katakana.help

katakana.help is a calm way to learn to read katakana — the angular Japanese
script used for coffee, station names, brands and pop culture.

It is made for adults who love Japan but bounced off flashcard drilling. There
is no course to finish and no daily quota. You open a drawer when it fits your
day.

How it works
Each drawer is a place where katakana actually shows up. You read a word, tap
to hear it, and mark whether you knew it or it was new. Words you find hard
come back a little sooner; the rest fade into the background. Every word sits
in a small scene, so it has a place to live instead of floating alone on a
card. Short reading patterns appear quietly as you go — long vowels, the small
kana, the n-sound — never as a quiz. At the end of each round the app presses
a small station stamp onto the date — a quiet close, not points or confetti.

16 drawers
- Konbini — the convenience-store counter
- Café — what you actually order
- Drugstore & J-Beauty — the shelf run
- Wine — varieties, regions, ordering
- Tokyo Districts — names on every train line
- Travel essentials — pharmacy, food, weather, shopping
- Fake English — English-looking words that mean something else
- German in Japan — German words hiding in everyday Japanese
- Shortcut Words — long loanwords Japan compresses
- Proxy & Auction — read secondhand listings before you buy
- Retro Tech & Cameras — shelf tags on old gear
- Karaoke & Arcade Night — the room panel and the song list
- Japanese Summer — beach signs, the drink menu and the summer stall
- K-Pop — group names as they appear in Japan
- Anime titles — series names as they appear in Japan
- Hiragana Bridge — a small bonus detour when katakana needs a friend

More than 500 words in total, each with audio you can tap to hear.

Before a trip
Set a trip date and the home screen offers one calm suggestion a day, focused
on what you will read in Tokyo. No countdown pressure, no daily push. Remove
the date whenever you want.

What it does not do
- No account, no sign-up, no sync
- No ads, no trackers, no analytics
- No streaks, no points, no grades
- No subscription

Your progress stays on your device. You can export it to a file, move it to
another device, or erase it at any time.

Works offline
After the first load, the app keeps working on a slow train or away from
Wi-Fi. Nothing leaves your device.

The promise is small and honest: you will be able to read katakana. The rest
comes later.

Pop-culture names (anime, K-pop and others) are used only as reading prompts
and belong to their respective owners. katakana.help is an independent
learning project.