Fully Updated & Expanded

Learn Japanese with Stories
— All 10 Books Rebuilt

Read the entire collection right inside our app, work through new exercises, enjoy cleaner furigana and beautiful watercolor art, and dig into roughly 100 pages of brand-new content across the ten books.

N4 · Upper Beginner+ iPhone · iPad · Android PDF ePub MP3 Audio Anki Decks Sentence Explorer

The Biggest Upgrade

Now read the whole collection inside the app

Every story can be unlocked in the Makoto Japanese Explorer app. Read on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device, tap any word to see its meaning, and play the audio right there — your entire library in your pocket, no PDFs required.

iPhone iPad Android

Buy more, save more — no coupon needed. Add two bundles to your cart for an automatic 5% off your entire digital order, three for 10% off, or five or more for a full 20% off everything.

These are the classic Japanese short stories that make reading actually fun — every word defined, every grammar point explained, and the kanji explored along the way. You'll pick up real vocabulary and grammar while absorbing the culture behind the tales.

The Big Update

What Changed in This Edition

This wasn't a light touch-up. We went through all ten books page by page and rebuilt them from the reading up. Here's what's new.

① Read anywhere — app, tablet, or phone

Unlock every story in the app

Read the full collection in the Makoto Japanese Explorer app on iPhone, iPad, and Android — no files to manage.

Tap any word

Look up meanings and readings as you go, with the audio for each story built right in.

Sentence Explorer

Study each sentence interactively, word by word, online or in the app via Makoto+ Sentence Explorer.

② Read with a plan — not just front to back

"Before You Read"

A short, spoiler-free warm-up before each story: the grammar, vocabulary, and cultural patterns worth watching for.

Exercises + Answer Keys

Comprehension questions, particle fill-in-the-blanks, grammar-pattern hunts, and translation comparisons — with full answer keys so you can check yourself.

Enrichment Boxes

Grammar spotlights, cultural notes, vocabulary builders, and reading tips dropped in right beside the sentence they explain.

③ Cleaner, more honest Japanese

Romaji is gone

We removed romaji from the Japanese content and use furigana instead, so your eyes stay on the kana and kanji where they belong.

Furigana, done right

Furigana over every kanji in the word-by-word notes, resized on the sentences for a cleaner read, and removed from the vocab headwords so you recall the reading yourself.

A full editorial pass

We corrected readings, fixed word breakdowns (conjugations and morphology), and tightened every definition across the whole bundle.

④ Beautiful and easy to use

Redesigned title pages

Title, watercolor illustration, audio QR codes, and a short story teaser — all on one page.

Never lose your place

Running headers and page numbers throughout, plus a clickable table of contents in every book.

New art and structure

Fresh watercolor illustrations and ink-brush dividers, with three consistent sections per story: line-by-line → full Japanese → close English summary.

~100 pages

of brand-new content added across the ten books — and as always, every update is yours free, for life.

The ten updated book covers in the Japanese Reader Collection, Bundle 1

All ten books, freshly redesigned inside and out.

What's Included

The bundle is complete with ten full-length volumes. Read them in the app or download instantly in digital format and start improving your reading (PDFs & ePub), your listening (MP3s), and your vocabulary right away.

In-app access to every story on iPhone, iPad, and Android — tap any word, hear the audio, study without juggling files.
Ten fully updated books in the Japanese Reader Collection, ready to download the moment you buy.
Anki flashcard decks with the vocabulary from the stories — use the free Anki software to lock it in.
Native-speaker audio for every story, recorded at both slow and natural speed, with QR codes to stream on demand.
Makoto+ Sentence Explorer access for interactive, word-by-word study online or in the app.

Who Is This For?

This bundle is built for upper beginners through intermediate students of Japanese. Just starting out? No problem — we have a bundle made for you. See our Beri-Beri-Shoshinsha Beginner's Bundle.

Incredible Value

Each volume sells on Amazon and elsewhere for $6.99. All ten volumes plus two bonuses would run $69.90 — get them all today for about half that.

Pay once, updated forever. Every future edit, expansion, and supplementary file we add to this bundle comes to you free.

Furigana over kanji example

Example Content

Flip through the opening pages of Hikoichi and the Young Lord below, then hear the same story read at both speeds.

Page 1 / –

Loading sample…

Trouble viewing? Open the sample PDF in a new tab.

Hikoichi and the Young Lord Natural speed

Hikoichi and the Young Lord Slow speed

Stories Included

All the stories across ten fully updated books — read in the app, or as eBooks plus sound files:

Hikoichi and the Young Lord
Hikoichi and the Living Umbrella
Tengu's Straw Raincoat
Momotaro, the Peach Boy
Usagi to Kame (the Tortoise & the Hare)
The Inch-High Samurai
Kaguya Hime
The Mouse Bride
Ikkyuu-san
The Cut-Tongue Sparrow
Kobutori Jiisan
Yuki Onna
Anchin and Kiyohime
The Little Match Girl
Hikoichi and the Wondrous Box
Hikoichi and the Trickster Tanuki
The Oni's Mask and the Girl
The Fountain of Youth
The Hundred Tales Game
The Wise Child
Urashima Tarou
The Young Man Who Slept Three Years
Hanasaka Jiisan
Hikoichi and the Hanami

Plus two bonuses: our Hiragana and The Basics of Japanese books, along with Makoto Magazine #1 — which is what brings the full value of this bundle to $83.88.

日本語を磨こう！ Let's polish our Japanese!

What You Get with Every Story

A fun way into Japanese folklore — the classic tales every Japanese person grows up with, but few Westerners have ever heard.
Real Japanese you can actually read. If you know hiragana, these fully annotated stories are within reach today.
Every line and every word explained and defined — now with corrected glosses and cleaner furigana.
Active practice built in: "Before You Read" primers, exercises, and answer keys turn each reader into a real workbook.
Build vocabulary, grasp new grammar patterns, and sharpen reading and listening — all at once.
Two native recordings per story (slow and natural). Read in the app, print the PDFs, or load the MP3s on your phone and study anywhere.

Anki is free flashcard software. To install: double-click a supplied deck file to add it to Anki, or send it to your phone for the mobile version.

Every one of our bundles includes:

✅ Multiple formats (PDF, ePub, MP3s, plus Anki flashcard decks)
✅ In-app access on iPhone, iPad, and Android
✅ One-time payment
✅ Discounted versus buying each book on Amazon
✅ Free lifetime updates to this bundle
✅ Instant download — no waiting
✅ Satisfaction guaranteed. If it's too easy or too hard, tell us and we'll swap it for a better-suited bundle or refund you.

➡️ Need help opening the eBooks? Follow the steps in our eBook guide.

A few notes:

Print versions are available separately (not included in this digital-only bundle) — see Clay and Yumi's Paperbacks. Print editions come with the digital files too.
This bundle is a one time fee. No extra payment needed ever for the files and unlocking the books in our app. Download everything on a PC or Mac, or open any file on your mobile devices. Learn more here.
Don't see the email after ordering? Check your spam folder, or email us for support.
These books are also available on Amazon.

Learn Japanese with Stories— All 10 Books Rebuilt

Instant Download: Japanese Reader Collection

Learn Japanese with Stories Bundle #1 [10 Volumes] [Digital Books + Audios]

Learn Japanese with Stories Bundle #2 [10 Volumes] [Digital Books + Audios]