --- # Japanese Reader Collection Volume 1: Hikoichi **Price:** NT$1027 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Japanese Reader Collection Volume 1: Hikoichi - **How much does it cost?** NT$1027 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tw](https://www.desertcart.tw/products/6654506-japanese-reader-collection-volume-1-hikoichi) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Four classic Hikoichi folktales — every sentence broken down for upper-beginner readers of Japanese. Hikoichi is the clever young man of Kyushu legend who outwits lords, tengu, and the occasional smug retainer with nothing but quick thinking and a straight face. This volume gathers four of his most beloved stories, presented in full Japanese with line-by-line vocabulary, grammar notes, native-speaker audio, and a simple English translation for self-checking. New in the 2026 edition: Bonus unlock code inside the book — redeem at Makoto+ to study every sentence from this book interactively, on the web or in the mobile app New watercolor illustration and audio QR codes on every story's opening page Hook teaser and Before-You-Read intro for each story, pointing you toward the grammar and vocabulary patterns to watch for Full Exercises section for each story: Comprehension Questions, Particle Fill-in, Grammar Pattern Hunt, Translation Comparison, and Answer Key Resized furigana — ruby now sits closer to the base text, the way good Japanese typography should Running headers, page numbers, and sumi-e section ornaments throughout What's inside: Four full Hikoichi stories, each presented three ways: with line-by-line vocabulary, in plain Japanese (no furigana, for real reading practice), and in English summary Word-by-word breakdowns with furigana over every kanji Grammar spotlights, cultural notes, and language tips throughout Free MP3 audio downloads — natural speed and slowed down — recorded by a native speaker Free Anki decks for pre-study Bonus unlock code for Makoto+ Sentence Explorer No sign-up required to access the audio The four stories: 1. The Young Lord — The lord lines up five identical children and asks Hikoichi to pick the real heir. One quiet observation does the work. 2. The Hanami — A cherry-blossom picnic turns into a lesson in thinking ahead. The retainers laugh first. Hikoichi laughs last. 3. The Living Umbrella — A "living" umbrella that opens by itself when it rains. Some things are too good to be true. 4. Tengu's Straw Raincoat — Hikoichi sets out to outwit a long-nosed mountain spirit with nothing but a hollow bamboo pipe. The trade goes well. The cover-up does not. Who this is for: Upper-beginner to lower-intermediate learners. You'll need solid kana and a working sense of basic grammar. (New to hiragana? Take our free two-week crash course at TheJapanesePage.com/hiragana.) Questions or requests for future readers? The authors' personal email addresses are inside the book. Review: The Perfect Book for Japanese Students Wanting to Improve Kana / Kanji Reading - This series is virtually perfect for students of Japanese who have Hiragana and Katakana memorized but know few or none of the Kanji. The stories are from traditional Japanese folklore, which means they're interesting and clever, and most of it is presented in Hiragana, with Furigana for each Kanji character. I think there may be some sparse Katakana, but for the most part it's Hiragana. It's not only an excellent way to improve your Kana reading, it's also invaluable for improving vocabulary, something recorded language courses like Pimsleur and Rosetta sorely miss. Reading new words in context of an interesting story assists greatly in visualizing and remembering them. In this sense the formatting of the book too is excellent: Every page has the Kana at the top (with Furigana above whatever Kanji characters appear,) and phrase-by-phrase translations in Romaji (English phonetic) at the bottom of the page. Which means you can check a given word's translation instantly - a big, big help when you're using an e-reader like a Kindle or Fire, because you're thereby spared the necessity of doing endless page-flips to get to some general glossary located far from the page you're on. It's right there where you need it, but below everything else so you don't "cheat" with inadvertent glances while you read. In the third volume of this series the author inexplicably omits the Furigana completely, which makes that third book (and presumably those subsequent to it,) useless to anyone without a large number of Kanji memorized. I'm currently at something like 28, total. Hopefully that odd decision will be corrected, but this and Volume 2 are indispensable for beginning-to-intermediate Japanese students looking to move from "stare-at-each-character" reading to fluid sight-reading of Kana and, eventually, Kanji. Just an excellently-conceived and -executed series with clever, interesting short stories. Review: For upper beginners - This is a very good book for beginners, and by beginners I mean those who are familiar with hiragana, katakana I more than 100 kanji. Why did I mention kanji? Simply because when I started to learn the Japanese language, I tried to read it and it became a disaster for my self-confidence. So I waited for some time and studied hard so today I can open a book which claims to be for beginners and not to fall into depression when I realize that I can read it at once. Stories in this book are very lightly written, and if you had mentioned knowledge you will find unknown words, but you won't be so much disappointed in yourself - especially because you can mark those words, and study them after. There is a dictionary, and even some words, like Japanese phrases you can't translate literary, are translated not so good, the dictionary itself is of a great help. And those Japanese phrase I'm talking about are things someone who is not so much beginner will recognize and understand, so it is not a big problem. Another bonus is free audio you get with a book, which is always good to have. