Kanji Trail
Who's practising?
Progress is saved on this device.
Kanji Trail
Where are you starting from?
This only comes up once, and nothing here is permanent — you can change anything later.
Getting started
What do you know?
Rough answers are fine. Say you know something and the app marks it done rather than teaching it from scratch; say you know some of it and it'll offer to let you tick off exactly which, later on.
What do you know?
Hello
Kana Quest has moved to Kanji Trail — same app, new name, new address: kanjitrail.com.
Your progress will not move by itself. Choose one of these two ways to bring it with you — each takes about a minute. This site keeps working in the meantime, so nothing is lost if you stop halfway.
One learner: use a sync code
- Tap Show this learner’s code just below, and write the code down (or tap Copy).
- Tap Open Kanji Trail at the bottom of this box. It opens in a new tab, so this one stays open.
- On Kanji Trail, tap + Add a learner, type any name, pick a badge and tap Create. (The name is replaced by this learner’s own once the code is in.)
- Tap I already use Kana Quest somewhere else, type the code, and tap Connect.
More than one learner? Switch to each one and repeat these steps, or use a progress file instead.
Everyone on this device: use a progress file
- Tap Download a progress file just below. It saves to your Downloads (on iPhone or iPad: the Files app → Downloads).
- Tap Open Kanji Trail at the bottom of this box.
- On Kanji Trail’s first screen, Who’s practising?, tap Move progress to another device at the bottom.
- Tap Load backup file and choose the file you just saved. Then tap the back arrow — every learner is there.
Added Kana Quest to your home screen? Add Kanji Trail the same way (in Safari: Share → Add to Home Screen), check your progress is there, then remove the old icon.
This learner's progress lives on this device only right now — turn on sync to back it up in case this device is ever lost or reset.
What shall we practise?
Stories
Reading settings
Practice
No matches.
Searching…
Groups below follow the UK GCSE Japanese topic list. Words inside them are picked by real-world frequency, not copied from an exam board's list — a topic's rarer words get their own unit, gathered under Common words 2.
Overview
not started added, waiting to learn started learning doing well well known
Detail
Other readings (uncommon)
In sentences
Common words
Study history
Every time was reviewed, and how it went.
Nothing yet — this hasn't been reviewed.
My progress
🎉 Goal reached!
Nothing studied here yet — once you practise, your progress shows up here day by day.
Goals
Pick a number for any level and it appears on the chart as a dashed line. Each line counts everything at that level or better.
Milestones
New characters
Say it out loud, then remember it — it's coming up in the quiz.
Difficulty level
Session done
What I have sent
🌱 You help Kanji Trail grow.
Nothing yet. If something looks wrong, or you think of something the app should do, tap 💬 at the top of any screen and tell us.
What you have sent lives in this learner’s profile on this device. Sync and backup are what carry it to another phone or tablet — there is no account and no password, so nothing else can.
Settings
Badge
The badge shown next to this learner's name.
Theme colour
Picks the accent colour used for buttons, progress bars and highlights throughout the app.
How many never-seen characters get introduced before the review quiz starts.
How closely a drawn stroke has to match to be accepted. Lower is more forgiving.
My contributions
Something broken, something missing, or a reading that looks wrong? Tell us — it goes to a private list only the people who make this app can see.
Vocabulary word lists
The five vocabulary groups — Identity & culture, Local area/holiday/travel, School, Future aspirations/work, and International/global — follow the topic structure used by UK GCSE Japanese specifications, so a unit's name means something to a teacher or parent. Core is this app's own addition on top: survival phrases (greetings, question words, the verbs you can't avoid) that a specification assumes rather than lists.
The words inside each topic are not transcribed from any exam board's official vocabulary list — that list is copyrighted and this app can't reproduce it. Instead, words are chosen by real-world usage frequency and split into two levels: Common words 1, the everyday layer every topic starts with, and Common words 2, rarer words on the same topics, gathered into their own units under the "Common words 2" group — e.g. Travel and transport's rarer words live in their own "Travel and transport" unit inside that group, not mixed into the Travel and transport unit you already know.
These levels approximate, but are not identical to, the GCSE "Foundation" and "Higher" exam tiers — which is also why they aren't labelled that way here.
A level is a third, separate group with its own 13 topics (society, the economy, politics, media, the arts, and so on) rather than harder GCSE topics — real A-level Japanese moves on to different subject matter, not just rarer words on the same five themes. Writing and arguing, its own Core-equivalent, comes first in that group: essay connectives and the abstract nouns that go with them (したがって, それゆえ, 客観的...) rather than exam vocabulary in the ordinary sense.
From kanji pages isn't a level or a topic at all — every kanji's own page shows a few common words that use it, and tapping one used to only offer an "Add" button when that exact word already existed somewhere above. This group exists purely so every primary-school kanji's common words have a real vocab entry to be added TO if you want one — it's bonus reinforcement of words you've already met via kanji study, ordered by kanji teaching grade, not curriculum content of its own.
Sync across devices
Practice on this device only right now — if this device is lost or reset, this learner's progress goes with it. Turn on sync to back it up automatically, and to keep it in step across a phone and tablet.
Enter this code in Settings on another device to keep them in step — or use it to restore this learner's progress if this device is ever lost. Save it somewhere safe.
If this code is never used again on any device, this backup is deleted after 5 years of inactivity — syncing at any point, on any device, resets that clock.
Backup & transfer
Progress lives on this device only. Save a backup file to move it to a new phone or tablet.
App version
Version . If the app on a phone is behaving like an older version, this forces it to reload everything from the server. Progress is not affected.