At first, I just wanted to learn a language that used a different writting system, so I studied Russian, but it was too similar to Greek, and so I wanted even more different so I looked into Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. I just liked the way Japanese sounded. After that I began reading some history and cultural information. That is how I became interested in Japanese culture, then I began becoming more interested by listening to more modern music like the works of 梶浦由記, and similar artists. Recently I have grown to llike Enka, but I am still looking for good artists, especially male voices just in case I end up in a Karaoke bar ^_^;
I don't know if I have a favorite site in Japanese, mostly because it takes me forever to read (I need my dictionary with me).

Hello, Amelia-san. =)

1. I am interested in these: Anime, Manga, Japanese food, Samurai(i'm interested in their code of honor), Japanese martial arts(too many to list here: Example: Karate. Judo, Kendo), Japanese customs and etiquette, kimono, and uh, Japanese video games(FF series, Suikoden,etc.)


2. Right now i'm studying Kanji at About.com. =)

My favorite Japanese related websites are:
http://www.tofugu.com Tofugu.com
http://www.Jisho.org Denshi Jisho
http://www.guidetojapanese.org Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar
http://www.yynihongo.jp/ YYNihongo
http://www.jlist.com J List (or J Box)

Since there's nothing to correct anymore I will answer your questions :)

Since I am always interested in languages and reading I started to read manga in elementary school. (I read these comics since I am able to read them)
So I got a first impression of the japanese culture and more and more I started to inerest in language, lifestyle, history(very important!!), etc.
I saw, that it was the right for me and decided to learn the two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) on my own. Later I also have learned Kanji on my own I do this until now. When I became older I asked my mum for an Japanese intensive language course (4 hours every saturday) at an adult's education school. This year I'm going to participate in a school exchange with Japan^^
I like anime, manga, music(j-pop/rock), karaoke, games, jap food, of course DRAMA (today I cannot live without them since I have started to watch them) and of course the singers and actors of a drama. *--*
I want to travel to Tokyo(I've heard that there is the only one traditional kabuki theatre?), Kyoto(because of history), Kobe(because of the sea and the mountains), Nara(because it is a historical city) etc etc^^

2. At the moment I just use wadoku.de in order to look up some vocabularies-.-
*lazy like a bone at the moment*

Hmmmm...This is a fun question! ^^

I first was interested in Japanese culture in 9th grade in High School. I really liked Anime. Some of my favorites are: Paranoia Agent (妄想代理人), Trigun (トライガン), Blue Gender (ブルージェンダー), Elfen Lied (エルフェンリート), Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に), and my all-time favorite to this day, Fooly Cooly (フリクリ).

My interest began small, just in anime because I didn't know much about the culture or the language!

Once I started getting into Linguistics (Around 11th grade) my interest really took off! To me at the time, the most appealing thing was 漢字! It is fascinating to me as a foreigner and a user of the western Alphabet. Almost 3 years later, I've learned a lot about Japanese culture, and I want to keep learning more!

I studied Japanese history in my free time last year. It was very interesting, and a HUGE topic! haha.

I like learning about Japanese idioms, and also seeing how specific things compare from America to Japan. For instance, I never knew that Christmas was celebrated in major areas as a shopping holiday! =P The diversity of vending machines that are in Japan is also intriguing: we mostly have only pop, snacks, or cheap DVD rentals in vending machines here.

http://www.reallyjapan.com/blog/headline/vending-machines-japan/

From what I understand, some of them are out of date on that website however, and have been removed (Some of the dirtier ones).

As far as pop culture goes, I like the Pillows, Radwimps, 大塚 愛, and many other bands/artists.

I'm always eager to learn more! :)

Some of the Japanese websites I use:
nipponster.com : I use a toolbar from this website that gives me useful Japanese links, and a J-Blog feed to all sorts of things Japan.

smart.fm : I use this to memorize Japanese vocabulary, they have a great method of memorization :)

http://www.asahi.com/english/ : I browse news all the time (Sometimes in Japanese too, though it can be difficult :) )



http://www.tofugu.com/ : Cool blog site with lots of information of things Japanese.

That's what I go to regularly, I'm sure I'm forgetting something ^^;;

What about you Amelia? What Interests you in English speaking countries? Do you have any favorite singers or bands? How did you come to be interested in English/Linguistics? :)

I started learning Japanese to play video games like Dragon Quest. Of course, since I started learning it, they've started releasing all the DQ games in North America. Haha.

