Kindle + Japanese Amazon account. Reading through a light novel for the first time

Japanese
#1

I recently spent a good chunk of change to get a Kindle Oasis. ($300 +) Yes, I know you can get a base model for cheap, but I like premium stuff. Reading through a light novel for the first time, and it’s pretty incredible to how much vocabulary and descriptions it exposes you to. Between video games, TV shows, anime and occasional website reading, I feel like it’s a major part of my media consumpsion that was missing.

Does anyone use the Kindle to read books/manga? If you do, some tips would be cool. I personally do not like reading manga on it, I think the screen is to small and too low res for that. But I have an iPad as well, and it’s a better comic reader.

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#2

Not answering your question at all, so sorry in advance.
Which LN’s have you been reading? I’ve been intimidated that I won’t have enough vocab to start.

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#3

Congrats on the purchase! I really considered buying one for the high quality build in dictionary.

I mainly use my Dell Inspiron 13" 7000 2in1 to read manga / light novels and as main PC / workstation.

@ggw1776 pick anything that has a good anime / manga adaptation that you actually enjoy. Or series that are already translated in English… That way even if your vocab is not enough, at least you would have some idea what is going on. The first volume is always a bit of a pain to get used to the author’s voice / vocabulary. Currently reading Spirit Chronicles / Date a Live / Mushoku Tensei.

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#4

I used to buy then, then Amazon JP banned me from digital purchases for not having a permanent address in Japan. So now I have to source the books from other places, I’m considering to switch to my Kobo for the Japanese books too (I had it for the English ones only).

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#5

Check out this master list at wanikani forum. The people there have made detailed vocabulary lists for the books listed there. If you have trouble understanding something, you can ask in their respective threads also.

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#6

^ I got blocked from purchases and downloads a while back too. You can use a VPN to initiate purchases “from Japan”. I use TunnelBear (free tier) and was able to resume purchases and haven’t been blocked again (it’s worked for over a year now).

SO, my advice would be to do the same so you don’t get blocked!

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#7

I couldn’t get back with a VPN, probably it will take a while until my account lets me try to purchase again. They keep asking that I should receive a phonecall on a Japanese phone number to give me a code, so there’s that.

Less money for them I guess.

#8

I’ve bought a kindle Oasis about a month ago and have been reading LNs on it. Indeed reading manga is a bit annoying since they’re low res scans of the pages and you can’t select text you might not know, or zoom too much on kanji that you don’t recognize at a glance.

As for tips, first thing that I did was set it up to be in japanese, and then added a JP->EN dictionary. Tried to use to build in JP->JP dictionary, but I don’t think I’m there yet in terms of being able to understand a word in japanese using japanese without taking too long or having to look up example sentences. I think it’s the one Jisho is build on, so it’s quite good. You have to download it from your PC and put it on your kindle, not sure what the path was unfortunately… think it’s just ‘your kindle/dictionaries’

Another tip would be that, when selecting words I would try to do it as I would with smartphones, but you have to sort of keep pressing for a bit longer and drag the finger down to grab more text ( since something the text selector finds the first word it think you want to find, which doesn’t work too well for compound words ).

Also as other have mentioned you might need a vpn in case digital purchases are blocked the first time around. ProtonVPN has a JP server on their free VPN account type if I’m not mistaken.

I like checking this website ( https://jpdb.io/ ) every now and then for LN suggestions. Ultimately it’s best to read what you want to read, if it’s not too difficult to the point that it’s not fun to read. I’ve been reading through KonoSuba and ひげを剃る, I find both to be fairly fine for my level, which KonoSuba being a bit more difficult, but nothing too crazy.

Also take a look on what LNs are available through the Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription. Maybe it’s better for you to pay for the subscription, rather than buy each volume individually. I think that if you read about 2 volumes per month it’s more worth it ( also I think there was a Golden Week sale going on ).

