BTW not sure if you are a pen person or a pencil one, but if you are a pencil one:
These sharp-pencils are amazing and stay sharp always.
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I have the silver one! I love it. Finding that I enjoyed a pen a bit more with kanji though, as it is that bit thicker. The thin pencil really shows my inability to make straight lines (well not straight-straight but you know what I mean)
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To be fair, it might work in your favour! I find there are lots of non-straight lines in natives’ writing, so I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to be super precise. After all, you’re writing, not drawing an intricate piece of art.
Then again I’m coming as someone who has wobbly writing even in English, so it’s worth my salt not to worry about it too much in Japanese too, haha.
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I have the thick kurotoga as well, much more comfortable for me at least. I think I bought like 4 spares in advance just because Japan likes to renew their products so often haha.
Don’t worry about having scribbly lines. Once you get used to writing kanji, they get better and better. You should see the first few pages of the first textbook I ever used for kanji. 
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It has been cool to see that there is a kanji that we can find out here. I hope that it will be okay to think about because there are some people who can be open to this kind of thing. There is some language and writing that we are seeing and I hope that it will be okay to think about for the better.
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なんで！I’ll have to look for that later.
Whilst I’ve turned on WK vacation mode, the app on my phone keeps notifying me of the theoretical review count. I was really twitchy about it this morning. I would do WK reviews on my phone whilst walking the dog, that’s something I definitely can’t do whilst writing Kanji…
lttp
I did WaniKani four years ago almost and didn’t miss a day for almost two years. Didn’t write them a whole bunch, but boy oh boy did it make going into BunPro waaay easier after 3.5 years of doing kanji! Now I read pretty fast.
Btw, I still use physical flash cards… they have always worked for me. Although I only just started using them to learn more kanji that is not on WK, and I find it pretty fun and effective. I do also use Anki for obscure kanji just for fun. Now I know incredibly useful words like 齷齪 and 靉靆.
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This post inspired my to start doing something similar during my WaniKani reviews! I realized that my ability to get ideas down on paper was severely lacking, so I bought a blank kanji practice book for a couple of dollars and now every time I answer a kanji review in WK I copy it down 4 times. I can’t commit as hard as OP, but I’ve been very happy with my progress so far!
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Sorry for such a late reply, the app is kanji study and it is literally the best kanji app I’ve ever used. You can pay for the other orders but due to how the app is, I think it’s well worth it for KCL. The kodansha learner’s course benefits greatly from it. You get instant flash cards, quizzes, and a single place for all the reading exercises. It’s just a way better system since the app has a hide feature that you can’t get from an e book or physical book.
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Just thought I’d give an update.
Since September I’ve been doing the drawing kanji thing. I finished my first notebook last year, here are some pics of the 2nd one.
I’ve come up with a hybrid method. I’m using an app on my samsung tablet (errr off the top of my head it’s just called ‘kanji’ I think - can look it up if anyone is interested).
It teaches the kanji and also vocab that uses the kanji (you select from a 3x3 grid for the vocab reviews). I’ll draw new kanji in my notebook. For reviews, if I can draw on the tablet and get it right, next review, if I’m wrong, I draw it out again.
I find that I still forget stuff, so I’ve taken to looking up the WK radicals as well, the combination helps. I can’t do the chanting so much as my family already think I’m weird enough as it is for doing this.
Is it a ‘better’ approach than WaniKani ? Mmm hard to say as I’m working my way through N4 kanji which I probably know (if I see them). My gut feeling is that it’s not better per se.
But it is a lot more fun than grinding WaniKani reviews (for me). I was at the point of dreading another pile of reviews, and it was dominating my daily learning routine as I’m a zero-inbox kind of a person. It’s a relaxing way to spent 30mins - 1hr each day (1 new lesson and my review backlog) - I actually enjoy doing this. Also I’ve always been not good at drawing, so it’s been nice to see a gradual improvement - though a Japanese aquaintence posted some of her beautiful kanji brush work online and it was truly humbling, I asked if I was looking at a page from a textbook! They’ve been really kind about childish attempts… “yeah… yeah… it’s good, I mean I can tell what it is”.
Anyway, each night when I’ve sat down I’ve thought ‘oh I should update that thread on the BP forums’ so now I’ve done it!
