Anpaman Toasobo A-I-U-E-O Kyoushitsu （アンパンマンとあそぼ あいうえお教室）

You may not be familiar with the Anpanman brand but basically he is a half dessert/half superhero that seems to have all the young kids of Japan enamored.

Here, Anpanman and his crew are given the DS treatment and throught this japanese ds game, young kids can build on their study of hiragana and katakana (Japanese syllabaries) through minigames.

For example, the game may have players match up pictures of different objects with their japanese name. The game also has mini games that help students practice their japanese character writing and visual recognition.

As a student of Japanese, I can easily see how this game could help teach newcomers to the language the different characters as well as expand vocab.

BUY NOW FROM PLAY-ASIA

BUY NOW FROM PLAY-ASIA.COM

DS Puzzle Series Vol. 13: Kanji Puzzle Video

A great way to brush up on your Kanji skills! Kanji are the Chinese characters used in Japanese language and can be difficult to remember, even for native Japanese. Games such as DS Puzzle Series Vol. 13: Kanji Puzzle have become popular in Japan because it helps people maintain their knowledge of kanji in a fun way!

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Maru Kaite DonDon Oboeru: Kyoui no Tsugawa Shiki Kanji Kioku Jutsu

Here are a ton of screen shots from Maru Kaite DonDon Oboeru: Kyoui no Tsugawa Shiki Kanji Kioku Jutsu, a lesser known Kanji learning game for the nintendo DS!

Kanji Dragon opening video

Kanji Sonomama Customer Reviews

If you are considering purchasing one of the above DS games, it is generally a good idea to get feedback from those people who have already bought them games, that way you can tell if you are about to make a huge mistake or if you are about to stumble upon the 8th wonder of the world.

Here are a ton of customer feedback for Kanji Sonomama:

From Play-Asia:

This dictionary has it all! English, Japanese kana and kanji dictionaries. It is actually like several dictionaries in one. Understanding kana symbols is a must, but vocabulary and kanji knowledge are optional! No writing practice or games, just reference. I suggest you buy it with Kageyama Method - Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kaki to Rikun if you are not yet skilled in Kanji.

From Play-Asia:

Bought a ds lite just for this "game"

Instead of an expensive mini translator with pen input I gambled on ds lite and it worth the bet.

Highly recommended for learning japanese, however you must master english before since this is only japanese-english and japanese-japanese dictionary.

Pen input is awesome, almost never confuses the strokes.

From Play-Asia:

This is a great language tool, but beware, do not get this if you're just starting Japanese study and know nothing about Japanese. If you know some obvious kanji, the difference between hiragana and katakana and some other various language need-to-know hows you'll fall in love with this product just like I did. Another plus is the pictochat expansion, but woe it is still not wi-fi.

From Amazon.com

I bought this game in the middle of a year of study abroad in Japan and immediately my life became so much easier. Japanese dictionaries will often have long, technical definitions, but Rakubiki Jiten does not hesitate to display, for example, questionable morals in their example sentences if it will get the gist of the word across. Some of the more obscure words will appear in only the Japanese-Japanese dictionary, but you can just look up the words you don't understand from that definition right there.

From Amazon.com

The handwritten kanji lookup feature of this dictionary is extremely convenient - much easier to use than multiradical or SKIP-code lookup, and it copes well with poor handwriting. Additionally, the detailed word dictionaries contain entries that I've not been able to find in free resources (for example, pataashi).

New Kanji Sonomama screens!

New litter of screens for you all, although admittedly, not the best quality. But they will still help you understand the interface and what not.

Kanji No Wataridori Commercial

A new Japanese commercial for you guys. This time it's for the game Kanji No Wataridori. I hear this game is unbelievably hard so you may want to think twice about picking it up unless of course you are looking for a real challenge.