Try before you buy
Read one story free: "Clay is Lost"
Flip through story 1 of Yonde Miyo Volume 1 exactly as it appears in the bundle: the story in simple hiragana, every sentence broken down word by word, two grammar notes, a review, the story again in natural Japanese, and the English. Then hear Yumi read it at slow speed first, and at natural speed.
Trouble viewing? Open the sample PDF in a new tab.
Clay is Lost Slow speed
Clay is Lost Natural speed
The bundle has 50 stories like this one, each with both recordings, plus everything shown in the images above.
What Customers Are Saying
"The printable practice sheets for Hiragana and Katakana are worth the package purchase price by themselves."
"A great set of study materials. I really like that it includes Anki flashcards. I've been using this bundle after finishing the Genki textbook."
"Every sentence is broken down and explained in easy steps that helps the reader understand the structure of Japanese."
"Excellent material. I'm reviewing the kanji level 5 reading practice. I am very happy with the results. Motivated to go on."
"The worksheets are super helpful for practicing writing and the information is easy to follow. I don't feel overwhelmed with this."
From Clay & Yumi, teaching Japanese since 2002. Audio recorded by Yumi and other native speakers.
From your first hiragana to JLPT N5 level
What's inside
- 23 eBooks (PDF and ePub): hiragana, katakana, grammar, vocabulary, kanji and reading
- 2,000+ audio files recorded by native speakers
- 50 beginner stories, each recorded at slow and natural speed
- Anki flashcard decks for spaced-repetition review
- The Yonde Miyo stories and the JLPT N5 books also open in the Makoto+ Japanese Explorer app
- Instant download, and free updates forever
Who it's for
Total beginners, and anyone who has started Japanese before and wants a clear, structured path with plenty of reading practice. If you plan to take the JLPT N5, the N5 books follow the exam; if you don't, its levels are still a clear way to measure your progress.
Beri- Beri- Shoshinsha →
(Literally "very very beginner.") The foundation. It walks you from hiragana through basic grammar, and it includes our full library of beginner graded readers: easy stories to practice what you learn, instead of drilling sentence patterns into a notebook and hoping they stick.
JLPT N5 →
Takes those fundamentals and sharpens them. Each book covers one part of the exam (vocabulary, grammar, kanji, reading, sentence patterns), so you can target weak spots before you sit it. Even if you never take the JLPT, its levels are one of the clearest ways to measure progress at the beginner stage. (A test on the calendar is a motivator that flashcards aren't.)
About the overlap. The grammar and kanji books in each bundle cover similar ground: about 60% of the grammar topics and 80% of the kanji appear in both. But they're built for different jobs. The Beri- Beri- versions teach the language as you'll use it, organized by what's useful in real life; the JLPT N5 versions teach for the test, organized by what the exam asks and how. Same material from two angles, which helps if you care about both everyday Japanese and the exam.
Every sentence is broken down and explained in easy steps that helps the reader understand the structure of Japanese, something I have found to be missing from other media.
The included worksheets and flash cards means you always have a source available instead of having to scour the internet for them.
You can feel the passion that Clay and Yumi have for the Japanese language in the materials and it helps to keep you progressing.
Thank you for your review! We're so glad you found our Beri-Beri-Shoshinsha useful. If you have any questions or suggestions for future content for that bundle, please let me know. All updates are free!
My 9 year old granddaughter asked me to teach her some Japanese about six months ago. Now she and her 11 year old brother study with my on Zoom for an hour every week.
A few weeks ago, I started using Beri-Beri-Shoshinsha, and we are all enjoying it very much. The short stories are a great way for them to practice reading hiragana, and they always get a laugh out of "Kurei-san's" misadventures in Japan.
The sentences and dialogues feel very natural, and serve as a good introduction to Japanese grammar and syntax.
Since the stories (so far) seem to highlight unique features of Japanese life and culture, the children find them fascinating.
Much more interesting than Rosetta Stone, and much more realistic than DuoLingo.
Thanks!!!
It's wonderful to know that your grandchildren are enjoying Beri- Beri- Shoshinsha! That they appreciate my humor enough to use the stories for learning is very satisfying. :)
The later stories are more essays about aspects of Japanese culture (and less silly), but I'll try to add more 'Clay misadventures' soon. They might enjoy Frank and the Obaasan after they exhaust Yonde Miyo~. It's weird but cute, I think.
Great starter bundle and even better now that it's available in the Makato+ app.
Thank you! We have about 90% of the bundles in the app now. I hope to have 100% with revisions to the books by the end of the year. Glad to hear you like it! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Very satisfied with purchase. A lot of material to help with learning Japanese.
Thank you, Kevin, for your positive feedback! We're glad the bundle is helping with your Japanese learning journey. If you need any further assistance, feel free to reach out.
I posted a review, a fairly critical one, explaining that I found the beginner bundle disorganised and confusing. Clay replied, thanked me for the feedback and very soon after produced an updated bundle which has an easily followed and encouraging bundle. I plan to start my studying soon for a trip next year - the new bundle gives me confidence that I will have at least a few useful phrases and an understanding of basic signs when I get there!
Hi Dave, thank you so much for your kind words and for the updated review! That was above and beyond :) The reorganization is done, but we still have to update about half of the books and get them in the system. One day soon, you'll be able to unlock all the content in the app as well as read from the PDFs and ePubs. Thanks for sticking with us!
The content is good but it's incredibly badly organised. An index or overview pdf would have been useful. Maybe a guide to using the materials effectively.
Not sure as a total beginner how useful it will be.
It is genuinely a bundle, which is a shame.
First, thank you so much for your feedback.
