Learn to read & write Japanese kana — five minutes at a time.
Intro
What hiragana & katakana are, and how the system works.
Learn & Write
Flashcards (grade yourself) + finger-tracing practice.
Sounds & Extras
Voiced marks, combos, long vowels, small っ — with practice.
Progress & decks
Your gojūon chart, color-coded — plus custom decks by confidence.
Stroke order
Watch each character drawn, then practice — we check order & direction.
Words
Build up to real vocabulary.
What is kana?
Japanese has two phonetic alphabets — hiragana and katakana — plus kanji. Each kana is one syllable (a “mora”). Each set has 46 basic kana: 5 vowels (あ a, い i, う u, え e, お o) and consonant rows (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w) ending with ん (n).
ひらがな Hiragana
Rounded, flowing shapes. Used for native Japanese words, grammar, and anything not written in kanji. Start here — it’s the foundation.
カタカナ Katakana
Sharper, angular shapes for the same 46 sounds. Used for foreign/loan words, names, onomatopoeia, emphasis. You’ll see it on menus: コーラ (cola), メニュー (menu), アレルギー (allergy).
How to use this
Learn shows 5 at a time — first in order (A→O), then reversed (O→A), then shuffled — and grades you; a row unlocks the next once you know it. Write lets you trace. Sounds & Extras covers the marks that change kana.
Trace the faint character with your finger. (Stroke-order & direction detection coming soon.)
Tap ▶ Watch to see the strokes drawn in order, then draw them yourself and Check — we grade order & direction (the difference between シ and ツ!).