Toujin No Negoto　★　唐人の寝言

This is only a short post, highlighting one of the more enjoyable ways of studying Japanese. As most of you know, Japan is a haven for manga writers. You can find manga on almost any subject, to the point where it's downright silly.

Some are serious, others aimed at children, some are just crazy and shouldn't be read by anyone, like the following by Shintaro Kago, (NOT SAFE FOR WORK) entitled Abstraction. Find more stuff from this artsy, borderline crazy artist here.

Anyway, if you can find them in their raw form (untranslated, still in Japanese), then they will become a great asset.

If you have a DS, get a hold of 漢字そのまま楽引辞典 kanji sono mama rakubiki jiten, which allows you to write Kanji directly into the DS, allowing for quick searching of unknown words. Failing that, you could use the IME pad that comes with the Japanese IME for entry, though drawing kanji with a mouse can be tricky. If you have a tablet or a tablet PC that'll do the trick.

I recently began reading Inital D in its raw form, hence the number of car-related words in the Toujin no Negoto post below.

Of course reading manga will up your kanji and general reading skills, anime can be useful aswell. It's very easy to find subtitled anime on the net (Try Reality Lapse for a crapload).

Very Manga has both Japanese and the translated versions available, so you can check your understanding. You can download by the volume so there's less hassle.

Some manga can be found here in raw form, though there are a few dead links.

Raw Bleach Anime is here for those interested, though you need to make an account with them, the manga is here.