A Link in Time

I'm posting a slew of links to the right. Here's a rundown summary of why they're awesome. Some have become part of my every day over these past 15 months, some are new finds.

Four categories:

1 - Japan Blogs Worth Your Time
2 - Useful While You Live Here
3 - Nihongo Tools
4 - Anime! Dorama!




1 - Japan Blogs Worth Your Time

Check out these people's blogs for new and wonderful looks at Japan. Some of these people have just incredible photos. If you like beautiful things, they could make you cry. For photos, especially check out

i, cjw ~.::.~ hiking and climbing in japan - hiking/climbing MANIAC.. he just climbed Fuji a couple of weeks ago! in the middle of winter! =O it's closed! And, his writing is so captivating.

2 Girls and the World - scroll down to the photo thumbnails on the left. Beautiful photos from all around Japan and the world.

dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan - Great photos, interesting commentary. A Tokyo-ite's view. Er, warning... he loves school girl cartoons and stuff. Nothing explicit but... it might seem awful?

Also, Blue Lotus posts a lot of recipes and stuff. I just found her, so I'm excited to try out her recipes soon!


2 - Useful While You Live Here
Sites I frequent. Mainichi Daily News and Japan Times are English sites of two online newspapers. They're coverage is just ok.. Mainichi has some fantastic photos, though. I actually often use these articles in my classes, too ^_^

Gaijin Pot sometimes has interesting articles, and it's a start for people looking for an ESL job. But if you are seriously looking for an ESL job, I have other sites I'd suggest. Just send me a message!

Cookpad is a recipe site! Yahoo! It's in Japanese, so it might not be much use if you're not familiar with the language. If you want English recipes, please look to Blue Lotus!

Hostelworld and JR Railway are for travelers! Hostelworld will help you out in or out of Japan, but the JR site has station, time and fair information only in Japanese. You can probably figure it out though if you need to!


3 - Nihongo Tools

My favorite section!

First of all, Rikaichan is like a dream, waaay to good to be true! My friend Roba introduced me to it. It's an impossibility, but it's really real! Rikaichan is a Firefox plug-in (if you don't use Firefox, you definitely should). Once you download it (and don't forget the dictionaries!) from the site and install it, a whole new World Wide Web of Japanese will open before you. Just activate, then roll your cursor over any Japanese word.. and a beautiful blue box will pop into your view and both tell you the reading for the kanji and the English translation. (!!!!) It's a miracle. りかいちゃんが　だ～～いすき！！　：D　I looove Rikaichan (but if you had rikaichan you could understand that too! ^_^). It's wonderful for studying. Also, rikai means understanding. And chan is a suffix.. basically for friends.

Denshi Jisho, Goo Japanese Dictionary, and Japanese Wiktionary
are good resources. I use Denshi Jisho ALL the time; aside from being a good japanese-english dictionary, it's got a really helpful Kanji section with a look-up-kanji-by-radical feature. (I'm so so sad when Denshi Jisho is down even for an evening!) Goo is Japanese to Japanese. Japanese Wiktionary has kanji stroke order (!). My Japanese friend introduced me to this one laughing how she found out she had been writing a kanji the wrong way her whole life ^_^

JapanesePod 101 is a site I recently have been getting into. They have free podcast lessons. Really good. And lots of really nice resources, if you subscribe... but subscription is a little expensive... well, it's just they lock you in for 2 years :\

Also.. not online, but don't forget about Microsoft Word... just typing (and the automatic kanji change) can help you check your grammar... and the IME pad... so o o helpful...

Anyway... a few golden resources I wish I had had back in the beginning ^_^


4 - Anime! Dorama!

Yes!! I wasn't into anime much before I came to Japan.. but all that's changed now. ^_^ 　
一番　好きな　アニメは　ナルト　だってばよ！　Ichiban suki na anime wa Naruto dattebayo! Naruto is the best! And narutoget.com is the best site to watch it at. It's sister site is all Bleach. I go to Anime Crazy for all my other anime needs ^_^ (well most of them ^_^). And it's sister site Drama Crazy has tons of dramas from Japan, Korea, China, and more! :D It's also a dream come true. ^_^

Watching anime and drama is also, of course, has benefits as study tools. Sazaesan is actually really good, but it's not on animecrazy or anything. The best place to find it is actually on youtube. But you have to insert the secret conglomeration of characters to get it. They've hidden it from being taken down for copyright infringement. If you message me.. I'll send it to you. But I think you can find it posted elsewhere if you search the right way. A friend gave me the secret. That's how I know. ^_^

That's a rundown... I'm sure I'll be adding more links later! ^_^

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