A Peek at Japanese Baby Books

Books from Dollar Stores, Drug Stores, Thrift Stores, and the City Government

A few years ago, I gave birth in Japan. You can read about that here:

4 Surprises of Pregnancy and Childbirth in Japan

Thus far, my kid has only ever lived in Japan. Because of that, we’ve collected a small amount of Japanese baby books.

Fourteen Japanese children’s books. Photo taken by author.

By and large, these books teach about the things you would expect children’s books to teach, like vocabulary for shapes, colors, foods, and animals.

Here are a couple of pages from my favorite one, which teaches about Japanese onomatopoeia:

A page from a book called “Daruma-san ga.” This page shows the character, Daruma, dancing from one leg to the other as they say their name (“Daruma” with gender-neutral suffix “-san” indicating a person) and the subject marker “ga.” Photo taken by author.

A page from a book called “Daruma-san ga.” This page shows the character, Daruma, farting. The text reads “pu” (Americans would say this like a very quick “poo”), the Japanese onomatopoeia for farting. Photo taken by author.

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