- Thinking Aloud: Shogi is Essentially a Language
- Where to Get Japanese Audiobooks (Including HABU Yoshiharu’s)
- The Habu Yoshi Books
- What Shogi [Japanese Chess] Can Teach You About Languages, Learning and Life
- Why Everything Is Everything: Jeff Hawkins On Intelligence (With Apologies to Lauryn Hill)
- HABU Yoshiharu’s “The Big Picture”, Part 1: The Ludic Fallacy
- HABU Yoshiharu’s “The Big Picture”, Part 4: Don’t Overthink It
- HABU Yoshiharu’s “The Big Picture”, Part 3: From Mutually Assured Destruction to Self-Assured Victory
- HABU Yoshiharu’s “The Big Picture”, Part 2: Never Perfection, Always Improvement
- HABU Yoshiharu’s “The Big Picture”, Part 5: Why You’re Wrong to Have Intermediate Angst
So, in English, I think it’s safe to say that Audible is the undisputed leader in audiobooks. And Amazon now has a Japanese version of Audible as well.
But you know what?
It sucks. Kind of like the Kindle — a good idea, poorly executed. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Amazon. I’ve been a loyal Amazon customer since the late 20th century. Yeah. The 1990s. And so I say this out of love and loyalty. We’ll have the Kindle conversation another time. Let’s focus on audiobooks.
Audible Japan is a monthly membership — 1500 yen a month. Again, it seems like a good idea, but it isn’t. First of all, you can’t integrate your Japanese audiobook library with your English one. Secondly…man, I don’t even want to get into it, because getting into it just upsets me. Suffice it to say that the interface does a lot of stupid crap. Wanna save to SD card? Nope, can’t do that. Wanna log out? Gotta delete literally all of your data and re-download it later. Wanna permanently own one of your audiobooks? Go eff yourself.
Look at me. I said I wouldn’t do it, and now I’m dong it and now I’m upset. lol
No, so, yeah, the point of the story is, there is a much better, cheaper (long-term) and realer way to get Japanese audiobooks: FeBe (pronounced “Phoebe”). FeBe used to suck. Like, back in around 2007/8, when the author 勝間和代 (KATSUMA Kazuyo) recommended Febe in one of her books, I mentally slapped her for wasting my time #openhand #lookwhatyoumademedo.
But things change. People change. And now, FeBe doesn’t suck at all. So that imaginary slap must have worked #idothesethingsbecauseiloveyoukazuyo.
FeBe has a massive selection of (mostly non-fiction) Japanese audiobooks read by great narrators, and, instead of the DRM enema that is Amazon digital content, you get to download yer books in mp3 format, like a bau5. Like a sivuhlyzed yooman bean [civilized human being — keep up]. So, like, you actually own the content you bought — what a concept! </sarcasm>
The four HABU Yoshiharu books we’re going to cover in this upcoming (unfolding? gerunding?) eCourse are also available over at the Febes:
So, yeah, I recommend FEBE without reservation. And, no, they’re not paying me one silver yen to say this. I just think they’re awesome and deserve to be recognized for it.
Ohhh, thank you so much for this!! I’m trying to improve my listening skills and I think this will be pretty useful! 😀
Febe is good stuff. And they do have *some* fiction. I’ve listened to both 神様のカルテ and some 池井戸潤 works courtesy of them.