10) Wrong Shoe Writing Systems

Hello and welcome to the super special 10th episode of Let's Enjoy Japan! This week Keito and Yubi strike an alliance and collaborate to tell you the tale of the Japanese writing system. Allow Yubi to sweep you back to before when Japan was literate, guiding you through the arrival of Chinese characters (or kanji), and the Japanese system of using them: man'yougana. Which was... iiiiiinnnnterrressstttiiiing. Then allow Keito to offer you the history Japan's solution to a wild, lawless, adopted writing system - hiragana and katakana. With a thematically appropriate osusume of Tofugu's articles on learning hiragana and katakana and a weird and niche word of the day exploring the difference between a deity of "The Word" and just a regular deity, this episode is sure to tickle your linguistic and historical fancies. And either encourage you to start leaning Japanese written language, or maybe put you off completely. We hope it's the former! So until next week, let's enjoy Japan!