Learn Japanese script by playing
Japanese uses three scripts at once. Hiragana carries grammar, katakana carries borrowed words, kanji carry meaning. You can be reading simple sentences within a week of drilling the first two.
Play nowHear every kana · free accountCreate a free account to open the Study Room.The order that works
Learn the 46 basic hiragana first, in the traditional gojūon order: the five vowels, then k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w rows. Then the voiced forms — が, ざ, だ, ば — which are the same shapes with two ticks, and ぱ with a small circle. Then the small-ya combinations like きゃ, きゅ, きょ. Katakana comes next and maps one-to-one onto hiragana, so it costs far less than it looks. Kanji is open-ended and comes last.
Hiragana chart and practice → · Katakana → · Starter kanji →
Typing Japanese is its own skill
A Japanese keyboard does not have a key per kana. You type romaji and the IME converts: ka becomes か as you type, shi becomes し, and a doubled consonant like kk gives you っ. Kanji require one more step — type the reading, then choose the right candidate from the bar. That conversion step is exactly the skill that makes you fast at typing Japanese, and the games drill it, because the character only counts when it actually appears.
Why an arcade game and not a flashcard app
Flashcards test recognition at your own pace. Reading real Japanese does not happen at your own pace. A falling character gives you two or three seconds, which is roughly the budget you have when reading a sign or a subtitle, and the pressure is what converts "I know this one" into "I read this one".