Learn the strokes, drill them on a sheet, then write every kana from memory. Spaced repetition brings back the ones you miss.
Every row follows the same path: learn the strokes, drill them on a sheet, write them from memory in the Trainer, then read them back in Recall. Spaced repetition decides what comes back next, so nothing slips.
Open a row page: watch each stroke animate, hear the sound, and trace it with guides until the shape feels familiar.
Fill a sheet of squares, line by line. Every square is judged as you write it, guided or free-hand, and the sheet earns a grade.
Write each character from its sound alone. The free-hand judge scores every write on the spot, and spaced repetition brings the shaky ones back sooner.
Read them back in quick games. Swipe and free-fall drills earn the reading side of each character, row by row.
Kanji, vocabulary decks and grammar drills run on the same canvas and the same schedule, so the habit carries straight through.
Same canvas — two readings, stroke by stroke.
Build decks; write the reading from memory.
Drills, not lectures — use the rule to learn it.
The trainer and games keep your kana quick.
If you're new to Japanese, kana is where you start — that's Hiragana and Katakana, two scripts of 46 characters each. Once you can read them, the language stops looking like a wall. This site is built to get you over that wall and keep you moving: from kana through kanji, into grammar drills that teach you how words actually combine, and into spaced-repetition decks that pace your vocabulary so the words stick. It's all one continuous flow — the same writing canvas and spaced-repetition engine the whole way through. Pick where you want to start below.
Got a spare minute? The Hiragana trainer has you write characters from memory and brings back the ones you struggle with more often. For physical practice, the Hiragana practice sheets are printable PDFs with proper grid lines for stroke-order tracing. And with the printable flashcard maker you can pick any words from the vocabulary library and print them as double-sided cards to cut out.
Once individual characters feel natural, words are next. Search the vocabulary library by kana, romaji, or meaning, and add anything you want to study to a deck. Each card shows the meaning and an empty canvas — you write the reading from memory, then rate yourself Hard, Medium, or Easy. A spaced-repetition algorithm inspired by SuperMemo uses that rating to pick when the card comes back: minutes for Hard, days or weeks for Easy. Tweak the parameters in the deck's Settings if you want to dial in your own retention curve. Per-deck progress lives on a Schedule tab so you can see what's due now, what's due today, and what's still learning.
Once you can read Hiragana and Katakana, the next questions tend to come fast. How do I read this kanji? Why is there a は there instead of a が? How do I say "I went" instead of "I go"? Those are kanji, grammar, and vocabulary problems — and they're all here. You don't have to leave the site or open a new tab to keep going.
Kanji uses the exact same writing canvas as kana — tap a character, trace the strokes, write it from memory. The twist with kanji is that each one usually has two readings: an on'yomi (from Chinese, used in compound words) and a kun'yomi (native Japanese, usually when the kanji stands alone). Both are right there on the side panel along with the meaning, stroke count, and a few example compounds so you see the character in context. Browse by JLPT tier if you're studying for the test, or by lesson if you'd rather follow a sequence.
Grammar gets practiced here the same way you'd practice anything else: small, frequent reps. Some exercises drill word order — you drag Japanese tokens into sentence shape. Some drill particles — you tap the right は or が into a blank. Some are matching games — you connect Japanese phrases to their meanings, or kanji to their readings. Others test verb conjugation patterns. The lessons walk you from basic "X is Y" sentences (です / じゃない) up through particles, past tense, negative forms, relative clauses, and the patterns you'll see in real Japanese.
Master every Hiragana family: あ い う え お (A I U E O), か き く け こ (Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko), さ し す せ そ (Sa Shi Su Se So), た ち つ て と (Ta Chi Tsu Te To), な に ぬ ね の (Na Ni Nu Ne No), は ひ ふ へ ほ (Ha Hi Fu He Ho), ま み む め も (Ma Mi Mu Me Mo), や ゆ よ (Ya Yu Yo), ら り る れ ろ (Ra Ri Ru Re Ro), and わ を ん (Wa Wo N).
46. They're grouped into families by consonant sound — A-I-U-E-O, then Ka-Ki-Ku-Ke-Ko, Sa-Shi-Su-Se-So, and so on down the chart. Each one represents a single syllable, which makes Hiragana phonetic and consistent in a way English handwriting isn't.
Every character has a specific order — generally left-to-right, top-to-bottom — and writing them out of order makes the result look off even if you can't quite say why. Stroke order also makes you faster once it's automatic. The site shows the right order for every character; trace it a few times and it'll start to feel like the only way the strokes could possibly go.
Same sounds, different shapes. Both scripts cover the same 46 syllables — the difference is when each one shows up. Hiragana handles native Japanese words and grammatical bits like particles and verb endings. Katakana handles foreign loanwords (anything borrowed from English, French, Portuguese, etc.) and the occasional bit of emphasis or stylistic choice. You need both.
Recognition tends to take a couple of weeks with daily reps. Writing from memory takes longer — a month or so before it really feels automatic. The faster path is spaced repetition: short, frequent sessions instead of long cram sessions, with the characters you're shakiest on coming back sooner.
Yes. Use everything on the site without signing up for anything.
The basic idea: what you got right yesterday does not need to come back today, what you got wrong should come back soon, and the gap between reviews should grow each time you remember. There is nothing to rate yourself on. For kana and vocabulary alike, the free-hand judge scores each write, and that score drives the schedule: about three clean writes graduate an item from the learning steps, clean reviews stretch the interval to days and then weeks, and a poor write brings it back within the session.
Yes. Head to the Vocabulary library, search it by kana, romaji, or English meaning, and tap "+" to add any word to a deck. Build whatever decks make sense for you: JLPT N5 verbs, kitchen words, things you saw in a manga last weekend. Then open Decks to study them: each word shows its meaning and a row of empty squares where you write the reading from memory, one kana per square. The judge scores the word and decides when it comes back.
Whichever kana set you didn't start with — hiragana and katakana cover the same sounds with different shapes, and you'll see both in real Japanese. After that, kanji and grammar are the next walls. Kanji because there are a lot of them; grammar because you have to start asking why は instead of が. The good news: both are on this site, built into the same canvas and drill flow the rest of the site uses.
Yes. Kanji mode uses the same handwriting canvas as kana — tap a character, trace the strokes, write from memory. The catch with kanji is that each one usually has two readings: an on'yomi (from Chinese) and a kun'yomi (native Japanese). Both are on the side panel along with the meaning and a few example compounds so you see the character in context. You can browse by JLPT tier if you're studying for the test, or by lesson if you'd rather follow a sequence.
Yes. The grammar lessons walk you from basic "X is Y" sentences (です / じゃない) up through particles, verb conjugation (る-verbs, う-verbs, irregulars), negatives, past tense, and relative clauses. Each lesson has interactive drills instead of static explanations — drag tokens into sentence shape, tap the right particle into a blank, connect Japanese phrases to their English meanings, spin a wheel of verb endings. The point is to actually use the rule, not just read about it.