I'm on lesson 20 of Pimsleur's Japanese III, and I expect to be done with all of them in a week or two. I really like these lessons, because they give me a chance to practice my pronunciation and build my "grammatical intuition" for Japanese through audio alone. The fact that no reading is required for this activity is the main reason I like it, not only because my reading ability for Japanese is still close to zero, but also because, even if I could read Japanese a lot better, being able to practice my Japanese while doing "reading-unfriendly" activities (e.g. washing dishes, etc.) is still a huge convenience.

Is there anything out there that could serve as a suitable follow-up?

Thanks!

Check out the audiobooks thread - those would be your best bet, I think. Find something of interest to listen to while doing mundane tasks, which (if you'd like) you could later on read through with the accompanying audio, etc. Awesome way to get your listening on.

I suppose there's also the lessons at Japanesepod 101, but I couldn't get into them... way too much English chatter, and the host's Japanese accent is offensively bad.

But assuming Pimsleur has given you a decent foundation, why not go straight for audiobooks and other native listening materials?

Most audiobooks are a bit content-dense for someone who has only done Pimsleur, but yeah, I would definitely study movies or something. You can strip the audio and put it on an MP3 player.

Of course, I´ve only seen the Pimsleur 1, so I don´t actually know how much material Pimsleur actually covers.
The closest experience that I actually have is that I understood absolutely nothing of Spanish audiobooks after three years of classes*. After just three months of Spanish television, however, I was able to actually understand what the narrator was saying and learn from it.

*not entirely true... I was able to undestand audiobooks made for learners of the language in which the narator spoke rediculously slowly.... They were boring, but not as boring as Pimsleur, I guess. In any case, I couldn't make my way through them.

I would recommend this...
http://www.voiceblog.jp/japaneselistening/

It is a couple of guys talking about random things (curry, trains, etc). Most of the conversations are transcribed in txt form for previewing/looking up words, etc. Might be a nice start, but it is a bit dense at times.

And also...
http://jclab.wordpress.com/

Again, a bit high level stuff, but it is transcribed and some are short.

However, I think you are looking for something that leads you along and helps you. In this case japanesepod101.com has tons of audio tracks and starts from basic and goes through upper intermediate. I have the audio from when I was a member and have yet to go through all 9 gigs of it.

brianobush Wrote:I would recommend this...
http://www.voiceblog.jp/japaneselistening/

It is a couple of guys talking about random things (curry, trains, etc). Most of the conversations are transcribed in txt form for previewing/looking up words, etc. Might be a nice start, but it is a bit dense at times.

And also...
http://jclab.wordpress.com/

Again, a bit high level stuff, but it is transcribed and some are short.

However, I think you are looking for something that leads you along and helps you. In this case japanesepod101.com has tons of audio tracks and starts from basic and goes through upper intermediate. I have the audio from when I was a member and have yet to go through all 9 gigs of it.

Awesome, just bookmarked these!

Congratulations on doing Pimsleur all the way through! You will -not- regret it!

However, you're about to find out that Pimsleur was insanely simple compared to actual Japanese. You have no vocab other than about 30 words and the low numbers. It's simply not enough. Also, Pimsleur taught you some basic grammar, but not more than would fit in a few pages of the basic grammar dictionary.

You now need to start concentrating on your vocabulary and grammar. I personally use Renshuu.org right now for my study needs. In the past, I have also used ReadTheKanji.com, Smart.fm and LiveMocha. I would probably recommend either Renshuu or Smart.fm for you.