Nippon VoiceBlog

This unique voice blog is great for reading and listening practice. Generally, posts are of various Japanese cultural topics (e.g. setsubun, business cards, geisha and maiko, Valentines day, etc.) and are long enough to be challenging but short enough to not be discouraging for less advanced students. And each post includes a native speaker reading the text. I recommend listening first to see how much you understand, then go through the text with a took like rikaichan and then listen again.