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Please, how can I download this?
This story was originally found in Makoto #40 and is part of the Learn Japanese with Stories bundle #2 (https://www.thejapanshop.com/collections/bundles-offer/products/learn-japanese-with-stories-bundle-2-10-volumes-digital-download)
But good news! It is also in this month’s freebie for Makoto+ members. Please go to your members page and scroll down for the download link. It is called “Learn Japanese with Stories Volume 12 – Celestial Maiden’s Feathered Robe” and also includes this story in that book.
Excellent story at the perfect level for me. The optional furigana is a great idea, because it encourages me to try to recognize the kanji instead of automatically looking at the transcription. The notes below each line are helpful; much of what they include is for beginners, but there are one or two remarks in almost every line that allow me to understand something I would not have recognized on my own.
I have now reread the story with the sound (at .75 speed). Very well read. Pleasant voice, lively, clearly articulated. — Nonetheless, there are spots where my eyes cannot read as fast as the voice, or where I want to look up the meaning of a word. Perhaps it is good practice to listen to it uninterrupted. OTOH, it would perhaps be helpful if one could pause the recording when one wanted to reread a sentence which went by too fast. To do that now requires scrolling up to the top, by which time the recording has advanced beyond where one stopped reading. Thus one must guess how far back to go before restarting the recording. Then scroll down quickly trying, but rarely succeeding, to find the spot again where one left off in the text before the recording has advanced beyond that. — Could there be a button on the bottom of the screen, as I have seen on other sites (PBS Newshour, Utube among others) where one can click to stop the recording and again to restart it when ready to go on further.
Yes! Try refreshing the page now. I made the audio player “sticky”. It should stay at the top of the page. For newer stories, I have also been adding line-by-line audio files so you can practice each line separately. I don’t have time to do that for all the past ones for now, but I may go back and do that if it’s helpful.