I love their free content, but the Japanese Pod 101 site has some odd ideas about how to conduct sales. Basically, if you sign up for a free trial and wait around four days you get a 50% off discount.

While this is a great way to subscribe to the site, it's also aggravating if you miss the offer and just purchase the membership immediately because you like their content.

I prefer more straightforward business models.

Today I added a link to a new dictionary from Sanseido.net on the dictionaries page. It is a concise Japanese-to-Japanese dictionary that should prove quite useful in the creation of flash cards.

In addition, I added a copy of the "Dirty Guide to Japanese." I didn't write this, but as it is in the public domain I reposted it on this site (with all credit to the original authors) so that people can comment on it and discuss it (the original site lacks such functionality).

Although it's not directly related to the mission of fluency, I know a lot of people enjoy playing Japanese video games, myself included.

Koei's latest and greatest, Romance of the Three Kingdoms Online, is now in its second beta, and I figured some people might want to sign up and check it out, so I created a quick guide to registering and downloading the free (for now) game. Enjoy!

Today I added a six-page SuperMemo Guide to replace the single previous SuperMemo page. The guide details how to use SuperMemo to study Japanese, the problems one might run into with SuperMemo, and how to back up the data safely, among other things.

I will be growing the guide over the next few weeks and I would love to hear your feedback, particularly if you use it to start using SuperMemo.

Today I've added more information about the Kanji in Context series of books on the Learning Kanji page. I also added a new page that covers the Pimsleur CDs, which are an excellent way to get up to practice basic and intermediate level Japanese conversation.

Today I added notes on different ways of getting assistance reading kanji online (both through Firefox in particular and any web browser in general).

In addition, I added mini-reviews of the Nintendo DS kanji training games on the DS page.

I also added the start of what will grow into a larger discussion of the JLPT.

Lastly, I began a new section on podcasts. Later I will add more of my comments on specific podcasts you can find on iTunes in a sort of mini-reviews section.

Greetings and Happy Valentine's Day from Japan! In honor of this special day, and also because I had some extra time, I've added pages on Amazon Japan and Skype.

Amazon Japan is the best way to get Japanese books in the US, and Skype is a great way to find Japanese-speaking friends. I hope these help you in your study of the Japanese language!

Greetings! On this blog, I will keep everyone posted of major updates to the Nihongo Pera Pera site. I'll also make periodic updates covering interesting news and tips for those serious about gaining long-term proficiency in Japanese. If you want to come along for the ride, please subscribe to the discussion list and you'll never miss a beat.