Free Japanese email and popular sites

[Cyborg Ninja]

Can anyone recommend some good sites for email that are free, and happen to cater to Japanese? Most importantly, one that doesn't append an advertisement to the end of all your outgoing mail? Also, what are some popular Japanese websites?

[Torunamu]

Gmail can be set to display in Japanese (as well as Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, UK English, US English, Ukrainian and Vietnamese).

[Shibakoen]

I'm pretty sure livedoor has email, but it might also have ads.

[keatonatron]

Cyborg Ninja wrote:
Also, what are some popular Japanese websites?

Um... what are some popular English websites?

[Cyborg Ninja]

I've checked out livedoor before and it does seem like the type that would have ads on the bottom. I don't have a Gmail account. Do they still require invites? As for popular English websites: Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, GameFAQs, Break.com, etc. I know you were trying to be smart with me but failed.

[chiisu321]

Not to be a dork or anything, but you can find people on youtube and myspace to talk to in japanese. Granted you won't be constantly talking to the same person or anything and they won't support kana, it's possible. If anything you can read it to practice reading. I wouldn't recommend it though because it's all in romaji.
So yeah, this comment wasn't helpful at all :p

[Torunamu]

Gmail still takes invites, yeah. You'd need a friend with an account or to PM someone with an account (I'll give you an invite) telling them where to send it. However, Yahoo and Hotmail will delay/block the invites.

[aKuMu]

How about http://www.2ch.net ? Worlds Largest BBS, or http://www.rakuten.co.jp
or http://www.gyao.jp or http://www.nikkansports.com ？

[keatonatron]

Cyborg Ninja wrote:
I know you were trying to be smart with me but failed.

But really, I don't know "what's popular" even amongst English websites. I know what I like, but it all depends on personal taste. People who don't like videogames or blogs would find gamefaqs.com and myspace.com really boring.

So, I was just trying to get you to give us an idea of what type of sites you're looking for.

[Cyborg Ninja]

Sorry for being rude earlier. I guess I was just cranky. I like mostly game sites so it would be cool to find any sites with breaking news in that industry. Are there any social networking sites that are like (or hopefully better) than Myspace in Japan? What's that Gyao site for, anyway? I checked it out, and it looks like it has these "channels" of categories of ads. They're really short clips, though. Is there anything else on that site that's interesting? I did see a banner for a "delicious Collagen Drink."

[magma]

From Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary:

collagen: an insoluble fibrous protein of vertebrates that is the chief constituent of the fibrils of connective tissue (as in skin and tendons) and of the organic substance of bones and yields gelatin and glue on prolonged heating with water.

Yum! :9

[keatonatron]

Gyao is supposed to be free internet TV. I watched a music video on it once, but haven't gone back to explore the rest of the site to see what they offer (it's on my to-do list)

[prep_girl_Nessa]

one that doesn't append an advertisement to the end of all your outgoing mail

Meh, yahoo japan has free email, and it's probably really popular http://www.yahoo.co.jp . Not sure about the advertisement thing; that never really bothered me. I know they have advertisements in the English version of Yahoo Mail, but I can't remember about the Japanese one...

[Frumious Boojum]

Torunamu wrote:
Gmail still takes invites, yeah. You'd need a friend with an account or to PM someone with an account (I'll give you an invite) telling them where to send it. However, Yahoo and Hotmail will delay/block the invites.

There is one other way....

Gmail will send you an invite if you have a cell phone. That's the way I got my account.

[Cyborg Ninja]

I have a Japanese Yahoo account right now -- that's why I asked cos they add advertisements at the end of outgoing messages. And no way I'm giving Google my cell phone number. Maybe if I grab somebody else's phone and get it with that number. Yeah, I'm mean and selfish and would gladly sell out somebody else's personal info for a Gmail invite. Then again, I'd have to wonder if I'm comfortable with Google storing my email so they can create advertising revenue from it.