NHK - A great start for Japanese culture enthusiasts!

[rilakkumasenpai]

Since my education of the Japanese language goes well beyond the language itself, I've always loved catching any television shows on Japanese culture.  And the shows are also great ways to learn Japanese and how to apply it in daily life.

NHK and NHK World have become more readily accessible now, thanks to the internet, and apps.  Youtube has many of the NHK shows available to watch, or you can download the NHK app to your phone to catch the shows live, daily.  I highly recommend them.

Some of the shows I think would be best for additions to learning Japanese, or learning the language itself are:

Meet and Speak:  I'm not sure if this show still airs, but you can find it on Youtube or floating around on the internet.  Great for newbies and beginners, each episode is short (under 15 mins long) and introducing some simple speaking, and vocabulary.  Even for someone who is slightly under intermediate, I still learned from this program.

Tokyo Eye:  Mainly some of the older episodes, as the newer one (Tokyo Eye 2020) focuses on Japan leading to the Olympics in 2020.  But many of the older shows focus on various hotspots around Tokyo, and introduce phrases, words, and knowledge you can apply to visiting Japan.

Cool Japan: Cool Japan is a show where Foreigners and locals discuss one topic.  For example, Bento in Japan.  Various topics are covered and introduce words and other aspects on the culture. 

The next shows I recommend are just ones I like, more for fun to relax watching, rather than learning:

Lunch On!: Various stories and settings where food is served, prepared, or discussed.  Bento is a large part of this show, along with how Japan shows their love and appreciation for food.

Himitsu no Kenmin: A variety show that focuses on under appreciated or not very well known items and food from various prefectures and areas of Japan.  It's a very interesting show, and funny!  The people who participate on the show are such vibrant folks who have lots of neat things to share.

Only in Japan with John Daub: This isn't an NHK show, but John Daub is a host that appears regularly on Tokyo Eye.  He has his own Youtube channel (part of Waoryu) that focuses on interesting parts of Japan, and their culture.  He was one of my favorite hosts on the show.

Hope this might help some of you out, and I think you'll enjoy them!  If any of you currently watch any of these already, let me know what you like or don't like about them!

[AExAVF]

I used to watch NHK World before.  Right now I'm at the NHK World site where they have a section on learning Nihongo.  It's pretty interesting and I'm refreshing up on my Nihongo language skills.  I just finished learning Elementary Nihongo 1 and I admit that I have been a bit rusty in my language skills since I haven't had any practice lately. 

[rilakkumasenpai]

Oh I didn't know they had that on the website!  O:  Thanks for the tip, it's really good for a refresher.  Definitely try Meet and Speak if you can, it's also awesome for beginners!

[Mikitty]

At university, we actually used NHK as a supplement for our Classic Japanese classes. If you want to improve your listening skills, or learn more about the culture, I suggest watching NHK for school videos.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/school/program/