Finally ( unless I remember something else ), there’s a feature for highlighting sentences when reading. These get saved to your kindle, and you can review them whenever you want. You can also get them by connecting the kindle to the PC ( they’re in a text file called ‘My Clippings’ ). So if you want to make flashcards from then, or review the sentences some other time you can do it.

Hope this helps :slight_smile: I really do like the kindle even if I do most of my reading on my PC.

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#9

https://koohi.cafe/

This website might be of help too for reading. It gives you vocabulary of what you are reading. It generates vocabulary cards, and also gives you a difficulty rating based on what you know.

Seems to be similar to the jpdb one shared above.

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#10

Do either of you happen to know if a VPN would let me buy digital content on Japanese Amazon if I’ve never been to Japan or opened a Japanese bank account in the first place? In addition to Kindle books, I’m interested in renting movies off Japanese Amazon. And it would beat the heck out of blind-buying DVDs. This region stuff is so frustrating!

EDIT: I’m wondering if it’s possible to open a Japanese bank account remotely. If it works for billionaires in the Caymans…
EDIT^2: Never mind; I Googled it and it’s not.

#11

Thats good to know, thanks.

#12

Thanks for the suggestions. Selecting words has definitely taken some getting used to, feels very low tech. But the crystal clear characters make it worth it. Currently reading Hataraku Maosama. Yep, lots of word look ups with all the mythic and demon stuff.

#13

I’m reading Hataraku Maousama. Early on, lots of mythic and demonology based vocabulary. But it’s so easy to look up words, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

#14

This says it all. The built in dictionary is bloody fantastic, and the search function is also good. You can search for any word/grammar point in any book.

I read light novels a lot, so here are some recommendations.

ソードアート・オンライン
ダンまち
盾の勇者の成り上がり
回復術士のやり直し
オーバーロード
無職転生
転スラ
Log Horizon
ようこす実力至上主義の教室へ

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#15

You can not open a Japanese bank account remotely. They are highly regulated, like the phone lines.

You need a residence permit or nationality. Maybe some kind of visas get access to them too, but I have my doubts. That’s why either credit card or phone number verification are quite effective sadly.

Next time I visit Japan I’ll rent a phone number and get all this shit done, hopefully my account will allow me to purchase again after that but not holding my breath.

#16

I can almost guarantee you that your vocabulary isn’t strong enough to read an LN casually and without a dictionary…YET.

I can also tell you that it will never become strong enough until you force yourself to jump in. You will drown in unknown vocabulary at first, but it slowly gets easier and easier as you go.

Like Megumin, I highly recommend Koohi Cafe

The main purpose of the site is to pre-learn a bunch of words before you start reading the next chunk of the book. This should help you from having to look up too many words as you go, thereby breaking your immersion and fun factor.

When you start out, you may find you can only read a page or 2 at a time before your head feels like it’s about it explode. Keep it up everyday and soon enough you’ll be reading 5 pages in one sitting, and then 10, and then whole chapters. And, assuming you have a decent foundation in basic grammar, this will actually happen faster than you might think!

Personally, I found that reading LNs was game changing in terms of strengthening my Japanese comprehension and reading skill (which in turn helped my listening skills as well). Your passive vocabulary will absolutely explode by reading books in a way that other types of reading don’t seem to compare to.

All amazing recommendations. I’d like to add 本好きの下剋上 - I’m completely obsessed right now!

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#17

I’m not sure about all the banks, but I think you need a residence card to open a bank account.

But you don’t need to have a Japanese bank account to pay on Amazon. I have my local one added and it works perfectly.

Fortunately there wasn’t any problem with the non-Japanese IP address for me so far.

#18

I see a Japanese section under foreign languages on my American Kindle account.
Is that just not good enough for you people?

#19

Not everyone is in America. I struggle to find a selection of english books even in my region’s Amazon. Kobo not so much.

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#20

unable to get digital content from amazon.co.jp even using my vpn - I guess maybe it’s because I’ve a UK address associated with the account (for when I buy physical books)

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