One of my fellow students suggested exchanging useful (?) culture-related online references, the idea I wholeheartedly support. Here is one to start with; I hope there are still some people among us who are not familiar with it.

It is a list of answers to obscure (and not-so-obscure) questions about modern culture and society. Some of the most interesting to me were perhaps

• What is the difference between a "Mansion" and an "Apaato"?
• Why is tobacco written in hiragana when all other foreign words are in katakana?
• What is the longest Japanese kanji?
• What on earth are those green plastic leaves they put in bento boxes for?

and many more. The reference itself is http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/saq.html