Mina-san, On Sunday, November 12th from 12am to 6am EST, we will be upgrading our server environment to improve the performance, speed, and reliability of our site and to support our growing community of listeners. During this window, the JapanesePod101.com site will be unavailable. For questions or concerns with regard to this maintenance, please contact us by email at support@japanesepod101.com or post a comment here. We appreciate your understanding while we continue to improve the JapanesePod101.com service. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Eran JapanesePod101.com

Mina-san, This Sunday (10/29/06) between 4am and 6am EST we will be upgrading our membership system. During this time, the JapanesePod101.com site will not be available. Please accept our apologies in advance for this inconvenience. Thank you, JapanesePod101.com

JapanesePod101.com published its first lesson less than a year ago, but despite the short length of time, we've come a long, long way! Our humble beginnings, although very, very nice, don't quite do justice to our current level of production, so we have released a series of three lessons designed to introduce the listener to what they can expect from our current Survival Phrases and Beginner Lessons. Although these lessons were designed with the first-time visitor in mind, all are free to listen! Simply click here, or use the filter on the front page to browse the Introduction category. Also, you might have noticed a few new links popping up in several places. While we're not giving the full details here, you can probably guess what... Show more

As you probably have noticed, we recently launched a new home page for JapanesePod101.com. The new home page is geared for new users who are not familiar with our innovative, fun, and easy to use language learning system. The home page shows visitors how to get started in 3 easy steps, explains the various types of lessons and courses available, breaks down the subscription levels and pricing, and finally provides some valuable user feedback. If you are already familiar with JapanesePod101.com and wish to skip the new home page, simply check the box next to “Skip this page on my next visit” on the top or bottom of the new home page and on your next visit to JapanesePod101.com you will be taken directly into the site. Yoroshiku onegai... Show more

Are you a Mac user? Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com? If you answered 'yes' to both questions then you are in for a real special treat! Our young friend and talented programmer, Dimitri from Los Angeles, has just launched beta version 1.2 of his JapanesePod101.com super-duper application (see screenshot below). Using our RSS feed, his incredible application enables end users to quickly browse, search, sort, listen, and watch our daily podcasts and videocasts using one convenient tool. You can even see the romaji as you hear each lesson! Anyone interested in beta-testing the application can get started on Dimitri's website where they can download it, see screenshots, and read frequently asked questions. Please direct all technical... Show more

Mina-san, Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com and live in or near Sydney, Australia? If so, our friend Barrett Newkirk from the "Sydney Morning Herald" can use your help! Barrett is doing some research on foreign language podcasts for a possible newspaper article and would like to speak to Australian listeners. If you're interested and would like to participate please email contatcus@japanesepod101.com and we'll put you in touch with Barrett. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. JapanesePod101.com

Update 10/21/06: Thank you for everyone who participated in the iTunes Podcast Artwork Contest! We were absolutely blown away by the number of entries and by the creative talents of our community. I would like to congratulate the winner, Rioo-san from South Korea, whose submission can be seen below. Click here to see all the entries. We're looking for you, our community members, to put your creative and artistic skills to work in designing a new, original artwork for our podcast. The winning design will become the new official artwork for our podcast page on iTunes, seen by thousands of users every day. Your artwork entry must... be an attractive and original image that represents JapanesePod101.com fit nicely with our website... Show more

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! The JapanesePod101.com community does it again! Justin Silvestre, a just-turned-fifteen U.S. based listener, used his remarkable artistic skills to breathe life into a JapanesePod101.com story. Justin-san created an audio anime learning tool based on our Brothers, Brothers series to enhance the community's learning experience and turn his anime creation into a unique learning experience! This amazing tool allows the listener to play the line-by-line audio over and over while viewing Justin's amazing and detailed artwork. To study with this amazing piece of art, stop by JapanesePod101.com and click here! Or, cut and paste the following link into your browser: Justin-san, nante sugoi!

JapanesePod101.com was featured in a Newsweek article by Technology Correspondent Brad Stone about learning languages through podcasts. Brad-san and his wife Jennifer Granick, Executive Director at the Center for Internet and Society, came to JapanesePod101.com "headquarters" earlier this month, and we walked - actually ran - them through a usual day at JapanesePod101.com. Meeting Brad-san and Jennifer-san, two extremely down to earth people for all they have accomplished, has been one of the highlights of the entire project. They made our day by sharing stories of using Japanese they learned from our podcasts and how the resulting experiences added to their trip. Brad-san and Jennifer-san, hontō ni arigatō gozaimasu! For anyone... Show more

Update: We have postponed the server upgrade until further notice. We hope to re-schedule it as soon as possible and will post a new maintenance window when it becomes available. In an effort to improve the performance, speed, and reliability of our site and to support our growing community of listeners, we will be upgrading our server environment this weekend. A maintenance window has been scheduled for Sunday, August 27th between 12am and 12pm EST. During this time, the JapanesePod101.com site will be available intermittently. We will do our best to minimize any disruptions or downtime. Please accept our apologies in advance for this inconvenience. Thank you for all your support. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Eran ... Show more