The Mixxer - FREE Language Exchange

The Mixxer is 100% FREE and a great place for language exchange! This is a great resource for conversation partners, reading practice, or even just to make new friends. You can also keep a blog here! Try to write something in Japanese. Do you know about Rikaichan? If you come across some Japanese words you can't understand, it's a great tool to assist you with reading posts written by Japanese users.

Kawasaki International Culture Exchange ・ Weekly PENPAL Newsletter

The Weekly PenPal Newsletter is perfect for you if you would like to make friends from Japan. The weekly pen pal news letter is FREE! A penpal list is sent out to your email 4 times per month. This lists includes penpals of all ages from around the world. Many of them are from Japan!

Interested in Japan culture? Traveling to Japan? Want to receive snail mail letters written in Japanese? Create long-lasting friendships with someone through this culture exchange site.

Some people prefer snail mail to Email. Some are eager to send you something like a photo, letter, and maybe even a small souvenir!

Sign up is completely FREE. Start a new friendship today!

Kansai-ben - Learn Kansai Dialect

Kansai-ben is a study tool for Japanese learners who want to study Kansai dialect Kansai-ben, a dialect of Japanese spoken by residents of the Kansai (Western) area of Japan. See and hear how greetings and other expressions in standard Japanese differ from Kansai dialect. You can also see natural conversations which take place in the towns and at markets, etc. There are short quiz questions throughout the site. Challenge your Kansai-ben knowledge!

宇宙教育テレビ ・ Space Education TV

On this Space Education TV website, you can access over 100 recorded live stream of science news! This site is geared toward young kids but is a perfect study tool for Japanese language learners, too. The hosts don't speak too fast and often pause. Also the terminology used, even though its science-related, isn't too complicated because it is for kids understanding. If you enjoy science, want to see the culture of Japan's education and classrooms, or you want to work on your listening comprehension, this site has hours and hours of educational information for your ears.

Just scroll down and click on one of the 100+ video stream links!

Japanese Nihongo - Conversation

This is a page directed from Japanese-nihongo.com which lists a variety of different conversation topics for beginners including but not limited to introductions, first visit to Japan, taking the train, and getting lost. These conversation lessons are geared towards beginner and intermediate students of Japanese. Options for viewing the lessons may be in HTML webpage form, or PDF or DOC which you can download and save to your computer. In many cases, there are audio files included which play in your web browser.

If you click the Home link at the top of the page, you can find a link which directs you to entries--including some written in Japanese that you can study. There is also links for more conversation dialogues, JLPT, and essays. If you are ready for advance level, I think you will also like reading these.

生活日本語会話 - Japanese Life Conversation

Sekatsu Nihongo Kaiwa is a site of collected example conversations offered by a Taiwanese university. While the accompanied sound files seem to broken, intermediate and advanced speakers can find a wide variety of example conversations here for speaking practice with topics ranging from self-introduction to shopping expressions to apologizing for something.  The readings for each Kanji character is also provided here. If you're using Rikaichan, words can be interpreted despite the use of parentheses.

As for beginners, if you don't mind the absence of English on this site you might also find this site useful to you. The pronunciation practice located at the bottom of the page could be most helpful to you.

No Laughing in Yugawara Batsu Game

No Laughing in Yugawara Batsu Game is a Japanese gameshow. It is said that this is very popular in Japan. Currently it is available as a full-length movie on YouTube. As of today it has been available for about 2 months. Hopefully it is still available for you to enjoy!

The rules of the Batsu Game:
#1: You will stay overnight at a spring inn.

#2:  No matter what, do not laugh during this trip.

#3: If you do laugh, you will be punished immediately

Econtrader - Interactive Japanese

Econtrader - This website helps you learn Japanese through an interactive map style. Learn Japanese for the home, school, hotel, market, and more! Hear words and phrases in native Japanese!

AJALT - Survival Japanese

AJALT Survival Japanese is for people who are interested in communicating in Japanese but have no knowledge of the language. If you plan to visit Japan, this site make your stay much more interesting and enjoyable. Survival Japanese is an on-line textbook. It has four categories: Communication Tools, Situational Conversations, Grammar and Vocabulary. Some topics include: sightseeing, asking for directions, asking for help, and home-stay.

Interpals - Language Exchange

InterPals is the premiere online community for meeting pen pals, language partners, travel buddies or just plain old fashioned friends!It's totally FREE!