Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary

It was a really helpful tool for me. I don’t speak Japanese or any other second langauge for that matter but didn’t want to appear as the “Ugly American” who only speaks English and makes no attempts at the native tongue when abroad. In fact I will now use all of the lanuage dictionaries when taking a vacation, it can’t hurt.

RANDOM HOUSE
JAPANESE-ENGLISH
ENGLISH-JAPANESE
DICTIONARY
RELIABLE, DETAILED, AND UP-TO-DATE 
* More than 50,000 entries, including the most common meanings
* Two sections, Japanese-English and English-Japanese
* All entries, from A to Z, in a single alphabetical listing 
* Japanese terms shown in romanized Japanese and standard Japanese characters
* Hundreds of new words, including eizu (AIDS) and nyuryoku (computer input)
* Thousands of idioms, phrases, and common expressions illustrate typical usage
* Includes Japanese cultural items, such as yobiko (cram school), and gives source of foreign borrowings, such as nyusu (news) 
* American English spelling and vocabulary 
* Extensive use of explanatory glosses to specify precise meaning and assure appropriate translation.