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.

Kanji-Link

With Kanji-Link, have fun learning Japanese language online with free video lessons on Japanese grammar and Kanji to prepare for levels N3, N4, and N5 of the JLPT!

Cooking with Dog - YouTube Channel

Cooking with Dog is a wonderful Japanese recipe and cooking channel on YouTube. There are 175+ short instructional videos on how to cook authetic Japanese foods including sukiyaki, Shu cream puffs, curry rice, sushi, and more! The vidoes are in English and a detailed list of ingredients are included in the video. Most videos are only 3-4 minutes long! There are also subtitles included.

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.

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!　

School House Family Net - Game Plaza

School House Family Net is in Japanese and geared towards Japanese children but it's a great resource and entertainment venue for learners of Japanese, especially if you love games!

If you have the Rikaichan tool which allows you to scroll your mouse over Japanese text for translations, this site works well with it. If not, you can learn more about it here. Use Rikaichan by hovering your mouse over text to better navigate this site.

Explore the site! You can find some games and activities that will give you good practice!

...Like these:

• Scroll down and click 頭脳系 and click はっぴーヘアメイク
  In this game, commands are given in Hiragana. Following these commands you have to style the clients hair appropriately!
• Scroll down and click アクション・シューティング系 and click  ウサコ・うさおの雪合戦
  Press the yellow Start button. Choose your character. Collect and throw snowballs. You can get some reading practice while enjoying a good snowball fight!
• Scroll down and click 入学準備 学習幼稚園 on the left hand side. Click on the first option: ゲームコーナー , scroll down again and click on プレー！　to play なぞポンの　なぞなぞゲーム２. Practice your reading skills and identifying matching vocabulary to such questions such as:
  まるくて　あまくて　おいしい　けど、　まなかが　たべられない　おかし　なんだ？
  What do you call the snack which is round and sweet but the middle can't be eaten?
  
  It's not hard to be directed to sites for purchasing items, but I hope you can find this site helpful.
  

Kenchako Daibouken - Kenchako's Great Adventure

Kenchako is a website for kids and Japanese to practice Japanese but it can be just as helpful to you! This link will take you to some PDF files of Kanji worksheets with answer keys included! These are also great for reading practice. If you're not familiar with written Japanese, it's OKAY! You should still be able to navigate the site fairly well by following this key:
小学 means elementary school
１生 (lowest level in Japan elementary school) means 1st year (student)
２年　means 2nd year (student)....
６年 (highester level in Japan elementary school) means 6th year (student)

Each colored box represents a different level.

Yurudara SeeSaa - Flash Games for Infants & Children

Yurudara SeeSaa has several flash games. Most of these games are suitable for infants. But there is a game here where you can practice Hiragana character writing and another game where you serve as a chef in a restaurant. You may enjoy these!

Just One Cookbook - Easy Japanese Recipes and Food Blog

Just One Cookbook is a great website for Japanese recipes! This blog offers tons of authentic recipes for appetizers, entrees, and desserts! Complete recipes are accompanied with both instructional videos AND step-by-step pictures!

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!

Ba Ba Dum - Play and Learn

Ba Ba Dum is an online collection of games that lets you learn words in different languages by selecting the correct illustration of the example word. One of the languages offered is Japanese! You can pratice spelling words in Japanese, matching the word you see and hear to the correct picture among four pictures shown. 1500 words including nouns, adjectives, and verbs! Very great site for kids and beginner learner but also great site for reviewing learned material for upper levels. Create a free account to save your progress!

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.

Daily Yomiuri News Site

Pera Pera Penguin was a great place for access to grammar lessons! It seems yomiuri.co.jp changed their English website and along with it disappeared all of the Pera Pera Penguin Japanese lessons. Luckily, this Polish website has 88 of the 100 available for download. For those that haven't read these, they are 1 page quick lessons on various topics in Japanese. For example #50 deals with onomatopoeia like どきどき (feeling nervous) and ごろごろ (lie around). Despite being one page, they are surprisingly complete with examples, English explanations, and even a few exercises with answers provided. I recommend downloading all of them since it is uncertain whether or not yomiuri.co.jp will republish them.

You could also access those 88 PDFs here! ^_^

NHK Radio News

No matter what level you are you can still benefit from listening to the daily news on NHK Radio News. Up your vocabulary and learn about current news and events in Japan. You really don't need to be able to read Japanese to get your listening practice here. Just click on the speaker symbol on the left to start up a station. Of course you can recognize the Flash Player and Windows Media player symbol. Even 10 minutes each day while you eat your breakfast will surely help to UP your listening ability! 　Click on ふつう at the top to hear nws at normal speed. ゆっくり slows down the track to a slower speed. はやい speeds up the track so that it is faster than normal speed.

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.

Lang-8 - Native Speakers Correct your Writing

On Lang-8, you can practice writing in Japanese and get your entries corrected by native speakers! Write on any topic of your choice! Create a free account and write your introduction now. Practice using some vocabulary and grammar points you have recently learned and read entries of others learning Japanese and from native Japanese people. This is a great place to social network and make new friends. Perfect for any level!

Real Kanji

Real Kanji is a drill style practice website for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. This site lets you practice the kanji and vocabulary typically found in levels N5 through N1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). It’s easy to use.  Click the ‘Kanji’ tab and choose which of the five levels you’d like to practice.Then, click ‘Practice’.  As you are presented with each word, type its rōmaji equivalent (e.g., ‘genki’).

JapanesePod101 - Lessons Podcast

Here you can find podcast style lessons for Japanese ranging from beginner to Advanced level! Lots of culture are included in the lessons as well. While the Premium accounts on JapanesePod101 aren't FREE for the first 7 days upon signing up for a Basic Account, you have complete access to any and all materials: audio, dialog scripts in Japanese, translations, lesson notes, and more! After 7 days, Basic members can only access audio content on the site. I highly recommend making the most of your 7-day FREE trial. This makes downloading loads of content possible--for FREE! iTunes is a great method to do the downloads which you can collect in a feed and customize to your personal learning desires before downloading to your computer.

A Door to the World of Kanji

While there is not a lot of content on A Door to the World of Kanji you can find the vocabulary related to Kanji on Japan home appliances, at the train station, and on traffic signs. The words are written in Kanji, hiragana, and romaji.