fun fun Japanese books :)

I picked up a couple of great picture books at the book shop in Japan Town, in San Francisco.

The first is by Colobockle, and it is all about "sound". The Japanese language is really rich in onomatopoeic and mimetic words. They're hard to translate, but I've always found it fascinating how you can describe the way rain falls or the sound of laughter in so many different ways.

The second book is by brilliantly funny Yoshifumi Hasegawa. Here, he makes puns with the name of each prefecture in Japan, and illustrates it with great humour. It made me laugh out loud reading it in the book shop!