“Hirogaru, get more of Japan and Japanese” is a site for learning different things about Japan and the Japanese language through your own interests.

• There are 12 topics in all.
• Familiarize yourself with natural Japanese and things about Japan through videos.
• Practice reading lots of easy Japanese.
• Listen to articles being read.
• Find out which kanji are used in a particular topic and practice typing.
• Find out about how Japanese people think about that topic.
• Find out which words are used in that topic.
• There's a Japanese page and an English page. The English page has translations for the words and kanji.
• You can attach ruby (furigana).

How to...

There are 12 topics in all.
Each topic comes with: "TOP VIDEO", "ARTICLE", "TOPIC & WATASHI", "QUESTIONS", and "KANJI". You can switch between the Japanese page, English page, and with or without ruby (furigana).  

Article on English page, no ruby setting.

Article on Japanese page, ruby setting.

 

TOP VIDEO

You can watch videos of people and places related to the topic. You can select subtitles or no subtitles on the TOP VIDEO.

ARTICLE

You can read and listen to lots of articles. You might even learn new words.  Difficult words are also listed on the English page. Take the quiz at the end of each article to check and see if you understood. Which article would you like to read?

KANJI

In KANJI, look at the photos of the kanji used to make sure you know them or confirm what they mean on the English page. You can also practice how to correctly type kanji in Japanese.

SHOKU

While not available for every topic, there are also sections on food. You can read short, simple Japanese descriptions about food related to the topic. You can learn more food-related vocabulary on the English page.

QUESTIONS

Read the questions and everyone's answers (MINNA no Answers) about each topic. Reading MINNA no Answers will help you to know more about countries and regions around the world. How would you answer the question? Think about it!

On this site, you can learn about Japan and the Japanese language through topics that interest you. There are lots of articles and videos for each topic, so you can learn new words and kanji. There are 12 topics in all, so you can start with what interests you the most and explore a little at a time, until you might want to learn even more about Japan!