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,251,437 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #314 in Japanese Literature #600 in General Japan Travel Guides #3,383 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 306 Reviews | ## Images ![Japanese Reader Collection Volume 1: Hikoichi - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71SJ7GnD1fL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Perfect Book for Japanese Students Wanting to Improve Kana / Kanji Reading *by U***6 on January 4, 2018* This series is virtually perfect for students of Japanese who have Hiragana and Katakana memorized but know few or none of the Kanji. The stories are from traditional Japanese folklore, which means they're interesting and clever, and most of it is presented in Hiragana, with Furigana for each Kanji character. I think there may be some sparse Katakana, but for the most part it's Hiragana. It's not only an excellent way to improve your Kana reading, it's also invaluable for improving vocabulary, something recorded language courses like Pimsleur and Rosetta sorely miss. Reading new words in context of an interesting story assists greatly in visualizing and remembering them. In this sense the formatting of the book too is excellent: Every page has the Kana at the top (with Furigana above whatever Kanji characters appear,) and phrase-by-phrase translations in Romaji (English phonetic) at the bottom of the page. Which means you can check a given word's translation instantly - a big, big help when you're using an e-reader like a Kindle or Fire, because you're thereby spared the necessity of doing endless page-flips to get to some general glossary located far from the page you're on. It's right there where you need it, but below everything else so you don't "cheat" with inadvertent glances while you read. In the third volume of this series the author inexplicably omits the Furigana completely, which makes that third book (and presumably those subsequent to it,) useless to anyone without a large number of Kanji memorized. I'm currently at something like 28, total. Hopefully that odd decision will be corrected, but this and Volume 2 are indispensable for beginning-to-intermediate Japanese students looking to move from "stare-at-each-character" reading to fluid sight-reading of Kana and, eventually, Kanji. Just an excellently-conceived and -executed series with clever, interesting short stories. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For upper beginners *by A***S on January 10, 2018* This is a very good book for beginners, and by beginners I mean those who are familiar with hiragana, katakana I more than 100 kanji. Why did I mention kanji? Simply because when I started to learn the Japanese language, I tried to read it and it became a disaster for my self-confidence. So I waited for some time and studied hard so today I can open a book which claims to be for beginners and not to fall into depression when I realize that I can read it at once. Stories in this book are very lightly written, and if you had mentioned knowledge you will find unknown words, but you won't be so much disappointed in yourself - especially because you can mark those words, and study them after. There is a dictionary, and even some words, like Japanese phrases you can't translate literary, are translated not so good, the dictionary itself is of a great help. And those Japanese phrase I'm talking about are things someone who is not so much beginner will recognize and understand, so it is not a big problem. Another bonus is free audio you get with a book, which is always good to have. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A short book. *by P***. on October 17, 2010* I don't think this book is bad for its price. The two stories are rather short, but that was to be expected. The kanji do tend to be a bit small, but I didn't have trouble reading the words I knew. (Granted, I've got two years of college Japanese under my belt and I'm studying Chinese on my own now, so I've got some experience with Chinese characters - which makes it easier to read them when they're small.) For the first story, the furigana (small letters written above kanji to show pronunciation) were as easy to read as the rest of the story. However, they were less clear in the second story (or parts of it) and might be difficult for somebody that's new to the syllabaries to read. The vocabulary lists gave romaji (these, Latin letters), too, though. So that should clear up any problems. Now, while I say the kanji are small, keep in mind that I mainly use my iPod Touch for Kindle books (although I think they look a little small in the screenshots that have been put up of a Kindle, too, but that might just be the screenshots - I don't have an actual Kindle). I loaded it on my laptop just to see how it looks, and the kanji are perfectly legible there. So I think this is really more about the device you have than the book itself. Also, while I can't find a way on the Kindle for PC, I can enlarge pictures (which is what the Japanese text is as I write this) on my Kindle for the iPod Touch. And, while the kanji wasn't always the clearest, they, and the furigana, always became legible if it wasn't earlier. My main complaints about the book are overuse of furigana and how the book was arranged, but these don't really affect the book itself much. Since furigana is provided in the section that lists the vocab under the sentences, I think it should have been left out of the Japanese only section: that way you can practice remembering how to read the kanji; plus, furigana can simply be distracting if you already know the kanji. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tw/products/6654506-japanese-reader-collection-volume-1-hikoichi](https://www.desertcart.tw/products/6654506-japanese-reader-collection-volume-1-hikoichi) --- *Product available on Desertcart Taiwan* *Store origin: TW* *Last updated: 2026-06-01*