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. resources for studying and practicing Japanese

Please note: Most of these resources work fine for beginners. However please keep in mind I'm an intermediate learner, and these are sources that I personally find useful. Basic kana and kanji knowledge is needed in most cases.

websites

Lang-8
Community type website where people can practice and exchange languages and help eachother out.

The Japanese Page
Has a lot of very useful tools, information, fora and more, all about Japanese.

The Japanese speaking community & Correct Japanese @ LJ
If you've got a Livejournal, these are two excellent communities to keep on your friends list. You can ask questions about the Japanese language and can have your Japanese corrected. Even just observing the posts is very useful to improve your Japanese.

All Japanese All The Time
I don't believe what this guy is doing is suitable for most people. However, he's writting some quite interesting stuff, it's worth reading.

webtools

Rikaichan
Great webtool for Firefox. Hover over words to see the translation and hiragana/katakana of the kanji.

Furigana Injector
Firefox tool. Adds furigana to kanji. Doesn't always look pretty, but is reasonably useful. Personally I don't use it often though, I usually go with just Rikaichan.

dictionaries

Kanji sonomama DS Rakuhiku Jiten
If you've got a Nintendo DS, get this. Best low-budget, easy-to-use 'electronic dictionary' out there. Not as good as the expensive Casio dictionaries for example, but it does a very good job just being a dictionary. It uses the touch screen of your DS to insert kanji and kana words, and it can recognise kanji easily even when your kanji is barely recognisable and sometimes even when the stroke order is wrong.

Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary J-E/E-J
Not the best dictionary out there, but good enough, cheap, light-weight and easy to use.

online dictionaries

WWWJDIC
Jim Breen's online Japanese dictionary.

learning tools

Anki
I recently started using this to study vocabulary. I am the laziest person on the planet and rarely study vocabulary, but this system is pretty good. Does require some selfmotivation.

books

Minna no nihongo
I learned my basic Japanese with these books. I do think this method works better in combination with actual classroom lessons...