Free Palm Character Recognition Software

If you're planning on learning Japanese, the best thing you can do is buy a cheap used Palm and put on this great software. All you need is something like the Palm M130 that I got for $50 (anything with at least 8mb of Ram) and you can turn it into a pretty high quality Kanji recognition dictionary.

You can get the software here: http://padict.sourceforge.net/
Make sure you install the biggest dictionary they have.

and there are also good kanji flash card programs available here (kanjikun) : http://www.mountainsideproductions.com/

This is really useful for figuring out what a kanji is when you can't read it (such as subway station names or ads on the train), as well as giving you a way to practice kanji when you're commuting to work.

Train Schedules Online

1. Go to Ekitan (駅探)


2. Find the station entry boxes inside the big blue box. They are text inputs with a recently used dropdown next to them.
3. Enter the station you want to leave from in the top box, and the station you want to go to in the bottom box. You can enter subway stations, JR stations, and private train stations. This can be done in either Japanese or romaji (Roman alphabet). Just make sure you double the vowels of long sounds if you use romaji (i.e. Ootemachi, not otemachi - 大手町). After entering the station names this time, the website will remember your most commonly used stations in the dropdowns on the right.
4. Enter the date and time you want to leave or arrive using the inputs below, or just leave this as is if you only want to see how to get somewhere.
5. There are 2 radio buttons on the right of the time input that let you choose if your time is leaving or arriving. The first one (that starts with the kanji from dasu - 出) means leaving, and the second one means arriving.
6. The next row of radio buttons mean search by time, money, or number of transfers, respectively.
7. Finally, click the big button to see your schedule.
8. Sometimes the website will ask you to choose your specific station if there are other stations that have similar names. Simply select the stations you want and click the button at the bottom of the page. These station names will only be in Japanese, but you probably want the shortest one, as that will most likely be the main station. Sometimes there are also stations with the same names in other cities, so you should be able to read the kanji for your city (like Tokyo - 東京).
9. Eventually you will get to your possible schedules. The page will show a variety of options, sorted from the best one at top to the worst one at the bottom. Each one will show you time (分), cost (円), and which stations and lines to transfer at, although everything will be in Japanese.

You can also send the schedule to your cell phone by clicking the red phone logo on the right of each itinerary that says サクッとメール, or just cut 'n paste it and e-mail it yourself.

How to use Yahoo Maps in Japanese

1. Go to maps.yahoo.co.jp
2. Find the search entry box in the middle of the page (underneath kiiwaado - キーワード). It's a text input with a button next to it.
3. switch to Japanese input
4. enter your address into the box (Sakura Gaijin House offices):
   東京都新宿区西新宿7丁目２-６
   toukyouto　shinjukuku　nishishinjuku 7choume 2-6
   Tokyo City, Shinjuku District, Western Shinjuku, 7th Area, 2nd block, House#6
5. click on the link that says what you just typed in:
   
   Your new Yahoo Map!
6. look and wonder at map.

You can also browse the maps by hand to find someplace you're looking for. The section underneat the text input box is the Japan Maps section. Simply click on the city you want to browse in (Tokyo is 東京) and you will find a map of all the different districts in Tokyo. Click on it and you will be in a browseable map. The larger black numbers are the area number, and the smaller red numbers are the block numbers. House numbers are not shown.