This website is dedicated to those who want to study-- and master-- Japanese. Japanese is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Fluency requires thousands upon thousands of hours of study. If you're here for the long haul, you're in the right place.

Mostly I study on the computer. So, on this website I write about useful software, the best books, and ways to practice speaking and listening. My focus is on self study. I am not an expert; instead, I'm sharing resources that have worked for me, many of which are free.

Quick Overview

After studying Japanese on and off for three years, I decided to take the 2kyuu in December of 2007. I studied for four months for four hours a day and passed with the help of some memory software (I now recommend Mnemosyne (free) for this purpose).

After the 2kyuu, I decided to round out my study of the kanji and learn to read the 1945 that are taught through high school in Japan. Using Mnemosyne and the Kanji in Context books, I was able to learn to read 1000 kanji in about four months.

I've added articles on many things I've found useful (and some I've found not so useful, so that you'll know) in my study of Japanese. If you have anything to add, please do so in the forums.

By the way, did you know you can install free (open source software) on your computer that allows you to just point your mouse at a kanji and instantly get the definition in English? Find out more about reading Japanese on the Internet.

Why another Japanese language site?

Most Japanese language sites I have found on the Internet have lists of a few hundred vocab words and some flash games to "learn" kanji. Some of these are well done, but they won't get you very far if you actually want to learn a lot of Japanese.

I keep this site like a traditional website because the blog format is terrible for first-time visitors. If you come here looking for something specific, you don't want to have to read through the history of my blog just to find the answer. But, for repeat visitors, or those who want to subscribe via RSS, I do blog updates to the site.