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Japanese reading practice for early beginners — Grade 2 kanji only (160 kanji)

Read real Japanese at exactly the level you are now. Every article below uses only the 240 kanji taught from Grade 1 through Grade 2 — nothing above it, ever. Furigana sits over every character and an English translation runs beside the text.

Why Japanese school grades, not JLPT?

Japan's Ministry of Education sets the Kyōiku kanji list: exactly which characters children learn in which school year. That makes "Grade 2" something you can check, not something someone estimated. Every article on this page is machine-verified before publication — if a single character sits above Grade 2, it is not published.

The 160 kanji introduced in Grade 2

引羽雲園遠科夏家歌画回会海絵外角活間丸岩顔汽記帰弓牛魚京強教近兄形計元言原戸古午後語工公広交光考行高黄合国黒今才細作算市姉思紙寺自時室社弱首秋週春書少場色食心新親図数西声星晴切雪船線前組走多太体台地池何楽谷止矢知茶昼長鳥朝直通弟店点電刀冬当東答頭同道読内南肉馬売買麦半番父風分聞米歩母方北毎妹万明鳴毛門夜野友用曜来里理話

Tap any character for stroke order, readings and example words.

150 readings at Grade 2

🎵 Japanese station jingles: why every train platform plays its own 7-second song 🎮 🚄 🐿️ Musasabi: Japan's giant flying squirrel that glides over 100 metres between trees at night 🥶 Why does metal feel cold? The heat-conduction trick behind a winter handrail 📣 Japanese baseball cheering: why every player gets his own song 🥇 🎁 Furoshiki: the Japanese wrapping cloth that has replaced the shopping bag for 1,200 years 🚕 ♟️ 👉 Why Japanese train drivers point and shout at nothing: the safety habit called shisa kanko 🐧 🍶 Koji: the mould Japan named its national fungus, and how it makes miso, soy sauce and sake 🌾 🌼 Kinmokusei: the tiny orange flower that tells Japan autumn has arrived — by smell 🦀 🏹 Yabusame: Japan's 800-year-old horseback archery where riders hit 3 targets in 20 seconds 🐧 👵 Keiro no Hi: Japan's Respect for the Aged Day, and a country with almost 100,000 centenarians 🌊 🚄 The 7-minute miracle: how 22 cleaners reset a 1,300-seat Shinkansen at Tokyo Station 🏯 🌀 Why do typhoons spin counter-clockwise and why is the eye calm? Typhoon season in Japan explained 🎢 ✨ Why do stars twinkle but planets don't? The atmosphere explained in simple Japanese 🐧 🌺 Higanbana: the red spider lily that blooms for one week at the autumn equinox in Japan ⛵ 🚴 Keirin: the 70 km/h bicycle race Japan invented that became an Olympic sport 🤖 🍱 Ekiben: Japan's train station bento boxes that travelers plan whole trips around 🪙 Japan's 100-yen shops: how Daiso and friends sell 70,000 items for one coin 🤖 ☄️ What is a shooting star? A grain of dust burning up 100 km above you 🧸 🐠 🏝️ Ogasawara Islands: the part of Tokyo that takes 24 hours by boat and has no airport 🥬 🪀 Kendama: the Japanese wooden toy with kyu ranks, dan grades and a world cup 🗿 ⛩️ Torii gate meaning: why Japanese shrine gates are red, and the 10,000 gates of Fushimi Inari 🎼 🎨 Why Japan's manhole covers are works of art: 12,000 designs under your feet 🦕 🌈 Why a rainbow has seven colours — and why no two people ever see the same one 🗻 🍵 🕊️ The red-crowned crane (tancho): from about 20 birds in 1924 to nearly 1,900 in Hokkaido ✈️ ⛸️ Why Japan loves figure skating: triple axels, Olympic gold and teddy bears on the ice 🐬 🍣 ⚽ 🎏 Koinobori: why giant carp streamers fly over Japan every May 🚀 🎁 Omiyage: why Japanese travellers bring back a box of snacks for the whole office 🎈 ♨️ Why does Japan have so many hot springs? 111 active volcanoes, 27,000 onsen sources ⚽ 🦝 Tanuki: Japan’s raccoon dog is not a raccoon, and it really does play dead 🏬 ⚡ 🥋 Judo: the Japanese martial art that teaches you how to fall before how to throw 🚄 🚸 Why Japanese children walk to school alone from the age of six 🏺 Kintsugi: why Japan repairs broken pottery with gold instead of hiding the cracks 🧊 Why does ice float on water? The 9% that keeps lakes alive in winter 🐒 Snow monkeys of Japan: why wild macaques bathe in a hot spring all winter 🛰️ 🎴 Competitive karuta: the Japanese card sport decided in 0.2 seconds 🪲 🏮 Obon: the four days in August when Japanese families welcome their ancestors home 🌙 👟 Why Japanese people take off their shoes indoors: the genkan rule explained 🍵 🌊 Why is the sea salty? The answer, in simple Japanese at six kanji levels ⚔️ 🎍 Why bamboo grows a metre a day — and why it is a grass, not a tree 📺 🪼 📻 Radio taiso: why Japan does the same three-minute workout at 6:30 am 🍜 Ramen: how a Chinese noodle dish became Japan's national food 🏮 🎎 Daruma dolls: why one eye is painted first, and what the other one means 🎬 🎒 Randoseru: the ¥60,000 backpack every Japanese child carries for six years ⚾ 💨 🚂 🪷 🐒 🏃 🐄 🐱 Maneki-neko: what the raised paw and the colours actually mean 🏛️ 🧹 Why Japanese students clean their own school every day 🏆 🪰 🚵 ⚾ 🚀 🏆 🖌️ Shodo: what Japanese calligraphy trains besides handwriting 🎆 ♻️ 🔵 🌸 🦌 🍧 Kakigori: Japan’s shaved ice, from Heian nobles to summer festivals 🚨 Koban: the tiny police boxes other countries copied 🔊 🐢 🛰️ 🎽 👘 Yukata vs kimono: what the Japanese summer robe actually is 🍱 Kyushoku: how Japanese school lunch became a class in itself 🧲 🪲 🏮 ⚽ 🎐 🥤 Why Japan has around four million vending machines ⚡ 🌻 🌿 🏊 🎏 Origami: from paper cranes to satellite solar panels 🏪 💧 🎐 ☀️ 🤼 🌙 🎋 💴 💠 🗻 🎋 ⚾ 🌈 ♻️ 🏮 ⚽ 🤼 🍱 ✨ 🐛 🎆 🌸 🚆
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