@kikikokoNihonGO

皆ちゃま、こんにちにゃあぁ！This is Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online, beamed into your brain via futuristic telepathy. Side effects may include learning, enjoyment, reading, writing, and speaking Japanese. We’re Kiki and Koko, your guides to Japanese language and culture. In Japanese language, just as any other language, you have to know how to write. Even in English, letters actually do follow a sort of stroke order, but you may not even think about it because it’s so completely ingrained into your way of writing. It’s the same with hiragana, and all Japanese characters, though. By learning the stroke order, it really helps your muscle memory and this method will assist you greatly when we progress into even more complex characters! Oh, yes, that’s right, after hiragana, there’s a quite a bit more. But, we’re here for the whole journey with you! We hope you’re ready to continue with the long haul! However, this lesson, shouldn’t be too much of a hassle in the hiragana hustle. But!! …We have to talk:

If you’ve been here since あいうえお, then we have to tell you something very important… This may be something life changing. We’re not sure you’re ready for us to tell you something like this, but here it goes:

You… are…. AMAZING. You have made it eight lessons in! And, just to give you a proper advisory, there are two more lessons in the 五十音順, gojuuonjun, for hiragana. That definitely shows that you’re in this to win this! Your perseverance will have definitely paid off. For us, it feels like 「あいうえお」was barely a fortnight ago! Time really flies, and with this method, it makes your active learning feel almost passive. And, though we did just mention that it’s drawing very near to the end, this is definitely nowhere near the end. Even for hiragana, we still have some more lessons that will be vital to reading and writing! But even with more of a road to travel ahead, we’ll be there with you every kilometre of the way! Though, this doesn’t in any way mean that the amount you’ve learnt so far hasn’t stacked up to a good mountain of knowledge. By now, there are so many words you would be able to read and write that anything we’ll show you to practise with will barely scratch the surface. In fact, we’ll definitely have to dedicate some writing practise to future lessons.

And after all of the praise we’ve bestowed upon your amazing efforts, we still have to acknowledge that there are definitely some new people joining us, and future people who will stumble upon this article. And for those people, we have a few questions we should answer, like what is hiragana? which you can learn in our article: How Do You Write in Japanese? | Japanese Writing System Demystified or maybe you’re wondering what is stroke order? and maybe why would I need to learn that?, and we have you covered with our article:  🤔Do I REALLY need to learn Stroke Order? | 6 Reasons Why {or Why not?} | What is Stroke Order?   

And, even if you’ve been with us since the beginning, this is still a great time to go back and review to make sure it’s still fresh in your mind! Like a fresh baked bean bun! We’ll just drop these here for you so you can take a look at any of the ones you may have missed or maybe ones you’ve never seen OR just ones that you want to revise / review. As a helpful hint:
Pink thumbnails with all of us on it are usually Reading Lessons.
Pink thumbnails with QUIZBO™ are usually Quizzes.
Blue thumbnails with all of us are usually Writing Lessons.
and the others are usually Vocabulary/Reading/Writing Practice.

Read, Write, and Revise with Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!!:
                                         

あなたならきっとできますよ!! You can do it! あなたを信じています! I believe in you!

Now after anyone new here gives those articles a read, they might wonder who this fine fellow you keep seeing on our site may be. This is QUIZBO™, our favourite quiz generating robot computer who also functions as a very useful display generator, will be using the latest technology to show you how to write 「やゆよ」– This will be with the age old device we know as… numbers and arrows.

Sure, these methods could seem simple, but after years upon years of methods this seems to be the one that helps people without going to fast or slow. That way it will show each character’s stroke order properly whilst also giving a good view of the actual character’s overall look. Whilst you’ll be able to see how the character will look through each step of the process, we’ll also be there with helpful hints!

How to use stroke order

Before we properly begin, we figured it would be best to give you a quick overview on how to read these diagrams. For each character, there’s mostly 3-4 strokes that are written in a specific order. Each number signifies which stroke should come first. Start where the circled number begins and write the stroke in the direction in which the arrow is pointing. If you want to see what each step looks like and what yours should look like at that stage, then take a look at the squares on the right. They squares are ordered up to down and right to left in Japanese order. And, that’s the whole of it!

It’s time to equip your pencils, grab a pen, take out a notepad, a digital device and a stylus, anything you need to write safely and comfortably. Let’s write hiragana! 

Let’s NihonGO!!

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
So, even though there’s traditionally a bit of a trail-off on stroke two as if calligraphic, you’ll see it written simply in the handwritten version of　「や」, and at times, people may even have the stroke pass through the first stroke, or have it sit on top like a little antenna. But, calligraphic trail-offs are common in handwriting especially because the reason for the trail-off is because of travelling from stroke two to stroke three. So, whichever way you choose, just try to keep consistent so your handwriting will look even more uniform and pretty~~

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
「ゆ」can also have a lot of extra trail offs from stroke one to stroke two, but in this version, it makes it a lot easier to read and write. As long as you can recognise the two main strokes, the version with the trailing-off that you see in calligraphy should be easier to recognise. 「ゆ」 from the kanji 「湯」meaning「hot water」can be seen on the 暖簾, noren, the cloth divider, of hot springs. And, sometimes you’ll see it in a very fancy calligraphy, but other times, it will just be written with its basic strokes as this.

As a fun fact, another way to identify hot springs are with this symbol: 「♨」which is also input by using the hiragana 「ゆ」

Kiki+Koko’s Helpful Hints:
This is another hiragana that has the same loop from 「ま」and 「は」, so you can feel like you already know half of it! There isn’t much more we can say as a helpful hint, but there’s only three here in the Y column/row, so consider this a good time to review some past hiragana!

And that’s that! 「やゆよ」! We can’t believe we’re already 8 sets into 五十音順、gojuuonjun! To put this into perspective, there are 46 to 48 characters in 五十音順、gojuuonjun, and if you’ve been practising and memorising them along with each post up until now, that’s 38 characters! There’s just two more lessons left, but don’t feel rushed if you haven’t memorised them all by now. That’s why we’re always here 25 hours a day 8 days a week, because we always go the extra distance through time and space to make sure you have a comfortable learning environment.

Remember! It’s not a race, and there’s no time limits with us. It’s lovely to give yourself time limits to motivate yourself, but we understand that life is busy. We’re here for those who are busy with school or work and just want to do a little something extra to expand their horizons. And, we’re also here for the overachievers who want to absorb as much Japanese language and culture as possible!

What is 旅行? Learn with the Japanese Word of the Week, Wednesdays, with QUIZBO™!

Either way, we’re proud of each and every character you learn. Whether it’s one or thirty-eight, it’s still more than you knew before! And, you should feel a great accomplishment every step of the way on your 旅行 through Japanese language. And, everyone’s journey may be a little different, slower or faster with different methods. But, we hope that they all have one thing in common, learning with us, Kiki, Koko, and sometimes QUIZBO™.

We hope this was/will be helpful for you on your Japanese learning journey!
Until next time, thank you so much for learning with us! We can’t wait to see you again!
♡Kiki+Koko