Nekopi - Fun Learning Content Site

Nekopi great place to study Japanese (and other subjects) in Japanese! While there's no English to guide you, you can start to put your Japanese language skills to the test.

This site is designed for schoolchildren in Japan, but a site like this can help to improve your skills as a learner of Japanese, too. Because there are lots of pictures and images, you can try to navigate the site on your own. Also, here is some help with navigating the site!

The content available for study and play include:　さんすう Arithmetic , こくごJapanese language,　りか Science,　えいご English,　しゃかい Social Studies,　ようちえん Kindergarten learning,　げーむほか Games,　うた Songs,　アニメ Anime, and　キャラ＆まんが Characters & Manga.

There is a wealth of learning materials and information here! You can learn about the history of Japan, learn songs in Japanese, pick up new vocabulary such as foods which exists in Japan, and so much more.

*Some games and activities might take a bit of time because of the flash player.

Pict-Box ・ Online Story Books

Pict-Box has FREE online storybooks geared towards small children. But these are great if you're learning Japanese and looking for reading practice material! Genres of storybooks here include laughter, cry, surprise, calming, scary, and more! Click on an image of a story that interests you. On the page which loads, you should click the grey button which reads この絵本をよむ to open your selection. Then, with easy navigational buttons you can enjoy the story!

E-Douwa ・ FREE Online Fairytales

On E-Douwa you can find a variety of fairy tales include Greek mythology, Grimm fairy tales, Japanese folklore, Origami art stories, and more! Just click on a genre to get started. A page of available stories loads. Make a selection and your story will load with an easy navigation bar at the bottom of the virtual book! This is a really great site for kids, and beginner and intermediate learners of Japanese.

Bauddha.net ・ Bi-Lingual Book List

Bauddha.net is a great source for dual readers (English and Japanese literature)! Genres for your bilingual reading pleasure include famous novels, children's stories, philosophy, and government. Click on a title and then click on the 閲覧する button to open it. The English version will be on the left side and the Japanese version will be on the right side.

If you have the Rikaichan dictionary tool, looking up words that you don't know becomes as easy as hovering your mouse or cursor over that text! How much can of the text can you understand without the English version?

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.

Nissan N-Link ・ WEB Picture Book

Japan's Nissan corporation includes a special WEB Picture Book section on its website. Personally, this is one my favorite websites for reading practice! First of all there are 3 FREE interactive stories to choose from on this Japanese website: Issunboushi (The Inch-High Samurai), アラジンとまほうのランプ (Aladdin & the Magic Lamp), and ももたろう (The Peach Boy).
This is a very well designed interactive storybook site! The stories are also well-narrated and illustrated with accompanying music and sound FX!

The stories include special interactive features like short activity breaks from the story, such as creating a dance and performing it for friends in Isshun boushi. And of course Nissan finds a cute way to include their *product*

These stories are lengthy written with furigana-attached Kanji characters. With the narrator's voice included, these stories are great for reading practice, listening comprehension, or for entertaining small children.

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!

Gakken Kids Net - eBooks for Kids

Gakken Kids Net has free previews for eBooks. Click the image of the eBook of your choice. You can watch the preview via the YouTube video there!Although they are just previews, these make great reading practice for learners of Japanese and kids can enjoy them, too. Another wonderful thing about this is the audio of native speakers reading aloud. The video quality is so clear. You can read along, too!

GanGan Online - Free Manga & WEB Magazines

GanGan Online offers manga and web magazines 100% FREE! Click a manga or magazine of your choice and then click the red 最新作 button to open it up in a special viewer. Kanji may appear in the comic.

Jコミ - Japanese Comics

J-Comi offers wide selection of manga with free previews! To access the FREE previews select any option listed on the left side of the screen. If you can't read the Japanese on this site, Rikaichan would be a great tool for you! Once your results load, click on a comic that appeals to you. If you scroll down just a little, you'll see a green この本を読む button. Click it to open up your selection. Kanji may appear in the comic.

