Japanese Study Resources for iPad

MagicToaster

I'd like to get some tools to help me study Japanese on my iPad in my free time. It doesn't need to be a free app, and it doesn't matter if they are a little expensive.

I'm looking for the following items:

Dictionary: I'm looking for an English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionary that includes example sentences of the word I've looked up, I'm also interested in Kanji search by stroke count, drawing it or taking a picture.

Grammar: I speak Japanese well enough, but I'd like to get to know the grammar a bit deeper. Any grammar study guide is fine.

JLPT: I plan on taking it soon. Is there a good study guide on the iPad?

Parallel Reading: I once bought a book called Breaking into Japanese Literature, it had Japanese on one side and English on the other along with a list of kanji that you might not know. Is there something digital like that?

Thanks, guys! I've downloaded so many crappy apps that I'm starting to believe there are no good ones.

KrubixCube

I'd be interested in this myself...

KrubixCube

I was out with a friend tonight at an Izakaya and he had a dictionary that had handwriting support for looking up Kanji that seemed to work pretty well, will find out what the app is and report back to you...

MagicToaster

Awesome, thanks!

astronautcowboy3

The best dictionary is "Japanese" by codefromtokyo. The free alternative, Kotoba, is also well-liked, but if you're willing to spend some money Japanese is unmatched. Most applications have hand-writing recognition, but they almost all suck. I wouldn't put your bets on any app that boasts it as it's key feature. Most of these hand-writing recognition programs (even in my beloved Japanese) are based on Chinese keyboard inputs (which are all iPhones have natively).

Some of the users on my site use and really like StickyStudy (which is free through JLPT5 material). You should also look into Anki - it doesn't have anything to study natively, but can be expanded infinitely. It's an SRS (spaced repetition) program that will digitize your flashcards. You could download decks of cards or make your own. You can sync between a mobile app, a web app and a desktop app as well. It is the king. The new mobile app is due out this month, as well.

I'm also partial to KanjiBox. You can try it out free at kanjibox.net