I like lots of dramas, such as マイボスマイヒーロー, 結婚できない男, ドラゴン桜, 花ざかりの君たちへ, 池袋ウエストゲートパーク, ランチの女王, キイナ, 野ブタをプロデュース, のだめカンタービレ, 鹿男あをによし, Stand Up!!, 怨み屋本舗, 山おんな壁おんな, and 絶対彼氏. Right now I'm watching パパとムスメの７日間. It's hilarious.

Some of my favorite actors/actresses are 長瀬智也, 阿部寛, 竹内結子, 堀北真希, 伊東美咲, and 上野樹里.

ポリシックス are my favorite Japanese band. I really like 少年ナイフ too.

I'm interested in manga and books too, but my reading ability sucks. Right now I'm reading ワンピース.

My favorite sites about Japanese are:
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/
http://kanji.koohii.com/
http://blog.feedmejapanese.com/
http://nihongo.blogzine.jp/blog/
and Lang-8 of course!

I love the writing. I'm a graphic designer and also have written graffiti since I was 13 so I am in love with letters. I have also admired Kanji but thought for a westerner like me would be impossible to learn. But after I lost my job I had lots of free time and decided I want to learn Japanese and I'm going to do it. I also have watched anime for a long time and wanted to be able to understand them. My favorites are Azumanga Daioh,, スーパーミルクちゃん, もののこ姫、and everything from studio Ghibli.

My favorite Japanese sites.

1. http://alljapaneseallthetime.com - This guy in my 日本語の先生, ok not really but he is very inspiring and informative. He is an American who learned Japanese in 2 years fluently on his own and now lives and works in Tokyo.

2. http://Smart.fm - I have learned so much vocabulary from this site. It is also how I learned to read katakana.

3. http://pingmag.jp/J/ - Japanese graphic design/art magazine. Lots of inspiring artwork and design from Japan and it gives me something interesting to practice reading Japanese.

I am always looking for ways to be a wiser person. Although I have a basic understanding of many cultures all over the world, I decided that in order to be a more complete person, I should also have a deep understanding of one foreign culture.

The culture had to be:
- Very foreign (probably not Europe or the Americas, and not using the roman alphabet)
- Successful (because no country can be very successful with a bad culture)
- Accessible and welcoming to Americans (bonus points if the country was once a colony of or occupied by Britain or the U.S.)

This gave me a short list of Asian countries which included Russia, the Philippines, India, Japan, China, South Korea, etc.

I love video games and want a career in them. On my list, only South Korea and Japan have a large consumer base for video games. I finally decided on Japan because of other things, like anime, and because it's much more popular here, so it would be easier for me to find things to study while still in the U.S.

I first came to Lang-8 to learn the language, but I soon discovered that I learned more about Japanese culture on Lang-8 than anywhere else. So now I read Lang-8 every day as part of my personal desire to grow.

これからよろしくお願いね。^_^

日本語を勉強する理由がもう日記に書いたから、今回英語で短い説明を書こうと思います。

First and foremost, I fell in love with the language. It was something new and exciting. I especially like the way Japanese sounds when spoken (I especially like the slang).

I love Japanese culture. I am very interested in older Japanese culture, such as the Geisha (not "さゆり" but the actual history, I've read a few books) and Samurai, as well as traditional artwork.
I also feel that I can connect to Japanese culture, both new and old, which I'm pretty sure is weird for a 外国人 to say. :P

And of course, what would J-Pop be without being able to understand it!? :P

Most 外国人 would agree that trying to understand J-Pop is hazardous to one's mental health. =P

Hi everyone!
Thank you very much for answering the questions!!
I've just come back from a trip to Nagano.
I'll reply to each of you soon! :-)

Hi Chris,
Thanks for commenting!
You seem to be a great challenger of languages! :D
The most popular male Enka singers, I think, are Saburo Kitajima (北島三郎), Kiyoshi Hikawa (氷川きよし), and Jero（ジェロ).
Jero is an American guy whose grandmother is Japanese.
He doesn't look Japanese at all, but his songs are amazing.

Btw, Your new avatar looks very nice. :)

Hi Wolfgramm,
Thanks for the answers!
I'm very glad to hear that you have so many interests about Japan.
I've played Suikoden too. It's about Chinese history, right?
Have you ever played any game on Japanese history such as Nobunaga's Ambition (信長の野望)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobunaga%27s_Ambition
If you like Suikoden, I think you'll like this one too. :)

- Hi Zelda,
Thanks for telling me lots of sites!
The Bento Accessories and Wackies listed in J BOX are interesting!

