Kit Pancoast Nagamura Books

Original, contemporary haiku celebrating the sports and athletes of the Olympics - from an acclaimed poet and an international gallery of guests.Award-winning haiku poet Kit Pancoast Nagamura offers a collection of original poems that explore the beauty, physical effort, and essence of all the sports of the summer Olympics.At first glance, haiku and sports may seem like an odd pairing. But actually, there's a strong similarity between the two. The grace, balance, and focus that are required of an athlete are exactly what the haiku poet seeks in order to capture an emotion, a mood, an action in just a few, carefully chosen words.Anticipation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is building -- and what better way to share in the experience of the games than through Japan's beloved poetic form, haiku, which has been rediscovered and embraced in recent years by a new generation. From the elegance of a gymnast's leap and the fluid motion of a runner's body, to the thwump of the soccer ball hitting the net, poetry lovers and sports fans alike will feel the thrill and intensity as the world's best go for the gold.In this volume, the first to cover such a wide range of athletics, each Olympic sport is represented by three haiku written by Nagamura, plus one or two by a guest poet. Each poem is presented in both English and Japanese. Evocative photographs and illustrations complement the text.

The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook is an ambitious new phrasebook for students who want to improve their speaking and listening skills. The book features 1,800 expressions for daily use, in English and Japanese, with the Japanese presented in both native script and roman letters. Topics include basic greetings, self-introductions, talking about the weather, getting around, ordering at a restaurant, visiting a Japanese friend’s home, special events (birthdays, funerals, weddings, baby’s birth), and much, much more. What sets this book apart from others is its focus on sentence-level utterances. Many phrasebooks present loads of useful vocabulary, but provide little or no guidance on how to use those words in actual sentences. The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook shows readers how Japanese sentences work. All the sentences are of the sort learners are likely to use in Japan, whether as students or professionals. Throughout the book, key vocabulary is listed along the bottom of each page, allowing learners to build on what they already know. And there are notes and special columns on usage and communication strategies. Best of all, the book comes with a free MP3 audio CD containing all the sentences read aloud, with feeling, in both English and Japanese, so that readers can casually listen on their iPods or in their cars.