Use the blue and white keys to turn the pages. You can learn the functions of the other keys after just a minute of playing around with them.

Kurumi no Mori - Online Picture Books

Kurumi no Mori has 4 picture books in Hiragana. Click one of the four stories. Then click OPEN to load and begin your story. Music accompanies the stories as you read along.These stories are great for beginners and children.

Tomodachi Picture Book Hall

Tomodachi Picture Book Hall is grear reading practice! This site is in Japanese but that's OK! Click on any title and the story opens up in a new window. Initially the loading is a little slow and there is no audio, however, the pictures move and the stories have accompanying music background which is very lovely. Most stories are in Hiragana. You might see basic level Kanji.

FujiPan - Famous Folktales

While this Japanese bread site offers products, recipes, and more, this post highlights the section called FujiPan to wa Hagukumu which has famous folktales for kids that are also great for learners of Japanese. There are tons of stories which you can select by genre. There is also a section which has the stories categories by each prefecture of Japan where the story is popular. You don't need perfect Japanese to navigate to the stories. Just scroll down and click on the picture or its title!

When you do click, a separate window opens up the story which are all accompanied by audio file so you can follow or read along! These stories include Kanji characters, but there are Hiragana readings in parenthesis which are also included.

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.

Kids @ Nifty - Practice Worksheets

This Kids@Nifty doesn't seem to be so difficult to navigate since there are so many images to help you! This website offers a collection of PDF worksheets perfect for kids and beginners! There are Hiragana worksheets and writing practice worksheets. You can also find other materials such as daily chore sheets/timetable, multiplication table, and typing games. There's so much more available by accessing the main site here. Give it a try!　

Rikaichan - Dictionary Tool

Rikaichan is a popup dictionary tool which allows you to read Japanese written on any webpage. Currently Rikaichan works with Firefox, Thunderbird and Seamonkey web browsers. See the blue box in the image above? Rikaichan s a web-based tool which allows you to understand Japanese texts on webpages. If you don't already have it, you can access it for Firefox here. It is simple to use! Just hover the mouse on top of a Japanese word. Rikaichan automatically de-inflects verbs and adjectives. There is an optional toolbar that allows you to manually type the word to lookup. Detailed kanji view shows meaning/keyword in English, on/kun readings, and other information. Hiragana, katakana and half-width katakana are treated the same making it possible to lookup stylized/emphasized words.

After downloading Rikaichan, you need to also download the proper dictionary file. For most, it will be Japanese - English and Japanese Names.

Usually to turn Rikaichan ON/OFF, you can click on the small red smiling face usually located at the very top right or lower right part of your browser window.

CookPad - The Best Japanese Recipes to Make your Cooking Fun!

CookPad has a wide selection of easy, delicious Japanese recipes complete with ingredients list and measurements, directions for preparation, and pictures. What I enjoy most about the recipes are the "Stores Behind the Recipe" and "Helpful Hints" sections that are posted with the recipes! The links above are for the English version of the site. You can access the Japanese version here. Using the Japanese version is a great way to practice reading in Japanese (especially if you have the Rikai-chan tool!) and learn new Japanese cooking terminology.

WebJapanese

WebJapanese might simple like a bland simple sight upon first sight of the homepage, but there is so much information available to anyone wanting to learn Japanese language, culture, history, and more! While there is different links available, maybe the ones you might find most interesting and helpful to learning about Japan and life there are:





Fun reading:There are readings in English and Japanese written by native Japanese, foreigners living in Japan, people married to Japanese, etc. Topics include marriage, language, life in Japan, recipes, and entertainment.


Archive - Free Japanese Learning Materials:
Via easy photo presentation, you can learn Japanese words and English translations of everyday life, food, nature, fashion, restaurants, history, and more.
 

Learn Japanese with "Pinterest":Although not as extensive, similar to the description of above, WebJapanese has a Pinterest page and you can see some photos mostly about language, history, and food.