First up, a Katakana table (liberated from www.kanjimart.com, if I can make my own I'll add it) that might help you get started on any of those imported games you've got/will get. There is obviously much more to Japanese, but this could inspire you take it further, and who knows, maybe buy a dictionary, a book on learning, or even take classes!
The Fanzine:
Extra Life began life in the third year of my (Simon Watson's) Journalism and Media Production Degree at Lincoln University in October 2004. The third year of any degree course is arguably the worst year in said course to decide to take on something so potentially vast when Dissertations and major, life affecting hand in dates loom. But, then I never said I was blessed with common sense. Happening upon an image of Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion, I was struck with an overwhelming urge to create something that would help me in some way with my future career as a Games Journalist. Beginning at 10am, I started to draw up a design for a fanzine, and with the basic structure created, I remained glued to the PC screen until I had completed the entire first issue of my magazine, which although only 16 pages in a largish font, still took me until 4am the following morning with no breaks other than a nourishing Chinese (FYI: Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls, Egg fried rice, Noodles, Chips, Pork Curry, Prawn Crackers, 1 Fortune Cookie, 6 Cans of Carlsberg Lager(Additional FYI: I no longer drink Lager, Cider all the way. And no I don't drink it on a park bench thank you very much)) and a couple of quick glances at my late Roborovski Hamster, Rob (see http://www.1up.com/ and look for my user 'Hondana' for an image of him), may he rest in peace.
Following the first issue, I moved straight onto the second issue the next week, as the release of Halo 2 demanded I write a review. I changed a few bits here and there, and as readers may well notice, things change a little within each issue (see if you can notice the differences in issue 15: 8/11/06). I also created a special issue for the release of the DS, which completely puts my Issue numbering out of sync (Issue 15 would therefore be the 16th fanzine I have produced) and as a result, the Xbox 360 Issue was named Issue 13 as opposed to Special Issue #2.
Extra Life has helped me in a number of ways since its inception over 2 years ago. In the Second Semester of my 3rd year of University, one of the Journalism units was 'Journalism Portfolio', and would you believe it, my fanzine fit into that category. I handed in 6 issues of Extra Life and received a '1st' award. Result. Again, at Uni, my dissertation on the Development of Videogames Magazines also called the inclusion of an issue. The result? A 2:1 for the dissertation. Outside of University, I posted several reviews from my fanzine on http://www.1up.com/, http://www.gamespot.com/ and http://www.exzibit.net/ (now a dead site unfortunately) and was soon approached by Billy Kirk at http://www.xboxraw.com/ and offered the chance to work for them as a staff writer. Naturally I jumped at the chance and got to work straight away. Unfortunately, lately I have had little opportunity to write for the website (Sorry Billy, if you are reading) but I am working on a review of Enchanted Arms on Xbox 360 which is a pretty decent RPG really, so there you go, the site will feel my warmth again soon. Unless I'm struck off... More website shenanigans occured around Christmas 2005, when I was emailed by one Jeremy Woods from http://www.gamexc.com/ and was again offered the opportunity to write as an Xbox/Xbox 360 writer for the site. I accepted but have sadly had to give up on writing for them for the time being due to a complete lack of time thanks to my paid jobs and self imposed fanzine (and now website) work. I have been told I may return to the site in the future, so thanks to Jeremy on that one! Now, actual paid Journalism work has seemed to evade me througout my life, but in early to mid 2006, my fanzine garnered me 4 interviews! Perhaps the covering letters helped too, but I'd like to think its the mag that did the most. First up was a telephone interview for a job at Jagex as an online Team Leader. I did a lot of work following that phone call, but alas, nothing. Second: Another phone interview, this time with Piggyback, publisher of the best looking and most interesting game guides available on today's shelves. After speaking to Louie Beatty I learned a lot about what they do, and was even sent a complimentary copy of the Dragon Quest VIII (thanks Louie!) but I am rather ashamed to say I never got back to them, and the reasons were thus: An interview at Imagine Publishing in Bournemouth.
Now, I'm not going to go into great detail about the interviews in Bournemouth (you can buy Issue 14 if you want to read about that! HAH!), suffice it to say that I played Dead Rising two months before release and reviewed it, met Simon Phillips, earned myself a second interview (of only 8 people!) and then buggered it up. Well, I didn't get the job. As an additional piece of information, a month or two ago, IP released a Nintendo Mag, mostly concerning the Wii, and with it came two A5 sized, what I'd like to call, FANZINES!! They looked rather similar to Extra Life (better design and all that), but I had left them a copy of my 360 launch issue, and the editor was none other than the man I gave the issue to! Now, I'm not insinuating anything here, that might get me into trouble, but you know what they say; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...
...I don't know why they didn't just go ahead and give me the job.