Hello everyone!

So today is my first day on here :) Thought I'd give this site a shot because I can never seem to find a guy who is interested in the same things as me, since I am a huge Otaku! Well I will start off on a little bit about myself. My name is Jessica, but everyone calls me Kittie. I am majoring in the Japanese language, and I am hoping to one day move to Japan and teach English! I've been a anime nerd ever since I was little. I think the very first anime I ever fell in love with was Sailor Moon. Got to love the classics :) I am looking for a relationship, but I'm always on hunt for new friends as well. Well feel free to chat with me, don't worry I don't bite...hard hehe

Welcome!!!! I don't think you'll have any trouble finding others with common interests here! In fact, you're very lucky since a majority of active users live on the west coast while little old me is stuck on the east coast for now.

Hi Kittie, and welcome!<p> Do your Japanese classes work from a textbook, are are you doing something else? In either case, do you have any advice for someone learning Japanese on their own? :) I've been at it for a couple of years now (basically following the method outlined at <a href="http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-all-the-time-ajatt-how-to-learn-japanese-on-your-own-having-fun-and-to-fluency">ajatt.com</a>). I'm definitely making progress, though certainly not as fast as I'd like!

Hello Octonion. Yeah I take classes at my college for it, and we learn from textbooks. When I'm not taking my class. I use this site called Lang8.com, it'd a site where you write daily log entries in Japanese and then translate in English what your trying to say, and people from Japan will help correct what you did wrong and you can help them with their English. It's really neat because you can become friends with these people and talk on Skype and teach each other thru webcam chatting :) also if you have a smart phone they have hiragana apps to help teach you hiragana, which these apps are free! Hope that helps :) also I would look into your local library and go to the language learning section and either check out the dvds or buy them at a book store :) Hirako, that's good to hear but I'm sorry its lacking some of those event :p you can always make your own event and invite friends that are into it as well?

I'm actually planning a possible western MA cosplay picnic. I'm going to one in Boston on 8/11, so the people I've talked to on the event page said they'd consider coming to a western MA picnic sometime soon!

キティーさん、ありがとうございました！<br> どっちの教科書を使いますか？<br> <p> If you're using げんき do a search for Takeshi and Mary sometime... people have put drawings of them up on deviantart and there even have a fan page on facebook! <p> Thanks for the smart phone tip! I'm pretty comfortable with the kana (ひらがなとカタカナは私の友達です ^_^), but I'm always looking for new apps. My favorites are <a href="http://ankisrs.net/">anki</a> (intelligent flashcards) and <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midori-japanese-dictionary/id385231773?mt=8">midori</a> (the best Japanese dictionary I've seen). <p> I was on livemocha for a while. I gather it's something like lang8, but most of the Japanese speakers there were so much better at English than I am at Japanese that it felt kind of awkward. Maybe I'll give lang8 a try.

あなたの非常に歓迎します！ We used the textbook called Genki, its a pretty decent book and very helpful. No problem, I just felt like sharing my resources :) I've used Anki before, not midori though. I will have to check it out. I haven't heard of livemocha, but I will def. check it out. Since I'm currently not taking classes, I like to keep up to date and I will listen to anime in Japanese (with subtitles of course) that way it helps me retain what I have learned in my classes. I also use the phone apps like I mentioned to keep me from getting rusting on my kana,and hiragana. ooh Hirako, that sounds like a awesome idea! If I lived around there I would totally go. I just have to make due with watching anime until the next convention arrives lol

Try organizing a cosplay picnic in your area. Though if you live in a major city, try a middle-of-nowhere town with a fairly large park that won't charge an arm and a leg for parking or being there. One perk of living in a valley on the east coast is the number of large, natural and mostly free parks!