Book excerpt: The Complete Japanese Expression Guide enables students to speak and understand idiomatic Japanese with the ease and fluency of a native speaker. For the first time ever, over 600 of the most commonly used idiomatic expressions in the Japanese language have been brought together and alphabetized in a single, convenient volume. No longer will the student have to rely on stuffy academic-sounding phrases and expressions. Mizue Sasaki has successfully taken stilted formality out of Japanese, and made natural, idiomatic communication readily possible. This handy volume not only introduces essential idioms, but also provides easy-to-understand translations and numerous example sentences to show how the expressions should be used. Studying colloquial Japanese doesn't have to be hitori-zumo, a futile effort. With The Complete Japanese Expression Guide, conversational fluency is guaranteed.