So, the Genki books are amazing. I expected something similar with this book since it is by the same company. This book failed. While it is chock full of amazing grammar, kanji, and vocab, it doesn't really give you a lot to go off of. Anyone familiar with Genki will remember the fun characters, the great amount of exercises in the textbook alone. The workbooks for Genki were equally great. When you walked away from a grammar point you felt confident to use it because you had gotten so much practice from the text and workbooks. I expected the same with this book. But there are no exercises in the textbook. The workbook does not cover all of the grammar points, and to top everything off, there is no answer key. (I am a huge advocate for answer keys). I am using this in my university Japanese level 3 class, (which is 5th semester) and I wish we had chosen a different text. The exercises are boring. There is no Mary, or Takeshi. In fact, there isn't really any characters for you to love. Just generic names. The kanji would be excellent if you didn't have to look them ALL up by stroke order. And I wish that they had organized the vocabulary like they did in Genki. It would be much easier to learn. While I do think that this book as some great grammar points, I wish that there were better explanations of how to use them and more practice included! It feels like the company that produced Genki put all their love into the beginners books and got lazy with the intermediate book. Needless to say I will probably look elsewhere for an advanced book. I find it hard to like anything about this book really. I don't like this book. But I do realize that it is a good resource. I will however be looking for a different book. Preferably one with a workbook because this book didn't live up to Genki. Good luck if you choose to use this! I hope it works better for you! The workbook for this book could be better. But it's better than nothing.