So... does an "ARef" exist?

[Emoni]

I was always kind of curious about this... I thought asking about such a thing when there is "kind of" an existing section on the forum. However, that section is pretty limited and I've never been one to hold back on a question.

Does there exist on the "Japan Interwebz" a forum similar to JRef, but for the other US side of the equation? Japanese asking questions in Japanese about American life, politics, social behavior and such? My Japanese is still limited but I've been thinking, there have been numerous time where Japanese posters have answered questions of mine, and I'd like practice with the language... so why not do a bit of reciprocation with some personal language practice?

I've checked in the past, but the Japanese forums and boards I ran into turned out to be a messy text-based clusterf$%^ of threads all messed up and drug out. I'm sure that other sections exist, so I was wondering... can anyone point me in the right direction?

[ASHIKAGA]

I did a little looking aorund but as you said, those message boards that do exist are pretty messy. Are you familiar with YAHOO ANSWERS, where ppl can post questions and others can post replies/answers? YAHOO JAPAN has its equivalent, YAHOO 知恵袋, and it looks like to me comes closest to what you are looking for. This link takes you to the 海外生活 (http://search.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/dir/list/d2078297941) section. Have a look.

[undrentide]

Goo知恵袋 is something similar to Yahoo知恵袋。
http://otasuke.goo-net.com/932/942/c947.html
Goo知恵袋＞[地域情報]旅行・レジャー・生活＞海外＞北アメリカ

I've tried Google with アメリカ and について知りたい as keywords, then most of the result lead to this kind of Q&A forum. (Okwave, 楽天, Infoseek seem to be sharing the same system.)

[Emoni]

I'll check those links out. I still don't know why Japan has such AWFUL forum designs though...