This pair of books is designed for intermediate students looking to improve their Japanese listening comprehension. A great source of essential, practical Japanese. They will help you not only with your listening comprehension, but also with a variety of Japanese vocabulary. Each chapter has a different topic, so you will pick up loads of useful language relating to topics from food and recipes, to technology, to Japanese culture, and more. In addition to listening, each chapter includes some chances to practice reading as well. But the main things that make these 2 books useful is that they will help you become conversant in a wide variety of topics. Highly recommended for intermediate students. Appendices containing all the text from the audio CDs are included.