Bauddha.net ・ Bi-Lingual Book List

Bauddha.net is a great source for dual readers (English and Japanese literature)! Genres for your bilingual reading pleasure include famous novels, children's stories, philosophy, and government. Click on a title and then click on the 閲覧する button to open it. The English version will be on the left side and the Japanese version will be on the right side.

If you have the Rikaichan dictionary tool, looking up words that you don't know becomes as easy as hovering your mouse or cursor over that text! How much can of the text can you understand without the English version?

Nissan N-Link ・ WEB Picture Book

Japan's Nissan corporation includes a special WEB Picture Book section on its website. Personally, this is one my favorite websites for reading practice! First of all there are 3 FREE interactive stories to choose from on this Japanese website: Issunboushi (The Inch-High Samurai), アラジンとまほうのランプ (Aladdin & the Magic Lamp), and ももたろう (The Peach Boy).
This is a very well designed interactive storybook site! The stories are also well-narrated and illustrated with accompanying music and sound FX!

The stories include special interactive features like short activity breaks from the story, such as creating a dance and performing it for friends in Isshun boushi. And of course Nissan finds a cute way to include their *product*

These stories are lengthy written with furigana-attached Kanji characters. With the narrator's voice included, these stories are great for reading practice, listening comprehension, or for entertaining small children.

MixPaper - Free Publications

MixPaper offers well over 150+ FREE publications for children, teens, and adults! This link takes you straight to that page. Click on any image that looks appealing to you! Click on the re 読む button. Your book will open up in a special viewer which allows you to flip through pages just like a real magazine! To make the print bigger click on the red + 拡大 button at the top of the screen. You can quickly learn the functions after a minute of playing around with it.

Though you might find some reading materials to fit your level, I recommend this site for learning more about Japanese culture. There are magazines on stylish Japanese homes and floor plans, sports, and kid's comics.

FujiPan - Famous Folktales

While this Japanese bread site offers products, recipes, and more, this post highlights the section called FujiPan to wa Hagukumu which has famous folktales for kids that are also great for learners of Japanese. There are tons of stories which you can select by genre. There is also a section which has the stories categories by each prefecture of Japan where the story is popular. You don't need perfect Japanese to navigate to the stories. Just scroll down and click on the picture or its title!

When you do click, a separate window opens up the story which are all accompanied by audio file so you can follow or read along! These stories include Kanji characters, but there are Hiragana readings in parenthesis which are also included.

Tsunagu Japan - All About Japan

Tsunagu Japan - All About Japan
Learn the culture of Japan and all about its foods, seasons, entertainment, and more! These articles are short yet informative and written by Japanese as well people with experience living in Japan.  The articles are plentiful and include a wide variety of topics such as anime, weddings, obento, fashion, and so much more. The articles are organized into 9 popular categories: Kawaii, Otaku, Entertainment, Beauty/Fashion, Travel, Traditional, Food, Art/Literature, and Living/Study.