Good reading under the rising sun

October 23, 2007 7:22 AM

I'd like to read some blogs and websites in Japanese.

My fluency in the language has gone down a bit over the past four years, and I'd say I'm floating somewhere around the 2nd level of the JLPT.

I would like to brush up my language skills by reading interesting blogs, news sites or discussion forums. I'm not too worried about the difficulty (I have kanji dictionaries and can take the time to figure out the more difficult bits), but am more concerned about the readability and entertainment factor. I want to find sites--in Japanese--that I will want to come back to each day and work my way through. I'm not interested in any specific topics as far as content, I only want something interesting. Sites with QA format interviews are a plus.

Any suggestions for great sites on the Far East side of the web?

posted by dead_ to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

I was recommended this blog ranking site when I asked a Japanese friend for weblogs to read in Japanese. They're categorized and I can't vouch for the quality of most of them, but it may be a good place to look.
posted by that girl at 8:07 AM on October 23, 2007

Mixi might be what you are looking for. It's an online community, but many members keep dairies. You might have to sift around to find one interesting to you, but most are not difficult reads.

Also, if you are having trouble with Kanji I would recommend using hiragana megane.
posted by Alison at 10:13 AM on October 23, 2007

im late but have two things to offer:

rikaichan is the shit.

できるかな系コーナー『まぐまぐ調べ』 is a very good series that inspired me to memorize every word they used that i didnt know.

頑張れ！
posted by Infernarl at 4:16 AM on November 19, 2007 [1 favorite]