The Art of Hiragana & Katakana

Jumbo bamboo shoots. Has anyone ever tried these?

For when you really want to eat crab and don't have time to sit!

A busy Tokyo station. Notice the signage is using Kanji and Katakana, not Hiragana. It does also include English and Korean here though.

Love the baked goods in Tokyo! Yakisoba noodles in a bun is surprisingly popular...

Huge temple guardians at Todaiji, Nara

Electronic stores in Akihabara are enormous. I never saw so much space allocated to phone cases though!

You had better practice your Katakana. Check out the sign that shows the reader what is available on each floor. You can get lost on the escalators!

Japanese calligraphy at the temple. It's popular to buy a special note pad and collect the unique signatures and stamps at each temple or attraction that participates. Some smaller temples sell you a calligraphy sticker instead.

Learn Japanese language for the beginner. Study both Hiragana and Katakana in this comprehensive workbook. Learn to write each character, study sample words and sentences, learn basic particles and important dates and times and counters.

Available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09BGLZ29L
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BGLZ29L

At the old Tsukuji fish street market you can find anything you like, as long as its fish related... The pink flakes are also fish shavings such as Katsuo Bushi Bonito Flakes, intensely Umami flavoured tuna.

Gashapon capsule shops in Akihabara, Tokyo. If you explore the different shops above street level you will find more and more of these along with many anime related toy shops.100, 200 or 500 Yen machines for every genre await you.

Expensive but nice! 高いですでもおいしい

The Art of Hiragana & Katakana updated their website address.

Seafood, noodles, and wasabi peanuts!

Japanese calligraphy at the temple. It's popular to buy a special note pad and collect the unique signatures at each temple or attraction that participates. Some smaller temples sell you a calligraphy sticker instead.

Delicious Takoyaki. Does anyone know what Tako is?

Please read the instructions!

Pronounced Key O Tow. When written in English characters, called Romaji (Roman Characters) the mark above the character o extends its sound when speaking.

Real world Katakana.

Ignore the English, you only get that in Tokyo!

The first is called Hiragana ひらがな

Hiragana is made up of characters that represent the vowels and other syllables. These are compiled to create the words, such as Hi(ひ) Ra(ら) Ga(が) Na(な) (Hiragana) foreign language students as well as Japanese children start by learning the characters of Hiragana. A basic form of pronunciation for most words is simply sticking to the sounds of the separate syllables, as with Hi-Ra-Ga-Na above. Hiragana, of course, is the basis of this book.
This book will show you how to write each character and understand the alphabets to read and write basic Japanese. Each character is shown with stroke order indicated to guide you how to construct them. Once you are used to the characters you will find your own style.

The first set of characters we will learn are the 46 basic Hiragana characters. With practice you will learn to construct Japanese words directly from these characters without using their English translations.