Hiragana, katakana & kanji · iPhone
Every kana.
900 words.
In 2 to 3 weeks.
Ōkini teaches you to read Japanese step by step. Read a real word, type how it sounds, and the correction explains what you missed. Five minutes is enough, and you can keep going as long as you like, from your very first vowel to full sentences.
Open beta on iPhone, through TestFlight. Free.
No limits
Five minutes or an hour. You decide.
One series on the metro, two at lunch, three in the evening because it’s sinking in. Ōkini doesn’t count your minutes: it counts what you can read.
- Two series a day: a goal, not a limit
- No timer, no lives
- Every kana free, in full
A day with Ōkini
Tuesday
8:10 am
済A series on the metro
12:40 pm
済済Two at lunch
- Daily goal reached, and nothing stops
6:30 pm
済One on the train home
4 series today: good flow, stop whenever it stops feeling clear.
One piece of advice, once. The choice stays yours.
9:15 pm
済済Two more, because it’s sinking in
6 series today. No timer stopped you, no lives lost.
Try it
Read your first Japanese word in one minute.
Here are the ten characters from the first step, exactly as they appear in the app. Take a look, then read three real words. Stuck? The chart is one tap away, just like in the app.
Each one always sounds the same: か is k + a, so ka.
Look at the ten characters, then tap “Let’s go”.
The word-by-word method
Learn kana by reading real words, not by reciting them.
Most apps have you learn the characters one at a time before you ever see a word. Ōkini starts with the words: from the very first step, you read あか, えき, こえ, and the characters stick because you’re reading them. That’s the word-by-word method, and it brings together three things.
You type what you read
You type the reading of the whole word or sentence. There’s no guessing, and the correction pinpoints the exact character to review.
Vocabulary comes along with it
916 everyday words and 151 sentences, broken down word by word. As you keep running into them, everyday words and your first sentence patterns start to feel familiar, and the lessons notebook explains them whenever you want.
Always within reach
Each step only uses characters you already know. Then the spaces between words fade out, until you can read Japanese the way it’s actually written.
A series
Five minutes per series. Progress every day.
A series is twelve words or sentences to read, followed by eight quick recall questions. Each step teaches you a few new characters and puts them straight into words.
Read real words from day one
Each step teaches you a few characters and has you read them straight away in everyday words: sky, cat, station, tomorrow. You type what you read, so you have to actually read it.
Understand every mistake
The correction pinpoints the exact character you missed. The first time a new rule comes up (the small っ, long vowels, particles), a short tip explains it, right when you need it.
Pick up vocabulary and grammar along the way
Every sentence is broken down word by word, with the reading and meaning of each one. You learn useful words and your first sentence patterns without memorising lists.
Remember it for good
Every series ends with eight questions with no chart. Ōkini spots the characters you struggle with and brings them back until you know them.
Go at your own pace
Home shows you your next series and what it will teach you. Two series a day is enough, and you can always do more.
Your path
A clear path, from your first vowel to whole sentences.
Seven chapters, in order. Each step only uses what you’ve already learned, so everything you read is within your reach. Allow 2 to 3 weeks at two series a day.
- あ
Hiragana
Temple of the First Stroke
The 46 basic hiragana, row by row, and your first words.
- が
Dakuten
Temple of the Dewdrop
Two little strokes or a circle, and the sound changes: か ka, が ga.
- きゃ
Special readings
Temple of the Bell
Long vowels, the small っ, and the small ゃ ゅ ょ combinations.
- は
Particles
Temple of the Knot
は, を, の, です: your first full sentences.
- 文
Hiragana sentences
Temple of Running Water
Longer sentences, then written like real Japanese, without spaces.
- ア
Katakana
Temple of the Traveller
The script for foreign words, on menus and signs everywhere: コーヒー, タクシー.
- 仮名
Mixed sentences
Temple of Harmony
Hiragana and katakana together, the way you’ll see them in Japan.
By the end, you’ll read without spaces
これはほんです
kore wa hon desu This is a book.
What’s next
Kana are only the beginning.
Ōkini will take you further, using the same method. The goal: to read, understand and build everyday sentences, and then to speak.
- 仮名Available01
The kana
Hiragana and katakana, 900 everyday words and your first sentences.
