Practical Japanese-English Dictionary

I haven't had this book very long (I got it at a used book store) but I love this book because it talks about intonation and includes diacritical marks to help describe the proper intonation. Make sure and read the preface instructions. This is strictly Japanese to English. Which helps keep the size down. If you want English to Japanese there is a companion book by the same author. When comparing it to my other dictionaries, it also seems to include more conjunctions rather than just the usual nouns, verbs, and adjectives. It also has examples for most entries. The only thing that was confusing for me was when two of the diacritical symbols are combined, they look like one less-than symbol. This is an issue with the bold font, it would have been nice if that was printed a little more clearly.

This is the dictionary I always take to Japan. It's small, yet has a lot of words, and there's enough white space to write in new words I learn that aren't included in the dictionary. Because it uses romaji, it saves a lot of time.