Just at random. Here are some very useful tools.
Denshi Jisho
The “Electric Dictionary” provides quick and generally easy lookups thanks to the simple interface. One of the best things I like about it is the linkage it gives to other resources but also the example sentences (though not all words have them). Example sentences are great for using in flashcards, but some of the translations are rather lax. The site is basically a composition of the WWWJDIC, another strong resource which features a lot of content, including stroke patterns for kanji (SOD). Though WWWJDIC is an nice resource, it is in need of a design overhaul to make it more usable.
[Jisho]
Saiga Kanji Dictionary
By the book, this thing has two awesome feature on top of supplying all the Grade 1-9 kanji. Like the WWWJDIC, Saiga provides stroke order animations, but in a compact and integrated format. These are great. The second and possibly more impressive feature is the example words usually provided for each kanji, but the deal-sealer is the accompanying audio clips with many of the words. The only thing I’d change about this is the interface and adding an API resource, but probably not likely.
[Saiga Kanji Dictionary]
StarDict
This thing isn’t solely about Japanese, but so bloody useful when coming across new words while reading. StarDict is a small app for dictionary lookups, but simultaneously can scan cursor selections of text basically anywhere in the desktop environment, perform a lookup, and show the best results in the active dictionaries. Sounds complicated, but the basic dictionary to use is once again, the WWWJDIC, found in the StarDict resources. Also, scanning can be easily turned on and off.
I truly recommend it, as I find myself highlighting words I’m clueless about in flashcard example sentences, which helps to familiarize with kanji I’m not even learning, and maintain the meaning of the sentence for a given card.
[StarDict]
Additionally to what I’ve mentioned, I’m glad that each of these tools does not use romanji, and especially glad that they are all available on the Maemo platform powering the N810.
Nice! I often use Rikaichan (the Firefox app) and Wakan, but sometimes I have trouble finding some words =S Anyways, thanks for sharing!
I used Saiga Kanji before and really liked it, but Denshi Jisho is something new that looks quite handy - thank you for mentioning it
I also use Rikaichan and Wakan
Thanks for the comments ^^
Having a look at Wakan, thing looks serious. Too bad I’m not a windows user, but it probably can run under Wine. Usually for a kanji breakdown I use jisho.org, but it’s only helpful when online… I guess that’s the kicker
Totali, that dork (j/k :P). He won’t teach me moonrunes.
aurabolt, lol. All the basics can be self-learned, just get a text with audio, or some audios.
Nice discovery! Just the stuff I need lol.
(myself being too cheap-ass to buy a proper dictionary)
Woot! Special and handy. Reminds me that I just found my PHP training stuff from lynda.com! :D!