Shirabe guide
Learn Japanese in 30 days
One app. Forty-five minutes a day. A habit that lasts.
Everyone else hands you a parts list. A kana site, an SRS app, a dictionary, a browser add-on, a Discord. Shirabe is the whole workshop, and the only tab you open. In thirty gentle days you'll go from "these squiggles mean nothing" to a daily rhythm you actually keep: look a word up, save it, review it, and start reading the things you love.
Free to start. No credit card. Pick up where you left off, any day.
The daily loop
Every day is the same three moves, in order. That's the whole method. The rest of the guide just changes what goes into each slot as you grow.
-
🔁
1.Review what's due
Spaced repetition resurfaces each word just before you'd forget it. This is the non-negotiable anchor. A few minutes, every day.
-
➕
2.Learn a small batch
A gentle handful of new cards. Kana this week, vocabulary next, kanji shapes after that. Small enough that tomorrow-you still shows up.
-
🎯
3.One thing on top
A single grammar point, or fifteen minutes reading something you like and looking up what stops you. This is where the language becomes yours.
The only app you open. Bring your own stories
The learning toolkit is 100% Shirabe: kana, spaced repetition, the dictionary, kanji, example sentences, pitch accent, mining, stats and streaks. No Anki, no Yomichan, no separate kana site, no timer app. One login.
- Kana trainer
- Spaced-repetition reviews
- Multilingual dictionary
- Kanji index + stroke order
- Example sentences
- Pitch accent + audio
- One-tap mining
- Stats, streaks & rank
The stories are yours. Shirabe doesn't host anime, manga or games. It's the lens you read them through. Bring what you love; we make it legible.
The plan, week by week
Four weeks, each adding one layer onto a rhythm that never changes. Times are budgets, not minimums.
Kana + first words
The daily habit, and reading both kana
By Day 7 you can read hiragana and katakana, have met ~70 words, have run a real review session, and know how to look a word up.
Days 1–7
-
Day 1 Setup + your first kana
Hiragana. The あ, か and さ rows
- Create your account and pick your interface + definition language.
- Open the Kana Trainer and learn hiragana あ–そ (~10 min). Learn, then drill.
-
Day 2 More hiragana
The た, な and は rows
- Kana Trainer: add た–ほ. Re-drill yesterday's rows first.
-
Day 3 Finish the base hiragana
The ま, や, ら, わ rows + ん
- Kana Trainer: finish ま–ん. You now know all 46 base hiragana.
-
Day 4 Sound tweaks + first grammar
Dakuten (が, ば, ぱ) and small kana
- Kana Trainer: dakuten & combos (きゃ, しゃ …).
- Read your first grammar point: how です marks 'X is Y'.
-
Day 5 Katakana begins + first vocabulary
Katakana, and your first real words
- Kana Trainer: start katakana ア–ソ.
- Look up 10 words you already half-know and save them. That is your first deck.
-
Day 6 Rhythm locks in
The three-move loop, for real
- Review what's due, then learn 10 new words.
- Kana Trainer drops to a 2-minute warmup from here on.
- One grammar point.
-
Day 7 First immersion. As play
Meeting real Japanese, no pressure
- Review + 10 new words + one grammar point.
- Put on something you like. Look up one or two words in Shirabe. That's it. You're not meant to understand yet.
Kanji as shapes
Recognising kanji. And reading your own content
By Day 14 you know ~150 words and ~40 kanji shapes, have ~10 grammar points, and can look things up without friction.
Days 8–14
-
Day 8 Kanji are reusable shapes
Recognition. Optional, and vocab-first
- Meet the kanji inside your saved words in the kanji index. Notice their components and look-alikes.
- Optional: add the Kanji Shapes deck (5–10/day) for isolated recognition. Skipping it and just learning words is doing it right, too.
- Review + new vocabulary.
-
Day 9 Three layers running
Vocab + kanji + grammar in one sitting
- Review (now vocab and kanji) → new batch → one grammar point.
