🛍️ Let’s Go Shopping in Japan!

How much does takoyaki cost? Can you order five? And what would you buy at a Japanese character shop?

How Much Is It? (いくらですか？) is a Level 3 Japanese Reader that follows Rick as he travels to Japan and explores seven different shops.

Instead of learning shopping expressions from an isolated vocabulary list, students encounter practical Japanese through a series of realistic shopping conversations.

Rick visits:

• Daiso – Shopping for colored pencils
• A supermarket – Buying snacks
• A cake shop – Ordering cream soda
• A wagashi shop – Discovering traditional Japanese sweets
• A takoyaki shop – Buying a popular Japanese street food
• A Sanrio shop – Shopping for cute character products
• A character goods shop – Looking for Totoro, Catbus, and One Piece merchandise

Through authentic photographs, students see the kinds of shops, products, and prices they may encounter when visiting Japan.

The story repeatedly introduces the same useful shopping conversation.

Japanese sentences from the book:

たこやきは いくらですか。 How much is the takoyaki?

580円 です。 It’s 580 yen.

5こ ください。 Five, please.

5こで 2900円 です。 It’s 2,900 yen for five.

ありがとう ございました。 Thank you very much.

As Rick visits different shops, the repeated dialogue helps learners recognize familiar questions and answers, while the changing prices and quantities encourage them to read carefully.

The later pages introduce a more challenging shopping experience.

Rick asks whether particular character goods are available:

ととろの リュックサックは ありますか。 Do you have a Totoro backpack?

はい、あります。 Yes, we do.

He then requests several different products and learns the total price.

ぜんぶで 11990円 です。 The total is 11,990 yen.

By the end of the story, learners have followed Rick through real Japanese shops, read prices in yen, and encountered increasingly detailed shopping conversations.

What makes this reader special?

Unlike a reader that simply teaches the phrase いくらですか, this book uses a familiar dialogue structure across seven different shops. Students can apply what they have already learned to new products, prices, and situations.

The final shopping conversation provides a natural progression from buying one item to requesting several products and understanding a combined total.

If you were shopping in Japan, what would you buy?

🎯 Language Features in This Level 3 Japanese Reader

📖 Students will practise:

• Asking prices – Using ～は いくらですか。 to ask how much an item costs
• Answering prices – Recognizing ～円です。 and reading Japanese amounts
• Ordering quantities – Using ～こ ください。 to request items politely
• Calculating total costs – Understanding ～こで ～円です。 when buying multiple items
• Asking about availability – Reading ～は ありますか。
• Responding to availability questions – Understanding はい、あります。
• Combining prices – Recognizing ぜんぶで ～円です。 when several purchases are added together
• Describing destinations – Reading ～に 行きます。 when Rick visits different shops
• Polite shopping expressions – Recognizing ありがとうございました in repeated dialogues
• The particle と – Understanding how different items are connected in a shopping list
• Japanese numbers and counters – Reading prices, quantities, and the counter ～こ
• Katakana vocabulary – Recognizing familiar product names and borrowed words
• Kanji reading – Reading selected characters with furigana, including 円、日、本、行、屋、店
• Reading for information – Identifying products, prices, quantities, and totals from conversations
• Reading fluency – Following longer dialogues through meaningful repetition

🌟 Additional Reading Challenge:

The final character goods shop introduces a longer shopping exchange with several different items.

Students who are ready for more challenging language can explore:

• Multiple product requests – Understanding several different items joined by と
• Availability questions – Asking about items before deciding what to buy
• Combined totals – Reading ぜんぶで 11990円です。
• Longer conversations – Following questions, answers, quantities, and total prices across several lines
• Shopping calculations – Checking whether the total matches the quantities and prices
• Past-tense language – Recognizing かいました when Rick describes what he bought

For example, the final character shop includes a Totoro backpack for 7,480 yen, a Catbus cushion for 3,850 yen, and two One Piece stickers at 330 yen each.

Students can check the total:

7,480 + 3,850 + (330 × 2) = 11,990 yen

This creates a natural opportunity to combine Japanese reading comprehension with practical numeracy.

💡 Why This Matters for Beginners:

Shopping is one of the most useful everyday situations for Japanese learners.

In How Much Is It?, students repeatedly encounter a familiar dialogue, but the products, prices, quantities, and shops change.

This allows learners to recognize patterns while gradually processing more information in Japanese.

Authentic photographs also help students connect the written language with real shops and products.

By the final pages, learners are no longer simply identifying the phrase いくらですか. They are following a complete shopping exchange, understanding quantities, and interpreting total costs.

This helps them progress from reading familiar sentences to understanding practical Japanese conversations with greater independence.