We've actually been planning to totally revamp the structure and content for the Beri- Beri- Shoshinsha bundle for a while. But instead of waiting for the content revisions, I went ahead and did the planned restructuring of the content. Please take a look and let me know if it is better now. (I probably should have done this without waiting for the full edits)
But the full revision will come in a month or two. We'll add more content and improve the current offerings. More to come soon!
I am still amazed by the quality of the content and the quantity in this bundle.
I love that you get epub files. I love reading the short stories in bed every night.
This was without a doubt the best purchase in my Japanese learning journey!
Thank you so much for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a review! Short and sweet, but we couldn't resist saying thank you!
I recently started this course and I have already learned to read hiragana and katakana! The books are very detailed and the mp3 files help with pronunciation. If you’re new to Japanese I highly recommend this course.
Awesome! I'm glad you are making progress and the bundle is helping. Keep reading to build vocabulary, kanji, and grammar understanding. We recently updated the the Yonde Miyo~ books (the ones with 10 stories each) with Makoto+ Sentence Explorer integration. So, if you haven't checked that out, please give it a try. It's free.
Excellent learning material for the money, and plenty in abundance as well. Thank you Clay & Yumi for making such educational material available.
Thank you! We realy appreciate you! Let me know if you have any questions as you go along. I'll be happy to help.
I had already some basic knowledge in Japanese (because I was always into japanese content) and I have improved a lot thanks to Beri- Beri- Shoshinsha!
I purchased this bundle a month ago but I thought I'd post my review earlier that I anticipated~
I'm half into the 100grammar (I have yet to check the rest of the books in this bundle) and I practice some kanji (from the Kanji100) in my free time. This language is pure art and I'm very well into arts and crafts so as a beginner they feel like a piece of cake to me! I am also greek and I noticed japanese have few common things with greek; we pronounce words exactly as we see them, we just replace the suffix of words to direct time and to adress people (most of the times) and we don't need either a plethora of articles or other particles to produce a full meaning of a phrase/sentence - which helps me a lot in undestarding!
All in all, in combination with the knowledge I already had and Beri Beri Shoshinsha, I can already read and undestand basic japanese in just a month~!
Lastly I'd like to thank Clay & Yumi for their assistance and the love they poured into makind these books~!
And if any potential buyers are reading my review, I'd like to let you know that these books provide a thorough explanation and a large variety of examples to assist into learning the correct pronunciations (with addional sound files for everything)!
Thank you so much! You are awesome. :) I'm glad to hear you are excited about Japanese, and finding connections with things you already know (Greek) is a great way to make progress with Japanese. I think that is how our brains work--connections. So, keep at it and let me know if you have any questions as you go through the material.
Мне понравилось.
I have loved all the Japan Shop books. The grammar books give clear concise explanations and you can easily access the sounds. Plus the Yonde Miyo series are great to read and listen to.
Yeah! I'm glad you like it. We try to keep the Yonde Miyo~ books fun. :)
It's the third time I started learning japanese and I never came very far. With this set I managed to learn the hiragana in about two weeks and now I'm starting with the katakana :) The books are fun and easy to understand (even if your from Germany like me) and I'm looking forward to the moment when I really can understand the whole Storys. And a great plus is that you get free updates. Great work. I recommend it to everyone who's willing to learn Japanese
Danke schoen! I'm thrilled to hear it is helping. We are here if you have any questions. Hope you keep at it this time. :)
I love Beri Beri Shoshinsha! One gets so much material; perfect for beginners like me. The variety of materials cover all aspects of learning
(writing systems, reading, culture, etc.,) and even includes an Anki deck. I'm so glad to have discovered The Japan Shop. As I progress, I know where I will be getting the resources I will need and want.
Thank you so much for your kind words! We're thrilled to hear that Beri Beri Shoshinsha has been helpful. If you have any questions as you go through the material, we are here to help! Just ask. Thank you and have fun with Japanese!
I have a Japanese friend who looked over them and he was amazed as well.
That's great! I'm thrilled to hear you are enjoying Beri- Beri- Shoshinsha. Let me know if you have any questions. We'll add more to it soon!
Smells good, the case is awesome and I am addicted to opening and closing it lol
The worksheets are super helpful for practicing writing and the information is easy to follow. I don’t feel overwhelmed with this.
So much info in this package! The printable practice sheets for Hiragana and Katakana are worth the package purchase price by themselves, the practice sheets that I found elsewhere cost more than the entire Beri Beri bundle did. Great stuff!
Thanks for the great review! We're so glad you're enjoying it! I'll add more worksheets to the bundle in the near future.
Excellent study materials are easy to follow and to the point.
Good
I am a beginner and I really need something to read and I love these books!
Thanks for the review! We're so glad you love our books and find them helpful.
Started last week and using the methods detailed in the first section I have already memorised 27 hiragana letters. The coure so far at this early stage seems to be working well.
Awesome progress! Keep at it. Progress will slow down--so think of ways to keep motivation up, but a great start. If you have any questions, please email me any time.
This is a great bundle! Very useful for a very beri beginner. Two thumbs up!
Thank you for the kind words! We're glad you found the bundle useful.
This will be an evolving review as I've just purchased the product. I've only started on the Kana book. This review starts with the Anki flash cards. I like how they're laid out. The combination of knowledge tested work well for me. My only issue -- and the reason for me writing anything at this point -- is that the deck does not work well with AnkiMobile which is my preferred way to do flash cards. Many of the cards are missing the audio file or kana image. I am pointing at the anki deck because other decks with digital embedded in them function fine on the iOS app.
Thank you for your feedback! I'll take a look at the kana Anki deck tomorrow. It was one of the first Anki decks we made so it may have some issues. Hopefully, we can make it more useful for you! I'll get back to you soon.
