芥川龍之介 Akutagawa Ryunosuke Japanese Readers

The surest way to grow your Japanese is to read, and to listen to, something real.

The Trolley Cart is Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's short story トロッコ (Torokko), written in 1922. An eight-year-old boy named Ryōhei watches the workers on a half-built railway near Odawara push their little open carts uphill and ride them down. He wants nothing in the world so much as to push one. One afternoon two young workers say yes, and the ride goes farther than he ever meant it to. Japanese schoolchildren have read this story for generations.

In this audiobook you hear all of it, in Akutagawa's own words, read by native speaker Yumi Boutwell, and taught in five parts so you can follow every line.

Each part is built the same way:

1. Story introduction. A short English preview so you know where you are.

2. Vocabulary. The key words from the part in Japanese, then English.

3. Line by line. Each Japanese sentence, its key words, the English, and then the sentence again, so the meaning sticks before you move on.

4. Normal speed. The whole part read straight through at natural pace. Hear how much more you catch.

5. Comprehension questions. A few questions to answer out loud before you hear the answer.

6. English version. The part retold in English, so you can confirm you understood.

Before the story begins there is a short introduction to Akutagawa and to the real railway the story is built on. At the end, as a bonus, you can hear the complete story once more, read by Yumi with music and sound brought in under her voice.

Akutagawa wrote in the Japanese of a century ago, and this audiobook keeps his words exactly as he wrote them. The vocabulary and line-by-line passes give you the words you need as you meet them, so you hear real literature without getting lost in it.

For intermediate learners who are ready for real Japanese literature, and for anyone who has wanted to hear one of Japan's best-loved short stories in the language it was written in.