📖 Level 3 Japanese Reader Details

Japanese Reader Level: Level 3
Recommended for: Beginner Japanese learners developing independent reading skills
Language Focus: いくらですか、～円です、～こ ください、～こで～円です、ありますか、ぜんぶで～円です、～に 行きます
Vocabulary Theme: Shopping, Japanese yen, numbers, quantities, food, everyday products, and character goods
Cultural Theme: Everyday shopping in Japan, Japanese stores, food culture, and popular character merchandise
Script: Hiragana, Katakana, and selected Kanji with furigana
Character Count: 733
Pages: 17
Text Type: Factual Text / Shopping Dialogue
Product Type: A5 saddle-stitched booklet
ISBN: 978-1-925808-12-4

✅ Perfect For

• Beginner Japanese learners ready for longer practical dialogues
• Primary and elementary school Japanese programs
• Beginning secondary school Japanese students
• Japanese shopping and money units
• Students learning to ask and answer prices in Japanese
• Practising Japanese numbers, quantities, and the counter ～こ
• Reading Japanese currency and prices
• Developing conversational reading skills
• Japanese shopping role-play activities
• Combining language learning with simple shopping calculations
• Exploring everyday Japanese shops and products
• Learning about Japanese food and popular character goods
• Building confidence reading Hiragana, Katakana, and beginner Kanji
• Guided and independent reading
• Extensive Reading (Tadoku)
• Classroom libraries and home reading

🎧 Teaching & Learning Resources

Explore our free Resource Library for Levels 1–3.

Teaching and learning resources:

• 🎧 Audio recordings – Check the Resource Library for availability
• 📖 English translation – Individual resource link to be added when available
• 💻 Quizlet vocabulary activities – Individual resource link to be added when available

These resources are not yet individually listed for How Much Is It? in the Resource Library. Please check the library for updates.

🏫 Teaching a Class? Explore the How Much Is It? Class Set

Bring Rick’s Japanese shopping adventure into your classroom with printed readers for students and a matching password-protected Online Flipbook for whole-class display.

The repeated shopping conversations are particularly useful for modeling pronunciation, paired role-play, shopping simulations, and Japanese price-reading activities.

Teachers can also use the prices and quantities in the book to create simple numeracy activities in Japanese.

Class Sets are available with 10, 15, 20, or 25 printed readers, together with access to the matching Online Flipbook.

🛍️ Explore the How Much Is It? Japanese Reader Class Set & Online Flipbook

💜 A Note from Mariko Sensei

When I was in primary school in Japan, my parents gave me a small allowance each month.

I remember how exciting it was to visit the local shops near my home in Utsunomiya and decide what to buy.

I had to think carefully about how much money I had, what I wanted, and whether I could afford it. Even a small purchase could feel like a little adventure!

I still love shopping in Japan.

One of the things I particularly enjoy is the variety of shops and products. From everyday supermarkets and small food shops to beautifully presented sweets and playful character goods, there is always something interesting to discover.

Many of the photographs in this reader were taken in neighborhood shops familiar to my family in Japan.

When creating How Much Is It? (いくらですか？), I wanted learners to experience more than simply memorizing a shopping phrase.

I wanted them to visit different Japanese shops through the book, recognize practical conversations, read real prices, and imagine themselves buying something in Japan.

That is why the same shopping dialogue appears throughout the reader. Once students understand the basic pattern, they can concentrate on reading new products, prices, and quantities.

I hope learners enjoy following Rick on his shopping adventure and discover how much practical Japanese they can understand for themselves.

Perhaps one day they will visit Japan and confidently ask:

いくらですか。

Happy reading!

— Mariko Sensei

📖 Your Next Japanese Reader

Continue building Japanese reading confidence with these carefully graded readers.

🕒 Slow and Fast (ゆっくりくんとはやいくん) – Level 3 — Continue practising repeated questions and answers while learning Japanese time expressions and everyday routines.
🗾 My First Trip to Japan (はじめてのにほん) – Level 3 — Progress from everyday shopping dialogues to a travel recount using Japanese past-tense expressions and authentic photographs.
🍰 Sweets (スイーツ) – Level 4 — Explore a real Japanese cake shop through longer descriptive sentences, Katakana food vocabulary, and familiar polite-form Japanese.
🎒 My Japanese Adventure (ぼくのにほん) – Level 4 — Follow a family journey through Japan using past-tense sentences, photographs, and everyday travel vocabulary.

📚 Explore More Japanese Reader Packs

🌱 Beginner Hiragana Readers Starter Pack — Develop reading confidence from simple Hiragana words and expressions to complete sentences and practical Japanese dialogues.
🏫 Primary & Elementary School Japanese Readers Pack — Explore engaging Japanese readers featuring shopping, food, animal vocabulary, everyday experiences, and cultural topics.
🎓 Junior High School Japanese Readers Pack — Support Years 7–10 learners with progressively leveled Japanese readers and practical reading activities.
📚 All Japanese Readers Pack — Discover the full range of graded Japanese readers from beginning Hiragana to advanced Japanese texts.
🖥️ Japanese Reader Class Sets & Online Flipbooks — Explore printed classroom sets with matching online flipbooks for teachers.

📌 Important Information

This Japanese Reader is designed for individual reading and Japanese Extensive Reading (Tadoku).

For classroom teaching, schools can purchase the How Much Is It? Japanese Reader Class Set & Online Flipbook.

Copyright © Mariko Earle. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, distributed, or shared without prior permission from the copyright holder.