Isolation tanks were invented by John Lilly, an American scientist who experimented heavily in the 1960s with altered states of mind. What he came up with in his quest to isolate the mind from the body, is a light-proof, sound-proof tank with about eight inches of water made super-buoyant by magnesium salt. Both the water and the air inside the tank are kept at around 93 degrees Fahrenheit (the same temperature as your skin) and you float in this empty, weightless, silent darkness, alone with only your mind and the thought “How long is an hour, really?”

Are you an iPhone owner? And a learner of Japanese? Then this one’s for you. Harvey over at JapanNewbie has created some new and updated iPhone Apps that he believes will be useful to help Japanese learners study Japanese numbers and particles.

There are a surprisingly large number of applications for studying Japanese to be found in the App Store, and you can find applications suitable for all occasions and ability levels, from on-the-go cramming on the train or bus to several-hour study sessions at your local café. It would be a daunting task to cover all the Japanese study applications found in the App Store, but having tried a good number of them, I’ve compiled a list of my favorites.

Traveling around Japan, but don’t yet know Japanese? If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, there are plenty of solutions to all your language needs.

Tired of missing your favorite movies and TV shows because you’re living in Japan? If you have a fast Internet connection, you don’t have to. Here’s what you need to do to catch back up on all your favorite shows.

If you love to study Japanese, yet hate having to carry around a bag full of study materials, you might want to think about trading all that in for an iPad.

The JLPT exam is just around the corner, and if you need one last learning tool to really solidify your understanding of Japanese particles for the JLPT level 4, a new iPhone App I created called “Japanese 101: Particles” just might do the trick. (A future update will include JLPT level 3 content.) “Japanese 101: Particles” was just released on Nov. 25, so it’s really hot off the press. The application trains users in the correct use of Japanese particles. It takes an audio-visual approach and uses native-speaker audio and large fonts to really drive home the examples sentences.

The long commute to work got you down? Why not download a few games for your iPhone or iPod Touch to kill some time?

Find out how to access Japan-only iPhone applications as well the Japanese iTunes Store.

Want to share your JET experience with the world but don’t want just any old Blogger blog? Wide Island View Webmaster Joshua Zimmerman shows us just how easy it is to set up your very own slick-looking custom blog with a custom domain name. The best part? It only costs ¥1,000 to get started. This helpful little guide will have you up and running within an hour, minimal computer skills required.