Japanese Nursery Rhymes: Carp Streamers, Falling Rain and Other Traditional Favorites (Share and Sing in Japanese & English; includes Audio CD)

Everything OK, my son's son will have pleasure with it!

I am Japanese and I purchased this to teach my kid some nursery rhymes I grew up with. It was great because it was a bilingual book, came with a CD/downloadable file and provided translations. Unfortunately, the singer is not a native speaker and it is clear from the illustrations that the artist is not familiar with Japanese culture. Additionally, some of the facts are inaccurate (such as tanuki is canid, as in dog-like, but not a canine). This is a great book for beginner Japanese language speakers but I would recommend to the publisher to hire native Japanese speakers and artists to complete the book.

I purchased this book to get my children acquainted to a different language. The book contains a CD, and you can hear each story one in English, then once in Japanese. The flow is good for young ears, and the reader's voice is acceptable. My children enjoy exploring this well-illustrated book, while listening. If you can learn Japanese (like me), you will enjoy reading the book yourself, which is written in Hiragana. There is also a transcript in English right below the Japanese sentences. Would recommend it to people who wants to promote cultural and linguistic awareness.

I go this as a gift for my dad for Christmas. He knows Japanese and is always looking for an opportunity to practice and teach it. I know he will LOVE reading this book with my kids. I love that they had the Japanese characters, the pronunciation, and the English words.I also love that it comes with a cd. I love the pictures and the fun facts included. This is a book made to truly reflect the culture of Japan, and not just the language. It will be a good experience for my dad and my kids.

Really wanted to like this one but the pitch is SOO high and hard to sing along with

pluses/minuses...This is SUCH an awesome concept. If they had hired a native Japanese speaker - preferably one who has little kids - to sing on the CD it would be 5 stars. Other Japanese reviewers nailed it -- there are lots of pronunciation errors and the songs aren't exactly what the kids learned in Japan. I love the way the book gives the Japanese, Romagi, and English - THAT gets stars! As for singing the exact (or close) English translation into the same tune as the original... oh my goodness, I literally laughed through the CD mas my kids were listening. Great concept, but...no.For perspective: we lived Tochigi, Japan from birth to 4yo & 2yo for my kids. Both were speaking Japanese with their friends, even though only one of them went to preschool. I was super blessed to have a good Japanese friend go through a couple of the kids' songs with me and teach them to me, in the same style she sung at home with her kids, and wrote down the romagi for me since I'm not that great at reading Japanese. When we moved back to the states, the kids had no friends to practice their second language with, and I was looking for a fun way to keep it up through the songs we loved when we lived there. I got so excited when I saw this book and CD. I have to return it though; I wont teach them incorrect pronunciations and folksy tunes in place of their children's classics. Back to searching.It really is a great concept -- they just need to collaborate with the native tongue

Really helps having cd along with book.

Enjoying the CD. It's nice to have an idea of the rhythm.

This is not sheet music as advertised - its just a very small nursery rhymes book. Very misleading by the publishers.

This is nice and we use it a lot for my wife to soothe our baby to sleep. The rhymes are sung by a non-Japanese so there are pronunciation issues on occasion, but not so much that it spoils it. Good.

I was very excited about this book. However the accompanying CD is terrible. The way they sing the rhymes is so terrible/annoying I can't bear to listen to it....and therefore it's difficult to be able to learn the rhymes for my baby. It has a lot of promise...just needs a better CD.

I haven't listened to the CD yet, but am very disappointed with the quality of the book.Does Tuttle not have any proofreaders on staff?The illustrator has not done her homework.This book perpetuates stereotypes about Japanese clothing and hair styles.The illustration on the inside front flap of the paper cover (also shown on page 9) is WRONG!The adult seems to be wearing a black kagamimochi or Hallowe'en costume wig on her head.WIth CHOPSTICKS stuck through it!And a two-color outfit that is definitely NOT a kimono (light pink collar, light pink skirt, deep pink top).Kimono do NOT have cuffs as shown on the child and adult. The child's kimono is missing a collar (eri) seam.On pp. 24-5, the seagulls are described in Japanese and English as wearing white shirts and being "white from head to toe," but the illustrator shows a black tail on one, and grey wings on all of them.P. 20 has a spelling error ("sandles").The Pronunciation Guide at the front of the book says that "u" always "sounds like it does in the word "blue". In that case, "Zouri" on p.20 should be sounded "zo-u-ri"? Wrong!Although Wikipedia describes hachimaki as a type of bandanna, "headband" is more accurate. (p.29)Japanese-English dictionaries such as Sanseido's translate "biwa" (p.33) as "loquat" or "medlar" - NOT "plum".Receives one star for providing romaji and reasonably accurate translations.