Learn Easy Kanji

---
name: learn-easy-kanji
description: First 50 kanji — numbers, days, and essential nouns
author: mager
version: 1.0.0
---

# Learn Easy Kanji

You know radicals. Now let's build real kanji. These 50 are the most useful — you'll see them on signs, menus, and train stations everywhere in Japan.

## Numbers (数字)

| Kanji | Reading | Meaning | Mnemonic |
|-------|---------|---------|----------|
| 一 | いち (ichi) | one | One horizontal line |
| 二 | に (ni) | two | Two horizontal lines |
| 三 | さん (san) | three | Three horizontal lines |
| 四 | よん (yon) | four | A window with four panes |
| 五 | ご (go) | five | A person doing a dance — "go dance!" |
| 六 | ろく (roku) | six | A person with a top hat |
| 七 | なな (nana) | seven | Looks like an upside-down 7 |
| 八 | はち (hachi) | eight | A mustache — "h-eight" |
| 九 | きゅう (kyuu) | nine | A person curling up |
| 十 | じゅう (juu) | ten | A cross — 10 like a + sign |
| 百 | ひゃく (hyaku) | hundred | One + white = 100 |
| 千 | せん (sen) | thousand | A person with an antenna |
| 万 | まん (man) | ten thousand | "10,000 — man, that's a lot!" |

## Days of the Week

| Kanji | Day | Meaning |
|-------|-----|---------|
| 日 | にちようび | Sunday (sun day) |
| 月 | げつようび | Monday (moon day) |
| 火 | かようび | Tuesday (fire day) |
| 水 | すいようび | Wednesday (water day) |
| 木 | もくようび | Thursday (tree day) |
| 金 | きんようび | Friday (gold day) |
| 土 | どようび | Saturday (earth day) |

## Essential Nouns

| Kanji | Reading | Meaning | Radical Breakdown |
|-------|---------|---------|-------------------|
| 人 | ひと (hito) | person | Radical itself |
| 大 | おお (oo) | big | Person with arms spread wide |
| 小 | ちい (chii) | small | A small thing between two marks |
| 山 | やま (yama) | mountain | Three peaks |
| 川 | かわ (kawa) | river | Three flowing lines |
| 田 | た (ta) | rice field | A field divided into plots |
| 口 | くち (kuchi) | mouth | An open mouth |
| 目 | め (me) | eye | An eye turned sideways |
| 手 | て (te) | hand | A hand with fingers |
| 足 | あし (ashi) | foot | Radical itself |
| 車 | くるま (kuruma) | car | A cart seen from above |
| 学 | がく (gaku) | study | Child under a roof with books |
| 校 | こう (kou) | school | Tree + father + child |
| 本 | ほん (hon) | book | A tree with roots marked |
| 食 | しょく (shoku) | food/eat | A roof over a delicious thing |
| 水 | みず (mizu) | water | Splashing water |
| 花 | はな (hana) | flower | Grass radical + change |
| 国 | くに (kuni) | country | A jewel inside an enclosure |
| 店 | みせ (mise) | shop | A building radical + fortune |

## Signs You'll See Everywhere

| Kanji | Meaning | Where |
|-------|---------|-------|
| 入 | enter | Entrances |
| 出 | exit | Exits |
| 男 | man | Restrooms |
| 女 | woman | Restrooms |
| 北/南/東/西 | N/S/E/W | Stations, signs |
| 駅 | station | Train stations |
| 円 | yen | Prices |

## Study Method

1. **5 kanji per session** — read, write, use in context
2. **Always connect to radicals** — "I see the water radical!"
3. **Read in context** — your agent will show real sentences
4. **Write practice** — stroke order matters (top to bottom, left to right)

## Agent Behavior

- Start with numbers (most immediately useful)
- Then days of the week (you'll see these on schedules)
- Then essential nouns grouped by theme
- Always show: kanji → reading → meaning → radical breakdown → example sentence
- Quiz both recognition (see kanji, say meaning) and recall (hear meaning, write kanji)
- When user sees a kanji in real life, help them decode it using radicals