Japanese Media in English

• Trends in Japan.
• News On Japan, a new site that pulls together today's news articles about Japan from English-language news services.
• Japan Times: Japan's main English language newspaper.
• Yomiuri Newspaper
• Mainichi Daily News
• Asahi Daily News
• Japan INC Communications' Japan.com, online news and articles about business and society.
• Nipponia--Short, current essays on culture, everyday life.


• >Japan Focus An online journal with knowledgeable articles on economics, politics, social issues.
• Global Communications : debates, position papers, and English-language press articles about current issues in Japan.
• Google's list of Japanese live stream radio. Even if you don't understand Japanese, tune in and catch the mood, the music, the sound of non-classroom Japanese.
• NHK Listen in on Japan's national radio and TV.

Agriculture, Rural Life

• Virtual tour of Japan
  The provinces and many cities have their own sites, some with limited selection of English language pages.
  
• Favorite Getaways In Rural Japan Randy Johnson's detailed guide to the Japanese countryside.


• Inaka: Images of Rural Japan Stevie Scheidemantel's beautiful photography exhibit of her surroundings in Shizuoka.
  
• Recollections of an RB-29 Crew in Japan Photographs from the early 1950's of rural life and scenery.
  
• Miyazawa Kenji a beloved author from the northern rural province of Iwate in the early 20th century.

Education

• K-12 links (individual school sites, topics)
• Mr. Matzat's photos of a Japanese elementary school
• A Day with Kentaro
• High School Box, Jr. High Box, Elementary School Box. The MARJiS center offers photo essays or "boxes" of objects that reveal much about life in Japanese schools.
• Junior High School Goals & Rules Student handbook from Yanagawa.
• Wikipedia has explanations of many Japanese children's games as well as adult ones.
• HS Student photo essays

Economy

• Japan Echo's Economic Update Monthly English-language summaries of selected articles on the Japanese economy from the Japanese press.
• Japaninc.com Business news and commentary.
• Nomura Research Institute
• Japan Watch policy news and analysis
• Price Check Tokyo--see what ordinary items cost in Tokyo.
• Beverley Bishop gives an overview of women's political activism, especially in trade unions.

Leisure, Tourism, Consumerism

• Onsen (hotsprings) in Northeast Japan
Photographs that will make you dream of hot steam and mountain nights.... Yoshiko's site also has many photograph essays of other places in Japan.
• Tokyo Disneyland
• Japan Guide -- a useful gateway site for planning a trip to Japan.

Literature & Folklore

• Classic Japanese literature texts (in Japanese): Univ. of Virginia
• Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan The 1920's illustrated translation online.
• David's Kotowaza (Proverbs) Page
• Ashliman's Japanese Folktales. Wikipedia's Japanese Folklore section, with many stories and links.
• Haiku Universe by Dhugal Lindsay, and how to write your own.

Food

• Cookbook for Kids How to cook the basics, and how to eat politely.
• Japanese foods, including rice balls, eels, miso, anpan, and pickles. Plus a section on Table Manners.
• Japanese Cuisine
(Virtual Museum).
• MARJis Food Box. From a MacDonald's menu to a formal tea set...
• Virtual Japanese Restaurant (and recipes)
• The Web's First Japanese Pizza Page
• Rolling Your Own Sushi For a visual how-to: Sushi-rolling photos. If you want to eat at a sushi bar, Sushi A La Carte tells you all you need to know.
• Tokyo Food Page: Japanese Cuisine. All sorts of information about Japanese food: recipes, regional specialities, restaurants, vocabulary, articles. Food in the Kansai Region. Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto residents love to brag about their local cuisines. Though in my experience, none of it comes close to the flavors and colors of dinners in northern Iwate province where the cooks grew their own vegetables and fished for their own suppers. -->

Religion

• Festivals & Celebrations contemporary photographs of everything from traditional coming-of-age ceremonies to Kurisumasu.
• Encyclopedia Mythica: Japanese mythology.
• Buddhism WWW virtual library
• Dharma The Cat Delightful cartooning that gives a serious intro to Buddhism.
• Japanese Buddhist Art. Mark Schumacher's huge photo archive is another way to learn about Japanese Buddhism.
• Shrine (Jinja) Shinto
• CyberShrine has photos of several dozen shrines. You can get your omikuji fortune told here too!
• Intro to Nichren Buddhism.
• Zen Buddhism links
• John Suler's collection of Zen stories. A wonderful non-rational interlude to your workday.
• Zazen (Virtual Museum)
• Soka Gakkai (Huge international, politically active Nichiren Buddhist organization, the largest of Japan's "new religions". )
• The Analects of Confucius. This site excerpts quotes which summarize the Analects' key ideas.

Launch Points

• The large WWW directory Web Japan and parent organization, Japan Information Network and their
• Japan Reference A *huge* links database.
• Schauwecker's Guide to Japan
• Japan 101 Thousands of pages and accessible articles.
• Jim Breen's website focuses on Japanese language, but also has dozens of great links to all sorts of Japan-related sites.
• Kid's Web Japan
• Maciamo's reference pages on Japan. French and Italian sources as well as English ones.
• Larry Stockton's Japan Links
• About.com Japanese culture pages -- mostly links about arts and sports.
• Stanford's J Guide
• The Japan Foundation homepage
• Bridge to Japan
• Duke University's East Asian Resources pages
• Japan-American Societies, a substantive site with articles and information about Japan, and the US/Japan relationship, as well as news, local links to Japan-America societies around the US.
• Nikkei View Gil Asakawa's blog and articles: -- a Japanese-American view of Japan's popular culture.
• American School in Japan's link page--topics of interest for all ages.