Mysterious Thief Nekopi ・ 怪盗ねこぴ

The Nekopi website is designed for Japanese elemetary school children and so the site is all in Japanese, but the language used is simple and there are furigana over the Kanji. 

You can learn about Japan (and the rest of the world) in Japanese and through various quizzes and games. To start you off here are some links to various pages...

108 Proverbs　for example -

石の上にも三年　(for when you are doing something very difficult and want to give up trying - keep trying for just a little bit longer もう少しがんばってみてください！)

Kanji writing practice - these can be printed out 

(look for きのうのこたえ and then )

Japanese History

Games

japanese-lessons.com ・ にほんごのおべんきょう

This is a good site for beginner learners of Japanese.

The explanations are in English and the examples are mostly in romaji.

The resource pages are also very good and as well as hiragana and katakana practice sheets, there are even some  practice sheets for writing Kanji to download.

Genki Practice Exercises ・ げんき（練習）

Genki Exercises are free on-line quizzes produced by Lyon College in Arkansas, USA. They are designed to be used with the Genki Textbook and cover lessons 1 through 23 and although there are no instructions on the website it is fairly easy to understand how the quizzes work. (Some are click and drag and some are multiple choice). The Japan Times, who publish the Genki Textbook have page samples and audio samples on their dedicated Genki website. Their page of free Self Study Resources is impressive and I particularly like My Kikitori. [Note for teachers of Japanese ]  The Japan Times Publications Department will send free examination copies of Japanese language textbooks and workbooks to teachers who wish to consider adopting them for their classes. (Delivery is through overseas distributors so every country in the world is not eligible for this offer). What is the Genki textbook? Here is the official description - "GENKI is a highly acclaimed series of integrated resources for learning elementary Japanese through a well-balanced approach to all four language skill areas—speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Divided into two volumes, the 23 lessons of GENKI introduce students to a wide range of elementary grammar points, nearly 300 kanji, and approximately 1,100 vocabulary terms. GENKI also incorporates many words and expressions that are closely tied to students’ everyday lives, and provides a full lineup communicative practice. GENKI is designed to make it easier for instructors to prepare student-centered lessons that are as fun as they are effective—another reason why GENKI is used in many Japanese language courses around the world."

MARUGOTO Plus

MARUGOTO Plus is a website where users can learn about Japanese language and culture alongside the on-line Marugoto: Japanese Language and Culture coursebook.

It is a fantastic free resource for learning about all things Japanese - culture as well as language.

I particularly like the hiragana and katakana practice. There are animated stroke diagrams, sound and picture examples for each character.

There is even a link to help where you can learn how to set up your computer to type in Japanese.

This is another site run by The Japan Foundation and it can be used in Japanese, English and Spanish.

The Japan Foundation has many offices around the world.

Hiragana and Katakana Squared Practice Paper

Hiragana Practice Paper

Katakana Practice paper

If you are looking 原稿用紙 (genkouyoushi essay paper with no characters) my top three favorite sites are -

Impetech has a pdf generator that allows you to make your own squared practice paper, with lines and boxes in a variety of sizes and colors.

Chokochoko has a selection of ready-made sheets - this is a fun blog, so check out their reading materials while you are there.

Printable paper has more types of printable paper than any other website I have seen, including comic pages if you want to write your own manga!