I'm trying to find a Japanese go book called 囲碁力を大幅にアップさせる 死活の極意 (Make your Go strength drastically improve. Main points of life and death). Does anyone know where I can order this book without any outrageous shipping fees? Thanks in advance ^_^

Here is a picture of the cover:

Depends on your definition of outrageous.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%9B%B2%E7%A2 ... 837&sr=8-1

Oops, they don't have it either. Why that book specifically? I'm just curious.

It looks like an interesting book. Plus, I wanted to improve my Japanese reading skills AND improve my Go skills at the same time.

Are these books any good anyone ^^?

The Book to Increase Your Fighting Strength at Go
("囲碁の力を強くする本")

The Book to Increase Your Fighting Strength at Go is a tesuji book, there are two volumes. The first volume has 162 problems, the second volume has 156 problems. I believe these books are considered classics. The problems are designed to improve tesuji reading power (i.e., as opposed to teaching vital points or good shape). I really like these books and have struggled through the first 80 or so problems in Volume 1 several times; I find them very challenging.

The life and death book is a nice-looking book, but the problems look well above my level so I can't say more than that. It has 151 problems total.

I bought these books from Amazon.jp some time ago, but the shipping wasn't cheap.

With Amazon.co.jp , shipping per book is much cheaper when you buy a bunch of books. The fixed cost portion of shipping is then split amongst more books.

You can also browse my blog if you want more ideas on other interesting Japanese go books. Don't assume it'll be easy to buy some of them though.

_________________
http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A private blog on Asian go books and interesting go sightings
Now open only for a select few.
Go is such a beautiful game.

Makes sense. If you want a recommendation you can look at Cho U's Tsumego. It has a few sections of text describing some of his games which will help with Japanese more than the standard tsumego book.

Game description books like meijin series would also be good for improving Japanese skills.

The other series you mentioned here is a very good tesuji set. I also like Maeda's tsumego.

Thanks for the recommendations

If you have the ISBN numbers I would try Kinokuniya Bookstores. They've been good in the past and do carry japanese go books in their book stores.

http://www.kinokuniya.com
New York office: kinokuniya@kinokuniya.com

_________________
Decisions are made by those who show up.
and possibly those willing to attend secret meetings in ancient basements