My goal for the moment is to complete the N4 kanji set on the app, cross check against shinkanzen master book as I’m aiming for N4 in the summer (assuming the n5 listening crit wasn’t a KO)
Happy writing! (I checked, you write kanji rather than draw!)
EDIT
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Awesome work here! Glad that you were able to find a method that works well for you. If you find it a lot more fun that WaniKani, then it would automatically be better I suppose, regardless of whether the actual process is more efficient or not. Most people tend to remember things better when they’re enjoyable afterall.
Just a quick check, but from looking, it appears as though you are writing things with the correct stroke order, is that right? That is one thing that I really recommend being strict with yourself on, as the muscle memory of the stroke order plays a bigger and bigger role in remembering more complex kanji later (well it did for me at least).
That app is great! I never extensively used it myself, but I remember installing it a few years ago and thinking ‘damn, this has like everything you need’. So it’s probably only gotten even better since then.
Please update us again when you are approaching the N4!
Edit: Don’t be hard on yourself if you completely forget some and end up having to start writing them from a low SRS setting again. The process of forgetting and being frustrated at yourself for it equals out to an even stronger memory in the end.
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The improvement may come from freeing up the time and energy to spend on other aspects of Japanese. In terms of memorization in the short term, WK will probably be better since you are literally being tested repeatedly multiple times for each kanji. In my opinion, doing it this way will help develop a more visceral bond with the kanji. Plus, being able to physically write Japanese is a lot more impressive than just being able to read it 
Your writing looks pretty good, it’s balanced and it’s consistent. It may look a bit robotic but that may have more to do with the font that you are copying from. I am going to second Asher’s recommendation of paying attention to stroke order, not just for the muscle memory but it will also help with making your writing more beautiful.
A pen recommendation that is fun to write with, not necessarily just for kanji
Pentel Brush Sign Pen Pack of 10
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Oh yes, most definitely follow the stroke order. The app teaches it, but I usually kanji search on jisho and follow that as it has the helpful grid structure too. If I do it wrong on my drills, I usually just tut at myself and imagine a strict Japanese sensei looking over my shoulder and frowning. He’s holding a cane too so I quickly correct myself.
I can almost start to predict what it will be for new kanji now as it’s usually logical, there’s a radical in 写す and 考える (the beggar in WK) where one stroke is left to right in one and right to left in the other, EVERY SINGLE TIME it catches me out.
I’m not sure the SRS in the app is amazing, I feel like there is only a few stages, but I think it’s tweakable.
The worst is when I forget like a two stroke kanji, usually 八 or 七. I mean honestly. But it’s incredible how a kanji you’d recognise reading in milliseconds, close your eyes and try to visualize it and … nothing… 
@ThousandJP pens look amazing, I did buy a big box of great pens from Japan but I found it makes writing on the reverse side a pain - could be I was pressing down too hard. I’m using the 0.7 mechanical pencil that was recommended. I love it and if it’s not where I’m expecting it to be when it’s kanji time, I’m raging around the house looking for it. I think the rest of the family have learnt not to touch dad’s special pencil from japan on fear of death. 
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If you don’t mind using a mechanical pencil, I highly recommend the kurutoga series. The barrel spins as you write, so it always stays sharp, never creates weird curved lines and never catches on the paper. It’s hard to explain what it feels like to write with them, they’re amazing.
The pen. A slightly fatter version cause I find them more comfortable.
For some reason I just don’t enjoy writing with a pen as much cause I can’t erase mistakes. Seriously though. Kurutoga is great. I have like 5 unopened spares in case there is a worldwide mechanical pencil shortage. 
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It’s what I use too. They’re great. I’ve got a 0.5 and 0.7. A pen is really satisfying until the occasional flow issue (generally on the reverse side of a page). For a while I was writing the first seven attempts in pencil and the last 3 in pen. I just use a pencil now as it was a faff to change.
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A fellow faff avoider 
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I really should invest in some kanji notebooks. I like writing things out when studying foreign languages, especially if it had a different writing system than English. I’m pretty sure that’s how I memorized kana. I’m currently taking notes on regular notebook paper which is…not great for Japanese.
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I bought those successfully from the UK. Both are good.
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Cool, thanks for the recommendations!
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