Hi everyone. I recently bought the new Tobira text for beginners (released July 1, 2021). There will be another next year and is meant to bridge the gap into the regular Tobira books already out. I’ve gone through the introduction and first lesson and taken some photos to give a better idea since I’m probably one of the first people here to pick it up.

Amazon listing: 初級日本語 とびら I / TOBIRA 1: Beginning Japanese https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4874248705 — ships worldwide via DHL. Not available on .com or .ca yet.

Album of photos: https://imgur.com/a/8LCWgaM

Table of contents: https://imgur.com/a/wVw01YG

I’m on mobile so I won’t go too in depth but some observations: - the book is so new (July 2021) that it mentions COVID-19 in the forward. - like Genki the characters include students from around the world studying together. And a cat named Nyanta who is obviously the best. - pitch accent is explained right away and is defined in vocabulary. - romaji is used in lessons 1 and 2 and by 3 is fully gone and kanji begins to be used (around 15-20 kanji is promised per lesson). Unlike Genki which crams the kanji practice at the back of the book, Tobira looks like it teaches them as you go. - kanji sections include both handwritten examples as well as standard fonts so you can see the differences. Sample: https://imgur.com/a/RLR47AS - I appreciated the gender inclusive Mx example as an option for ーさん - QR code’s are sprinkled throughout and load the listening examples and other complimentary material. - additional content is password protected. It reminds me of old Sierra adventure game copy protection because it prompts you to find a specific word on a specific page you’d neee the textbook to find. - a lot of content isn’t up on the website yet due to how new the text is. - I’ve skimmed forward through later lessons and one thing that caught my eye is they do a lesson about how to use an IME keyboard to type in Japanese — including how to do all the little tricks to make small tsu, etc, that often trip people up the first time. - Nyanta is the best. Sorry, it just bears repeating.

If you have any questions let me know. I’m enjoying it so far.