Currently I'm studying with renshuu and so far it's being amazing.
That said, I want to improve my listening and learning more about the culture as well by immersing myself into Japanese media, readings and anything else to help my journey.
For an absolute beginner, what kind of content are recommended to immersion?
Thanks in advance and forgive any mistakes in my writing.
While a good idea if possible, I'm pretty sure homestays are out of reach for most learners.
The reality is that for absolute beginners, immersion is somewhat unrealistic. The amount of immersion that allows native speakers ( as babies/kids) to immerse without having formal teaching of the language is many, many hours every single day of native "content".
For learners like us, things are a bit different. While some things can be picked up slowly over context, it is usually far from ideal.
If you're looking for actual immersion, most people look towards consumption of native-language content. While still hard (if not impossible) for beginners, books written for kids are often a low-pressure entry into the world. They are typically picture books, which makes it much easier to link the language to the meaning.
While the site itself is in Japanese (as it is meant for Japanese parents looking for stuff for their kids), I've always liked https://ehon.alphapolis.co.jp/ - it splits things up by age groups, and while some can be a struggle even for intermediates, with a bit of grammar, you'll be able to get a surprising amount with certain books.
Realistically, I think the best that one can do outside of actually being here in Japan is to be very intentional about what you are reading and listening to. Consistency is also really important. There are graded readers in Japanese but I don't know how widely available they are. You can find plenty of free websites with reading practice (stories, etc.) that are more or less the same as a graded reader. There are a ton of YouTube channels dedicated to listening practice and the good ones usually have both English and Japanese subtitles (so you can practice reading, too). I think OkkeiJapan and Japanese with Shun are very good about that and Shun usually has pop-ups with definitions for words that might be challenging. They both level their language and have it listed in the video title. For higher-level Japanese, I like SAYAS Japanese Lesson but I usually just watch videos made for Japanese native speakers. NHK has various materials for learning Japanese and usually have videos/articles for learning about the culture. I used to read NHK News Easy everyday and you can change the level of difficulty.
Overall, I suggest spending as much time as you can engaging with materials that interest you. If you don't have an interest in cars, don't read car-related materials. Depending where you live, you could try to find a Japanese community to interact with.
Maybe watch some movies with English subtitles but the people speak in Japanese so if your struggling you could go back to the subtitles or watch videos on something that your interested in but have the language in Japanese, for example I like video games so I could watch a video about video games but the people talk in Japanese
Something super affordable and immersive would be watching Japanese youtubers. I am currently watching a youtuber called Minori and she has both English and Japanese speaking videos or a mix in her videos and it is also a great immersion into culture as well. I think her current videos as of May 2026 are Japan travel videos in a camper van or something like that.
For a very beginner, podcasts could be a good option. You can find podcasts for all levels of learning. Find some at your difficulty level which you like, and listen to them while you do other tasks. As you get better, you get more choice, and can start listening to podcasts on topics which actually interest you.
Same goes for youtube, at the beginning you have to listen to stuff for learners, but later branch out into the things which actually interest you. For example, i'm an avid hiker, so i watch hiking videos in japanese. And even though they tend to be paced relatively slowly, they keep my attention because i'm interested in them. But i'd be utterly bored watching videos about gardening or soccer or whatever.
And in general, go for things which actually interest you! I find it much easier to stick to something difficult which i'm interested in than to something easy which i don't care about.
Thank you everyone for all the help. I'm following up with following some Japanese creators, since I love cooking and comedy shows, although books are easier to get along, I do want to learn pronunciation too, since Japanese words have different meanings based on pitch, I guess.
