Online Japanese-English language resources & dictionaries
There are several good free online dictionaries for the student of Japanese language.
An online dictionary at the top of the language-teaching company ALC's website, that translates between English and Japanese, either way, using the same interface.
Of all the free online dictionaries available, Eijiro has the largest database drawn from the most up-to-date sources, giving adequate examples to choose the most appropriate vocabulary item.
Eijiro is available in CD-ROM from bookshops for less than 2,000 yen, and is updated annually. Handy with a laptop when out of range of an internet connection.
Eijiro Pluses
Eijiro Minuses
This online dictionary is based on the EDICT is a Japanese-English Dictionary file created and administered by the prolific Japanese language scholar Dr. Jim Breen of Monash University in Australia. It is very multi-functional and technologically advanced, catering even for mobile phones. Jim Breen's Japanese Page is an exhaustive resource for the student of Japanese language. Includes the massive Monash Nihongo ftp Archive.
Jim Breen Pluses
Jim Breen Minuses
Mahou.org's website
Mahou.org is a website for fans of Japanese anime. It incorporates a dictionary based on Jim Breen's EDICT database, and a kanji dictionary. Jim Breen's page is more useful as a dictionary, however, Mahou.org's kanji dictionary is superb. Entering the kanji, then clicking on the result brings up a page with exhaustive information about that kanji including example sentences and, perhaps best of all for the learner, frame-by-frame instructions of how to write the kanji, i.e. its stroke order (not all kanji, but most).
Mahou Pluses
Mahou Minuses