That is very interesting. I'm always feel very humbled when I talk to people who know multiple languages. I've only got English and a bit of Japanese so that's as far as my personal experience goes. From what I've heard though, languages like French and Englsh are quite similiar. Basically European languages all have similar roots (especially when compared to languages like Eng vs Jp). I think the fact that the cultures are somewhat similar lends a lot to this idea.
I can see that you are looking for very specific nuances in words and phrasing. If I understand correctly, you're looking for an almost firm definition of a word enabling you to utilize it in as many contexts as possible.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought of things this way, but I'll say it anyways (as best I can). If this is obvious to you I apologize (which it may very well be as you have studied so many languages). At some point in my studies, I realized that I was looking at words from English and Japanese as though they were on some kind of venn diagram. That was a huge epiphany to me as this was a concept I think I really would have benefited from earlier on. To give you an idea of what I mean, think of the words "はい" and "Yes". Now if you made a venn diagram of those two words you would certainly see a lot of overlapping area. However, you would also find areas that don't overlap... as well as some areas were one word might even overlap with the opposite of the other!
For example, はい can be used as ”あいづち” in areas were "yes" wouldn't be appropriate. Getting into the realm of culture, you could say "はい" (as あいづち) when it might be appropriate to say "No" in English.
For another example, think of a color. "Blue" vs ”青い”. I can think of many situations where 青い would overlap with my (American) English concept of "green" (like certain types of grass or tea or street lights... also the idea of "being green (like a rookie)" is "青" in Japanese.
These are two seemingly elementary words-- something you might learn within the first couple of chapters of any Japanese textbook. I find it interesting to note that you could write a chapter or maybe even a whole book on either one of those examples. That kind of deep contextual meaning doesn't really have a place in a dictionary... furthermore, I can't even imagine trying to document this phenomenon for all kinds of words! I'm sure the writers and editers of dictionaries are aware of this concept, but I highly doubt that anyone could have such a thorough understanding of this concept as to be able to express it in the shorthandedness of a dictionary entry.
I have to ask you Mike, do you see the 'venn diagram' thing I was talking about as applicable to Russian-English or Russian-French, or any of the possible combinations of the languages you've learned? If you do see it, do the dictionaries you've had experience with compensate appropriately for it in your opinion? In my experience this is one area where ENG-JP, JP-ENG dictonaries are really lacking. The examples in-context that electronic dictionaries sometimes supply can make up for this a little bit though.
I mean, I agree with you-- a $500 dictionary is steep. You might as well invest that money into a plane ticket to Japan. I'd imagine you'd get your money's worth that way
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By the way you have me interested in the Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary-- I'm gonna be looking at some reviews of it. I'm curious as to what it has to offer that other dictionaries lack in. I'm also curious if the dictionaries you end up getting are a continuation of what you found useful in the Beginner's books.
EDIT*
"Now, this is very interesting, if we follow your logic that digital=better. Whereas I'd have to pay ￥44,100.00 (CAD $529.379) to have a set of the most comprehensive paper E-J and J-E dictionaries on earth, I can pay a mere CAD $219.98 for a set of both, right on my iPhone (or iPod Touch, or iPad!) This is it! This is the answer I have been looking for!"
That sounds pretty cool. One of the things that interests me about the "digitalization" of books like this is the possible ability to do a "ctrl-f"-like search to jump around and find what I'm looking for in seconds rather than hours! God I wish I had that ability in college while writing essays-- I could've been even lazier about it all.