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A peculiar pet shop in Tokyo has been known to offer customers a unique opportunity: the chance to adopt one of seven special cats whose "magic" is never promised, but always received. But there are rules: these cats must be returned after three days. They must eat only the food supplied by the owner, and they must travel to their new homes with a distinctive blanket. In The Blanket Cats, we meet seven customers, each of whom is hoping a temporary feline companion will help them escape a certain reality.

After living a painful life as an office worker, Azusa ended her short life by dying from overworking. So when she found herself reincarnated as an undying, unaging witch in a new world, she vows to spend her days stress free and as pleasantly as possible. She ekes out a living by hunting down the easiest targets—the slimes! But after centuries of doing this simple job, she's ended up with insane powers...how will she maintain her low key life now?!

After being summoned to a new world and thrown down into the depths of hell, Hajime Nagumo met Yue and together they conquered the Great Orcus Labyrinth. The pair was planning on taking it easy on the surface for a little bit, but a meeting with the bunny girl Shea Haulia throws a wrench into those plans. She has the peculiar power to see the future, and according to her, Hajime's the one saving her family in her visions! Hajime was planning on refusing, but it appears she might be able to help him on his quest to return home. And so, the adventure continues in Reisen Gorge.

After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. Soon interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests and what follows is a madcap comedy of errors, involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots - even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't seem to catch a break, as he finds himself enmeshed in a continent-wide conspiracy that puts him in the crosshairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime syndicate.

A young priestess has formed her first adventuring party, but almost immediately they find themselves in distress. It's the Goblin Slayer who comes to their rescue—a man who's dedicated his life to the extermination of all goblins, by any means necessary. And when rumors of his feats begin to circulate, there's no telling who might come calling next...

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An inspiring guide that teaches us how adversity can be an opportunity to make us into stronger, better people. Discover how to rebuild your life after it is broken, repair the cracks, heal emotional wounds, and embrace imperfection. Written by a psychologist, Tomas Navarro, this book explores the Japanese notion of Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, leaving visible the repair as a symbol of fragility, strength and beauty.

In the early 1920s, Japanese college professor Masao Takashimaya of Kyoto had a passion for modern ideas that was as strong as his wife's belief in ancient tradition. Twenty years later, his 18-year-old daughter Hiroko, torn between her mother's traditions and her father's wishes, boarded SS Nagoya Maru to come to California for an education, and to make her father proud. It was August 1941.

As Kazuma spends his downtime bemoaning his party's lack of a little-sister archetype, he's invited to a royal banquet, where he meets the young Princess Iris. She's enthralled by his tales of adventure, and once she takes a liking to him, Kazuma ends up getting transported to the royal castle! Though he's initially unsure of what to expect, life with Iris turns out to be a dream come true, and Kazuma doesn't ever want to wake up. . .so when he hears rumors of a "righteous thief" stalking the capital, Kazuma declares he'll be the one to capture the dastardly do-gooder!

The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces - and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval - she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan.

The Salamander Kampfgruppe has finally come off the front lines and is headed back west for much-needed R & R. The troops are more than ready to enjoy some peace and quiet after many long days flying missions on the eastern front. What they aren’t ready for is how unfamiliar it feels not to be surrounded by whizzing bullets and exploding artillery shells. For Tanya, though, this long-awaited return to the rear brings more disturbing realizations than respite. This vacation may be far more eventful than it has any right to be.

Kitsune are fox spirits that take on human form and play tricks on people. One such man fell in love with a kitsune disguised as a beautiful woman.

Firsthand accounts from Japanese WW II soldiers, sailors, and pilots who fought in the battle for Iwo Jima and survived. Some were evacuated before the Marines landed, and others were taken as prisoners of war. The Japanese army and navy combatants are given a voice to share their experiences in the battle that coined the phrase "uncommon valor was a common virtue".

Together, these three volumes form an essential collection for anyone fascinated by mythology, folklore, and the cultural heritage of Japan. Each story in this anthology is not just a tale. It's a window into the ancient soul of Japan, its people, and its enduring legacy.

What makes a Reaper? What hardships must an innocent child endure to become the vaunted champion of the Eighty-Six? A peek into the past will shed light on his truth. The path he walks is paved with bonds forged in love and broken by tragedy—the shattered fragments of stories untold, committed to memory through the iron will of the one who would shoulder their legacy.

Welcome to Japan! Put your Japanese to the test! Start speaking Japanese in minutes, and learn key vocabulary, phrases, and grammar in just minutes more with Lower Intermediate Japanese. Our native Japanese hosts break down all the sentences, grammar, and more in a simple, easily understandable way!

This 3-in-1 Audiobook bundle is a fast and easy introduction to Japanese for Absolute Beginners. Instead of just reading about Japanese, you learn through everyday conversations between native speakers. In each lesson, you hear a practical dialogue. Then, our teachers translate and explain every word—and you understand it all within minutes. Not only will you understand practical conversations, but you'll also be able to use the same phrases. Learn Japanese Bundle - Easy Introduction for Beginners focuses on everyday Japanese—the kind that you yourself will use in Japan.

The 24 stories that make up Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman generously express the incomparable Haruki Murakami’s mastery of the form. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things for which we might wish. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit Murakami’s ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and entertaining.

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.

The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in 19th-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox. The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit this small and exquisite collection of netsuke. Entranced by their beauty and mystery, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection.