I purchased this electronic dictionary with the suggestion from my Japanese language professors in Japan. While it is difficult to learn how it works at first, this dictionary has saved me a number of times while having conversations as well as creating Japanese compositions.
Dedicate a day to translating the main buttons and learning how to view the hiragana when you're given kanji. The instruction booklet will also be helpful, but since it's written in Japanese, it will take a while to figure out what you want to know.
There are aspects to this dictionary that you as an English speaker learning Japanese will NOT use, but for the price, this dictionary is excellent. It's all an all-around dictionary (meaning, not just for jr. high/high school students, etc.) as well!
