Some people recommend watching television to improve your listening in Japanese, but I found I made my biggest gains in „¤­È¡¤ê (kikitori, listening), °kÒô (hatsuon, pronunciation) and ¥ê¥º¥à (rizumu, rhythm) by listening to Òô˜S (ongaku, music).

Òô˜S¤ÎºÃ¤ß¤Ï‚€ÈˤÎ×ÔÓɤǤ¹ (Ongaku no konomi wa kojin no jiy¨± desu, Music is a matter of personal taste), of course, and the ¸è (uta, songs) you like will differ in ¥Æ¥ó¥İ (tenpo, tempo) and ¸è¤¤·½ (utaikata, style of singing). I prefer ¥í¥Ã¥¯ (rokku, rock) and ¥Ñ¥ó¥¯ (panku, punk) as a matter of taste, but any genre will do as long as it has clear ¸èÔ~ (kashi, lyrics).

¸èÔ~ are the key. I'm used to buying CDs and I have a ton of them by Japanese bands. CDs will almost always include a ¸èÔ~¥«©`¥É (kashi k¨¡do, CD jacket with lyrics) that you can use to memorize the songs and sing along with them. I prefer to write out the ¸èÔ~ into a notebook along with Õñ¤ê¢Ãû (furigana, the small hiragana written above kanji) so I would know the correct Õi¤ß·½ (yomikata, way to read) and ÑÔ¤¤·½ (iikata, way to say) for the words. Copying them out also helps with memorization.