I recently received an email that owners of the thejapanshop.com published their first Kindle ebook, a beginners’ level Japanese language text called “Hiragana, the Basics of Japanese.” They’ve asked mailing list subscribers to download the book (available for free here at least for the moment) and review it on Amazon’s website. I haven’t loaded the PDF on a Kindle to see how the formatting looks, but each page appears small enough (horizontally and vertically) to appear well on the Kindle’s screen.

As far as hiragana books go, this one looks straightforward enough. However, I wonder at the viability of this type of book for an e-reader interface. Isn’t the point of a workbook to actually take your pencil and practice drawing the characters in real life? This text includes spaces to write characters, fill-in-the-blank exercises, and crossword puzzles… but Kindle isn’t a good platform for this type of activity. Perhaps an iPad or iPhone app would make more sense…

Still, if you have a printer and want to learn the basics of Japan’s hiragana writing system, grab the free download while it lasts and work your way through the book the old fashioned way.