I also plan to blog in Japanese sometimes, mostly I'll probably just cut and paste what I wrote at a japanese social networking site called
mixi. It's pretty fun so if you have a chance try it out!
Some words about my Japanese studies. I am currently aiming for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2 (JLPT2 日本語能力試験2級), this means some 1000+ Kanji, intermediate level grammar and quite a vocabulary. It is level enough to study at least in some Japanese Universities in Japanese (Waseda at least). If I were to take the exam now I have a feeling I'd pass, but not with a very good grade, so I'm now studying for taking it come Christmas (you can take JLPT during Christmas only).
About my study background:
★I've taken 6 courses on Japanese in my Helsinki University of Technology, good for teaching the basics, but not much help if you want to pass JLPT Level 2, nevertheless these courses are what got me started and gave me the crucial basic knowledge and taught me how to deal with kanji.
★Visits to Japan have proved to be very good for learning Japanese, Japan is one of the few countries left on the face of the planet where the huge majority speaks close to no English.
★Mixi+
rikaichan! A fun, great way to learn Japanese. Read your Japanese friends diaries and learn while trying to understand. Of course first you need an account and some friends whose diaries to read. Might just be I've learned most of my Japanese this way. Not a very good way to learn formal Japanese though.
★Rikaichan (see picture below) is a great tool for learning Japanese. I can't stress how much it has helped me to learn Japanese. To put it simply, it's a dictionary. It hovers over Japanese words as you read and translates them (Also works as an English->Japanese translation tool). The downside is that it is an extension for Firefox-browser, so you can't use it in other enviroments. I think it totally beats Electronic Dictionaries (電子辞書) etc. that the Japanese are often carrying around.
★Books, My long time friend has been the Kanji Book series, I recently finished the Intermediate Kanji Book Vol. 1, a feat that took me around 10 months (I usually only studied during my too easy Japanese lectures), it was tough, but boy I can read Japanese much much better now.
A book I got very recently is a one that teaches grammar for the JLPT Level 2:
"Kanzen Master" 完全マスター(2級)文法, It's a very good book and I recommend it. (If you are not in Japan, probably you have to buy it online).
That was a bit long...questions welcome if someone is interested to find out more.
Here goes my mixi article:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
僕の体重について熱く語り合う二日前のことだが、体重計に乗ってみたら驚くべきの体重増加。
理由はBBQとビールとスナックとパソコンの仕事のせいだとおもうんだけど
前見たときと４～５キロの増加。
ってことでダイエットをすることに！
ルール＞
パーティーしかビール飲まない
ピザ食べない
晴れてる日はチャリで通勤
チョコなどの甘いもの食べない
コーヒーに砂糖、クリーム入れない。
スナックやめる。
だからあまりきつくないダイエットでしょう！？
二週間やれたらいいなーとおもって。
そして！！！！
一日間ダイエットをしてみたら
驚くべきの体重減少！４キロ・・・
ミラクルじゃない？！
今夜計ってみたら8キロになるのかな？？
