Useful tools
Here I shall provide some helpful tools for you to practice / learn Japanese.
Duolingo
Duolingo is a platform that includes a language-learning website and app, as well as a digital language proficiency assessment exam. The app and the website are free to use!
This website / app, gives you a healthy competitive scene for you to practice and learn your Japanese using sound clips, and "match-the-pairs" games, as well as sentence building problems! Aim to be the best by competing on the leader boards in order to get promoted into the highest League!
Get started on Duolingo HERE.
HiNative
HiNative is an app for your smartphone where you can post questions about Japanese language and get real-time answers from actual native Japanese speakers around the world!
Ask things like: "How do I say ___ in Japanese?" or "Does this sound natural? _________" and find yourself getting speedy responses from reliable sources! Others can also vote up on answers you've received in order to verify their integrity.
Japanese by Renzo inc.
Honestly, I use this app so so much! It's super useful for checking out Kanji, brush stroke order, definitions, you name it!
The app allows you to search for whatever you want, whether you search by English, Romaji, Kana, or Kanji!
E.g.: Search for "Flower" and it will show you that flower is はな and the Kanji is 花
Not comfortable with your kana yet but you know the word already? Search for "Neko" and it will show you that the Kana for Neko is ねこ and the Kanji is 猫 !
Rikaikun / Rikaichamp
Rikaikun (Google Chrome) and Rikaichamp (Firefox) are add-ons / extensions that you can add to your browser, what do they do? well once enabled, you can hover over Japanese text on any web-page and it will give you a translation, the Kana, and alternate readings!
Google Chrome link HERE and Firefox link HERE
Immersion
Immersing yourself into a language is a great way to assist you in your learning journey! But what exactly do I mean by "immerse yourself"?
Find ways to expose yourself to Japanese on a daily basis, even if you're not actively learning; seeing and hearing the language frequently can help your brain begin to understand the sounds and shapes it's hearing and seeing so often.
Your phone 「携帯電話」
Change your phone's language into Japanese! Most people use their phones constantly on a day to day basis, so your brain will start to think like "Oh! I've seen this somewhere before! 「電話」was above the phone icon, so it must mean phone!".
You can then combine your other language learning tools to do some investigation, and soon you know that 「電話」is でんわ in Kana, and it does indeed mean phone! Look at you! learning so fast!
Television 「テレビ」
Watch some Japanese TV for crying out loud! And no... I don't mean just anime, find some J-Dramas, or some entertainment shows!
Netflix has a selection of live-action Japanese shows / movies for you to peruse upon, and even if you have subtitles on, the idea is that you're listening to the language!
My personal recommendation is Terrace House, what better way to listen to realistic day-to-day conversational Japanese than a show like Terrace House! 6 strangers move into a home together, they hang out, they argue, they fall in love, what's not to like?
Youtube 「ユーチューブ」
Youtube is teeming with J-Vloggers, and other people learning / teaching Japanese!
Some of my recommendations:
MissHanake
SharlaInJapan
AbroadInJapan
PDRsan (18+ advised)
KemushiChan
Learn Japanese From Zero
Also, you can change your location on YouTube, so that you can see all of the trending videos in Japan, and your overall YouTube recommendations should be related to content that's popular in Japan!
To do this, simply click your account picture on the top right, and "Location" will be above the bottom option "Restricted Mode", and scroll until you find Japan.