-
Day 10 Read something short of your own
A tweet, a game line, a manga panel
- Do your loop, then read one short real thing. Look up what blocks you. And save the good ones.
-
Day 11 Keep the layers balanced
Don't let new cards pile up
- Review first, always. New cards only after the due pile is clear.
-
Day 12 Kanji start clicking
Shapes inside words you already know
- Notice a Kanji Shapes character showing up in a vocab word. That's the point.
- Loop as usual + a short read.
-
Day 13 A slightly longer read
Stretch the immersion a little
- Loop, then read a bit longer than yesterday. Save 2–3 words that mattered to you.
-
Day 14 Two weeks in. Look back
See how far the habit has come
- Loop as usual. Open your stats and notice the streak. You built that.
Mining. The loop closes
Saving your own words from real material
By Day 21 you're mining 5–10 self-chosen words a day, and half your deck is words *you* picked.
Days 15–21
-
Day 15 Mining, taught properly
The moment the app becomes yours
- When a word stops you in real material, look it up and tap Save. Reading, pitch, audio and an example sentence come attached. No setup.
- Watch tonight's new queue: your saved word is in it.
-
Day 16 Mine as you read
Small, steady, from your own content
- Review + a few Shirabe cards, then mine 5 words from something you enjoy.
-
Day 17 Meet pitch accent
How a word actually sounds
- On a saved word, look at the pitch graph and play the audio. Say it out loud.
-
Day 18 Example sentences as context
Words live in sentences
- For a mined word, read its example sentence. Context is half the memory.
-
Day 19 Immersion is the main event now
SRS supports the reading, not the reverse
- Do your reviews, then spend the bulk of your time reading and mining.
-
Day 20 Trust the loop
Mine a little more than yesterday
- Mine 7–10 words. Don't over-study them. The reviews will do their job.
-
Day 21 Your deck, your words
Half of it is yours now
- Loop + mine. Scroll your deck and see how many words you chose yourself.
The self-sustaining learner
Running it solo. The program steps back
By Day 30 you read kana fluently, know 250+ words (mostly self-mined), ~80 kanji shapes and ~15 grammar points. And a daily loop that needs no further instructions.
Days 22–30
-
Day 22 You're driving now
Review, mine, occasional grammar
- The guide steps back. Run your own loop today. Review, then read and mine.
-
Day 23 Consistency over intensity
A short day still counts
- Even 15 minutes keeps the streak and the schedule healthy. Show up.
-
Day 24 Follow your interests
Read what you actually like
- Pick content you'd choose even without studying. Mine from it.
-
Day 25 Push one grammar point further
Fill a gap you keep hitting
- Notice a grammar shape you keep seeing and read its point.
-
Day 26 Read a little longer
Stamina builds quietly
- Loop, then a longer reading session than last week's.
-
Day 27 Check your rank
See the progress made visible
- Loop + mine. Open stats. Your rank climbs with every review.
-
Day 28 Almost there
Trust what you've built
- Just your loop. It runs itself now. That's the whole goal.
-
Day 29 One last ordinary day
The habit, unremarkable and yours
- Review, read, mine. Notice how normal this feels.
-
Day 30 Graduation 🦝
You built the loop
- Do your loop one more time. Then read what's next below. You don't need the guide anymore. You have the habit.
By Day 30 you'll have
- Fluent reading of hiragana and katakana
- 250+ words. Most of them mined from things you chose
- ~80 kanji recognised as reusable shapes
- ~15 grammar points
- A daily look up → save → review → mine loop that needs no instructions
After Day 30 (no timer)
A checklist, not a schedule. Every item is a thing Shirabe already does.
- Finish the Starter Vocabulary and Kanji Shapes decks
- Push grammar further, point by point
- Build your mining deck from real immersion
- Learn pitch accent properly
- Read a full manga volume; try a visual novel
- Drift toward monolingual (Japanese-only) definitions
Free to start. No credit card. Pick up where you left off, any day.
Coming soon!
A 30-day guide to learn Japanese