Here is a selection of links sure to peak your interest. All Japan-centric, of course!

• Assistant Language Teachers in Trying Times
• News on Japan for the latest from the Land of the Rising Sun.
• Japanese Roots. Just who are the Japanese? Where did they come from and when? The answers are difficult to come by, though not impossible—the real problem is that the Japanese themselves may not want to know.
• Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie explains Japan is the birthplace of the fortune cookie.
• 100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums is bound to cause discussion.
• Edo-Period Monster Paintings… creepy.
• The Writing Life, in which a writer living in Japan learns how to think in Japanese (by famous travel author Pico Iyer).
• Sumo 101 for everything you wanted to know about sumo.
• Japanese Sound Effects and what they mean.
• iKana: Japanese learning Mac software.