- 漢字Available02
Everyday Japanese
The most common kanji, inside words you can already read, and the grammar of daily life: ます, adjectives, に, で, ください.
- 文法Next03
Connecting your ideas
The て form: saying what you want and what you can do, making comparisons. Around 350 kanji.
- 会話Then04
Nuance, then speaking
Conditionals, polite forms, around 700 kanji. By then you’ll have covered the core grammar, and speaking comes in.
No dates yet: each new path launches when it’s ready. What you learn today is the foundation for all of it.
Rewards
Finish a chapter, earn a temple seal.
In Japan, temples stamp their visitors’ books with a seal called a goshuin. Ōkini gives you one at the end of each chapter, dated the day you earned it. Your book fills up as you progress.
- Temple of the First Strokeあ一筆一奉拝令和八年九月二十六日一筆寺印
- Temple of the Dewdropが雫二奉拝令和八年九月二十六日雫寺印
- Temple of the Bellっ鐘声三奉拝令和八年九月二十六日鐘声寺印
- Temple of the Knotは結四奉拝令和八年九月二十六日結寺印
- Temple of Running Water文流水五奉拝令和八年九月二十六日流水寺印
- Temple of the Travellerア旅人六奉拝令和八年九月二十六日旅人寺印
- Temple of Harmony仮名和合七奉拝令和八年九月二十六日和合寺印
Nine charms to collect
They reward your habits: your first series, three days in a row, a series without the chart…
- EmaYour first series
- OmikujiA series without the chart
- OmamoriThree days in a row
- SuzuSeven days in a row
- ToriiThirty days in a row
- KitsuneFifty series
- Maneki-nekoA hundred series
- OfudaA perfect day
- TōrōA series after 10 pm
Your wish
Make a wish, and watch it come true.
In Japan, you paint one eye on a Daruma when you make a wish, and the other once it comes true. Yours: to read every kana.
Tap “First eye” to make your wish.
“I created Ōkini to learn Japanese with my own method, which blends active and passive learning. The goal is to speak the language one day, without it taking up too much of my time or energy each day. I built it on what memory research knows best, and every series and every tip was tested on me first.”
Questions
Everything you want to know before you start.
Tap “Try the beta on iPhone”: the link installs TestFlight, Apple’s app for testing apps, then Ōkini. It’s free, and your progress carries over to the App Store version.
No. Do as many series as you like, every day, with no timer and no lives to refill. Two series a day is enough to read every kana in 2 to 3 weeks; beyond that, you simply go faster.
The kana path is free, in full and with no limits. Level 2 (kanji and grammar) needs a subscription, after a first chapter on the house.
No. Ōkini starts from the very first vowel, あ.
With multiple choice, you can guess, or recognise a word without really reading it. Typing what you see means you actually read it, and you know exactly which character tripped you up.
On some of the best-established findings in memory research. Recalling an answer yourself, then seeing the correction, helps you remember it better than reading it again or picking it from a list (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Reviewing what you know less well, at spaced intervals, strengthens long-term memory (Cepeda et al., 2006). No study has tested Ōkini itself: we apply these findings and watch what they give in the app. The method and its sources.
Because Ōkini teaches you to read. To write on a phone, the keyboard offers you the characters and you only need to recognise them. The small studies on kana also show no clear advantage for mnemonics (Matsunaga, 2003 and 2009), so we chose to let the characters sink in through reading.
It’s a choice, not a scientific rule: we’d rather you come back to read than to save a streak. You move at your own pace, and a mistake simply shows you what to review.
About 2 to 3 weeks to read every kana, with two five-minute series a day. You can go faster or slower: your progress will be waiting for you.
Yes. Every textbook and course assumes you can read kana: it’s the foundation for everything else. Kanji come next in Ōkini, taught the same way.
English and French.
Ōkini only keeps your email address and your progress, hosted in the European Union. Read the privacy policy.
Another question?
Ask us anything about Ōkini, the method or Japanese. We read every message and reply personally.
The beta
Try Ōkini before everyone else.
The beta is open on iPhone. Do your series, tell us what gets in your way, and help shape the app.
- 一Get TestFlightApple’s free app for testing apps before they launch.
- 二Open the beta linkIt installs Ōkini on your iPhone, in one tap.
- 三Send us your feedbackStraight from the app: Settings › Contact us.