Reviews by Maiko Covington

Kojien

I got this for my high school graduation present from my homeroom teacher. Really generous guy. This dictionary is really good for looking up obscure words, or when you need a really detailed definition. I had to write a paper on the coronation ceremonies of the emperor, and I was able to look up ... read more

Shoukai Kokugo Jiten

This is your standard kokugo jiten, I guess. It is a nice desk size and comes in a box, like most dictionaries. Some of the things I really like about it are that (1) it has the part of speech of every word, (2) it has entries for giseigo and gitaigo, and (3) it has an example sentence for EVERY word, if not two or three. Very handy. The one thing it does NOT have (because it's not a dictionary for students) is the entries of kanji by their onyomi with the meaning and reading of said kanji. Oh yes, it also provides the "rekisi-teki kana-dukai" (kyuu kana-dukai) spelling of words.

Hyoujun kanwa jiten

This is a standard kanwa jiten for students. It comes in a green, blue and grey box (1/3 blue, 1/3 green, and 1/3 grey, horizontal fat stripes) so you can notice it easily in the bookstore. Some of the things I really like about this dictionary are: (1) being a standard kanwa jiten, it has lookup ... read more

Ruigo Kokugo Jiten

This is a REALLY neat thing to have. It's basically a thesaurus, but... The words are arranged by MEANING. So, as you page through the dictionary, each word is close in meaning to the word next to it and they sorta slowly change, like that. To look up a word you look it up by reading in the index ... read more

Zen'yaku Kogo Reikai Jiten

This is your standard dictionary of koten (the literary form of old Japanese) for high school students. It is very clear on the parts of speech and what kind of conjugations the verbs have, there is an example (quoted from an ancient text) for each word, and the more important words are in bigger print. It also has a large section in the back with charts of seasons, flowers, parts of kimono, etc that comes up in these stories all the time, and lots of grammar charts (for us high school students to memorize - =^P).

Koji Kotowaza Jiten

This is a small green dictionary (at least MY edition is green - they may have changed it) of proverbs. The proverbs are all explained in Japanese with example sentences for each one. Proverbs that are derived from English ones, and proverbs that just happen to correspond really closely to some ... read more

Yoji Jukugo Shin Jiten

This is a small grey dictionary (again, they may have changed the color) of those 4-character compound words that have abstract meanings. In school we are expected to memorize lots of these and how to write them, so it came in handy. The words are arranged by reading, but there is an index in the ... read more

Roots de naruhodo Kanyouku Jiten

This is a VERY handy dictionary of kanyouku (idioms). These are all those sayings like "Kokoro ga sawagu" or "Kosi ga nukeru" or "te ni ase wo nigiru" etc. These are usually not found in proverb dictionaries, but you can't take the meaning of these literally either. This dictionary lists them by ... read more

Gendai Yougo Kiso Chishiki

This is a dictionary/encylopedia of the words originating in recent times that appear in the newspaper that you really need to know to be up on current events. So for example, you can look up "Dokuritu Kokka Kyowakoku" and it will have it in there as "Confederation of Independent States" (this ... read more

Butsuri Kojiten

This is a little book defining all sorts of physics terms, that you can carry around with you in your backpack. It defines Japanese terms in Japanese but it is very handy for looking up formulas you happened to forget.