Free Japanese learning games and tools

Getting Started with JapaneseUp

Hiragana is one of the Japanese alphabets. Without mastering it, you’d be hard-pressed to advance further in your Japanese language studies. So let’s get cracking, memorize your hiragana and ditch the romaji. You can learn how to write hiragana by playing our popular alphabet typing game. You can also learn how to pronounce these Japanese alphabet symbols.

Katakana is another Japanese alphabet you should master. You use it to write words derived from non-Japanese origins. After mastering hiragana, you can move on to memorize the katakana alphabet. You can learn how to write in katakana with our katakana stroke chart. With the hiragana and katakana alphabets under your belt, you’d have a strong foundation on which to build your Japanese knowledge, congrats!

Now, you can start to appreciate the beauty of kanji. Kanji is derived from Chinese characters, which is based on pictographs. As you read or browse simple Japanese reading materials (such as signage, newspapers, magazines, etc), you’d realize that kanji is often used in everyday communication. Don’t know where to start? No worries, just hop over to our basic kanji letters.

If you’re a beginner, you’d find it rewarding to learn some Japanese phrases which you can use in conversations immediately. This will boost your confidence in speaking and learning Japanese. Some useful examples include:
Telling time in Japanese
Japanese greetings
Japanese dates
Counting in Japanese