Learn more about the community and how they are learning Japanese and about Japan. Do a little listener-to-listener chit chat. Keep it civil, and everything else goes.
I've been listening to JapanesePod101 podcasts for the last six months and I have to say that it has been a brilliant tool so far. Compared to European languages Japanese is a big challenge so I'm taking it slowly and steadily. I have listened to most of the first Beginner series and now I am doing the Nihon-Dojo Newbie series to revise the basics a little. I've been a bit lazy with Kana and I still don't recognize all off them. However, I've made a big effort to learn some Kanji in the last weeks so I think that I can recognize one hundred or so (but I can't write them). Next week I'll be in Tokyo so I'll be able to measure my progress since the last time I was there in January. I can't wait, I love Japan!