Familiarization with Japanese culture?

I assume many here are learning Japanese for the purpose of visiting and/or moving there, so what do you recommend outside of this program to help familiarize yourself with the culture?

It really depends on what aspect of the diverse culture you want to familiarize yourself with. A couple general things I could recommend would be to have a general idea of current events in Japan. You could the Asahi Shimbun online in English, or if you're into technology, you could follow SoftBank on twitter. I'm probably the wrong person to answer this question though, as my whole motivation for learning the language is to be able to play video games before they get localized for western markets. If you really like Japanese video game culture, bookmark siliconera.com and kotaku.jp. I also get weekly PlayStation Network newsletters to bring me up to date on all the latest releases. Derek-san or Coddo-san could probably offer more salient advice. .

Sorry to say it, but nearly everything I have learned about the Japanese culture was from these courses.

Yes, コッドさん is right. I completely forgot that Rocket Japanese comes with Culture courses. They're probably enough to give you a decent familiarization. Even the audio lessons tend to be centered around peculiar Japanese cultural experiences. I'd have to say that Rocket Language's emphasis on culture is one of its very strong points, compared to other language-learning courses.

I have only barely begun the program, so hopefully that will suffice for now. thanks for the responses!

This program teaches you a lot of things about the Japanese culture. The premium plus and platinum courses offer quite a lot of information. There were times when I spent over half and hour continuously reading the culture section of only one lesson on platinum. There are times when the culture section of a lesson is very condensed with information. If you want to familiarize yourself a bit with their history, you can read the book: Shogun – James Clavell. Although it is written by an English person, it accurately describes how Japan was during the 17th century. Other methods would consist of grabbing an online Japanese magazine or newspaper, just as Pascal-san said, although this means that you have to know the language in order to read it... Gambatte ne !

The nice thing is that the quiz sections even have some questions on culture too, so you're actually encouraged to read the culture lessons.

Probably the best way to learn what to expect if you visit/move to Japan is to find someone to talk to that either lives there now, or has lived there recently. Here is some quick info, that is not exactly traditional culture related, but more for the everyday visitor/resident of Japan: 1. If you do not like walking, you may want to change that. Unless you plan on paying over $10 US just to take a taxi to the next block 2. Trains/Subways are the worst on Sundays, after 6pm, before 10am, and during lunch hours. 3. I would recommend not going out on Sundays unless you like hearing high-pitched ladies yelling for advertising purposes, waiting in a line as long as opening day at a theme park just to get a hot dog at Costco, or not being able to see your own feet because the stores are so crowded. 4. The best times to visit are spring, when the 桜 (cherry blossoms) are in bloom, and early fall when many Japanese festivals are. I would not recommend visiting in the summer or winter when it is too hot/cold to really do anything. Unless you plan on going to Hokkaido of course, then summer is beautiful there. These things may not be 'culture' per-say, but they can be just as important as when to bow, or where to take off your shoes.

You can go through the website for basic understanding of culture, though you should not expect everything to be absolutely accurate: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/japan-country-profiles.html

The reason why I think that Japanese culture is amazing is because of the humbleness and the politeness of the culture. When I actually adhered to the culture, I saw that the change in my personality was impressive and nobody can help but notice you because of your politeness.

Start watching Japanese culture festivals on youtube and then find movies and tv shows to watch and you get an idea of how their culture is as well as hearing the language.