Discovering Japanese media

[alltom]

My understanding of written and spoken Japanese lags behind my known vocabulary and grammar by quite a bit. I'm looking for places to find interesting Japanese media to help with immersion outside Japan. Music, games, podcasts, books.

Basically I'm looking for Japanese equivalents of where I go for English media. For example, how can I discover the Japanese Radiohead? Flaming Lips? Air? Justice? For English music I know I can surf the iTunes music store, Amazon, or eMusic, but where can I find Japanese music, and not just the stuff they assume Americans are interested in? What are they listening to over there?

Same for games, podcasts, books, ... Maybe I just need to go back to Japan, but so long as I'm stuck here, I'd like to know.

[Jessi]

I'd recommend looking around at the Japanese version of the iTunes store! You can see what's on the charts and sample all of the songs - when it comes to purchasing songs, it's not as easy if you're outside of Japan, but it is possible if you buy an iTunes Music Card online for use at the Japan store. I also recommend checking out the Japanese version of Youtube and looking at the popular videos - you'll find a good mix of music videos, music performances from TV, TV show clips, etc.

[hatch_jp]

http://www.nhk.or.jp/news/

The video news on the site has also text in Japanese.
Spoken and written are bit different, but almost the same.

[LindsayGrieveson9787]

How do I get the Japanese version of youtube.
And iTunes as well haha.

[Javizy]

Check out this awesome thread for podcast recommendations. I like JUNK myself. That forum is a great place to look for information (and ask for it). This thread has lots of links to the kind of recommendation threads I think you'd like to see.

How do I get the Japanese version of youtube.

Search in Japanese or click Jessi's link.

And iTunes as well haha.

You should see a flag (of your country) in the very bottom right of the iTunes Store page. Click it and select the Japanese one from the list. You can still search in Japanese in the other stores though.