- Hi Tyler,
Thanks for the corrections!!

- Hi tanuki,
Thanks for commenting!
Your passion for Japanese is awesome!
If you interested in Kobe, you must come to Yokohama city too. :)
It's also one of the biggest historic port city in Japan,
and this year many events will be held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of opening of the Port!
http://event.yokohama150.org/en/index.html

Hi アレックス,
Thanks for the corrections and the comment!
You know more Anime than I do! Wow!

I think most of the vending machines on the website still exist,
and there're more variety kinds of them too. :)

I like Smart.fm too! I study English vocabulary with it. :)

I'll talk about myself in comming entry. ;-)
Thank you!!

I heard somewhere that "learning a new language is like getting an extra pair of eyes", and I think this saying is spot on. For this reason I would like to learn a language very different from the ones I currently speak, and an Asian language would be exciting to know, right? :) Japanese seemed like a natural choice, so I decided to try it. A friend of mine speaks Mandarin, but I don't think I could handle the pronunciation, hehe.
I have no interest in manga/anime whatsoever, but I'm rather interested in high culture, like literature, history, cultural studies etc.
Basically, I just bought some learning material on Japanese, just to try it, and so far it's really fun and I enjoy learning it, even though I have no immediate use for it. It has become a hobby for me, a rather productive one I would say, and I hope I will persevere.
As for favorite Japanese websites, I don't have any, since I can't really read anything yet. (Been studying for less than 3 months as of now) However, I learn so much from reading people's entries here on lang-8, even when they just write about their daily lives. Maybe _espescially_ when they only write about their daily lives.

- Hi Tyler,
Thanks for answering my questions!
I like 花ざかりの君たちへ, のだめ, and 絶対彼氏 too!
Are they available in the US too?
Did you watch them with subtitles?

- Hi Lewis,
Thanks for answering my questions!
Do you like Kanji the best of the 3 types of writing in Japanese?
I like Hiragana the best not because it looks soft and lovely.
(In the past, Kanji were the characters for men, and Hiragana used to be for women.)

- Hi Mr. Wallet,
Thanks for answering my questions!
Your passion is awesome!
I agree that Lang-8 helps us learn lots about other cultures. :)

- Hi Nik,
Thanks for answering my questions!
What slang do you like the best?
笑 or 汗 in writing? lol.

- Hi Kawaii,
Thanks for the comment!
The word you quoted is awesome!
I agree that languages reflect their cultures.

All the dramas I watch are available online. I used to use English subtitles, but I've recently started watching everything without subtitles, even though I can't understand them at all. :)

I became interested in Japanese after watching the drama: Hana Yori Dango. I thought it sounded beautiful, I fell in love with the actors(Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, etc:)))) I also fell in love with the japanese culture, and how the japanese people carry themselves. I hope to visit japan in the near future. But first I need help with the language.

My favorite website is: Mysoju.com, cuz I can watch my favorite doramas:P

あはは！そうですね！笑とか汗とか良く書くことがありますね。さて、笑がほとんど使ったら、笑が一番好きであると思います。

スラングにとって、さあー　とか　わあー　とか　さて　なんてスラング言葉が大好きです！使うのは面白ーいです！

アメリアさんは、英語での特に好きなスラングを教えてくれませんか？

I love Japanese food!! I love almost every kind of Japanese food....except some kinds of sushi like Tako, Ika, or Ikura. I am very interested in calligraphy also, as well as teaceremony. I want to go to a tea ceremony high in the mountains xD. I am not that into manga or anime, but I do like some of it. I also think Japanese temples are so cool. It's so different from western culture xD. Oh yeah and one of my favorite things about Japan is the hot springs!!!!!!!

As for websites about Japanese......

www.guidetojapanese.org is the best grammar website for foreigners xD
www.jlist.com is a great place to get japanese stuff
www.japan-guide.com is a great place to learn about japan or make penpals (I've gotten dozens of pen pals and it's helped a lot with my Japanese)

@Tyler, babes77 and Nik,
Thanks for your comments!
I'm so sorry I didn't reply to you soon. x(

Nik,
英語で好きなスラング・・・なんだろう。
書くときは"lol"をよく使うよ＾＾

Hi borrrden,
Thanks for your comment and the info!
I'm really poor at Japanese calligraphy though my grandmother and mother are teachers of it.. (^_^;