/r/JapaneseInTheWild

Photograph via snooOG

This sub is for people to share Japanese language that they have encountered in their everyday life (signs, advertisements, etc.) to benefit students of the language.

Filter by:


Welcome to Japanese in the Wild. Studying off a textbook can get boring. I find that seeing real-life instances of a language can help motivate learners and will provide a lot of practical, everyday vocabulary.

Japanese in the Wildへようこそ。教科書ばかりで日本語を勉強することが退屈。リアルの日本語を見て日本語を覚えることによってモチベーションを高め、日常的に使える日本語も身につけられます。

Posting Guidelines 投稿ガイドライン

Submissions should all be photos of things such as signs, advertisements, etc. which contain Japanese writing. They should also ideally be either funny, interesting, or useful in some way.

投稿は日本語が含まれているサイン・広告等日常的にみられるもの。受ける日本語、面白い日本語、役に立つ日本語であればなおさらよし。

Formatting your Submission 投稿のフォーマット化

Please mark your submission based on level of difficulty. This will help people search and filter based on their skill level. If it's a mix, include both in the title.

難易度に応じて投稿に下記のどれかを付けてください。難易度フィルターにより、生徒が自分に合った難易度の投稿を探せます。両方混ざっている場合、括弧内に記入するのをどれか選んで、もう片方をタイトルで書いてください。

  • [Beginner]: Anything that is hiragana/katakana only, or just has a few basic kanji (JLPT N5 or lower)
  • [Intermediate]: Probably the largest category - has some more kanji mixed in but nothing too difficult (JLPT N4 - N3)
  • [Advanced]: Something for people with a fairly high level of fluency (JLPT N2 - N1)

  • [Beginner]: 初心者向け。ひらがな、カタカナのみ、もしくはシンプルな漢字(小学校一~二年生)が入っているもの

  • [Intermediate]: 中級。(一番大きいカテゴリー)中学生が分かる漢字が入っているもの

  • [Advanced]: 上級。それ以上難しいもの

IMPORTANT: When submitting, feel free to make titles humorous or get creative, but do not give away the meaning of the Japanese. The point is for learners to try and read themselves, going to comments as necessary to find the answer. The comment section is for translation attempts and general discussion (how certain words are used, etc.).

重要: 投稿の際に、タイトルは形式を問いません(面白くてもいいし、ドライでもいい)が、日本語の意味をばれさせないでください。生徒が自分で読んでみて、自分で辞書を引いたりして意味を調べることが目的です。必要に応じてコメントのところに行って翻訳を書いてみたり、他のユーザーに質問したりします。

Here are some examples of submissions and titles:
こちらは投稿例になります:

  1. [Beginner] In a restaurant toilet
  2. [Intermediate] My favorite kind

Comments コメント

There are no hard and fast rules for commenting (anyone who goes there can expect some spoilers) but it's a nice gesture to add a spoiler tag so that people can see hints but not the answer itself.

コメントに硬いルールを設けていません。コメントのところに行けば、スポイラーがあるかもしれないので覚悟したうえでコメントに行ってください。ただし、ヒントだけ出したい場合はスポイラータグを付けてあげることをお勧めします。

The way to do that is (記入方法) [Spoiler](/s "ぺけぺけ")
This will show up as (このように表示されます) Spoiler

Furigana 振り仮名

To create furigana in your posts, use the following syntax: 振り仮名を付けたい場合、下記のように記入してください:

[漢字](#fg "かんじ")

This will display 漢字.

The quotation marks are not optional. Read more here.

Related Subreddits 関連Subreddit

Feel free to make meta comments with suggestions on how to improve the sub as well. 全体改善の意見などあれば、Metaコメントを投稿してください。


Based on /r/simplit theme by /u/titleproblems. Modified by /u/boweruk.

/r/JapaneseInTheWild

16,259 Subscribers

65

[Intermediate]Political sticker posted in a graffiti-covered part of Osaka

15 Comments
2025/01/29
21:05 UTC

27

[Intermediate]lol. This was inside an elevator

14 Comments
2025/01/28
22:37 UTC

23

[Intermediate] Out in the woods...

1 Comment
2025/01/28
05:06 UTC

6

[Intermediate]Old vending machine (out of order)

1 Comment
2025/01/28
03:35 UTC

17

[Intermediate]Somewhere in Umeda, Osaka City

1 Comment
2025/01/28
03:23 UTC

6

[Intermediate] Visited a house damaged in a fire (#2). This was on the floor in one of the rooms

2 Comments
2025/01/28
03:13 UTC

3

[Intermediate] Visited a house damaged in a fire (#1)

1 Comment
2025/01/28
03:13 UTC

13

[Intermediate]This sign was torn down in 2019. This place had closed several years prior

0 Comments
2025/01/28
01:01 UTC

25

[Intermediate]Sign by a ramen shop by the ocean

6 Comments
2025/01/27
23:57 UTC

3

[Advanced]A string of haiku, by peers of Matuo Basho (c.1680s-90s). In a book from Showa 3 (1927)

0 Comments
2025/01/27
23:22 UTC

3

[Intermediate]Average 草書体 moment (#2)

0 Comments
2025/01/27
23:10 UTC

3

[Intermediate]Average 草書体 moment (#1)

3 Comments
2025/01/27
23:10 UTC

9

[Advanced][Ultra-advanced]I love going to calligraphy exhibits, they're all so nice to look at, and I can appreciate the skill involved, but like, bro

2 Comments
2025/01/27
23:09 UTC

219

[Beginner]In the airport

8 Comments
2025/01/27
23:01 UTC

3

[Intermediate]Where a side street merges with the main town thoroughfare

0 Comments
2025/01/27
23:00 UTC

4

[Intermediate]A very specific subspecies of plant

0 Comments
2025/01/27
07:57 UTC

5

[Beginner]Festival food stand

1 Comment
2025/01/27
07:56 UTC

28

[Intermediate]I love this so much. You can probably guess where this was taken

2 Comments
2025/01/27
07:55 UTC

57

[intermediate] Diversity

Spotted at an izakaya on a trip.

6 Comments
2025/01/24
02:11 UTC

54

[Beginner] Twitter meme

7 Comments
2025/01/21
04:08 UTC

22

[Intermediate] Ebisu station restaurant gave me this cute hand drawn and hand cut picture on when delivering my meal (I can't read it lol)

4 Comments
2025/01/20
08:14 UTC

35

[Intermediate] Lol this kanji. From a book about brush calligraphy, c.1925

6 Comments
2025/01/16
06:33 UTC

8

[Beginner] Learn Japanese with Japanese Signs

0 Comments
2025/01/09
21:18 UTC

41

[Intermediate] From "Rookies" ep3

4 Comments
2024/12/24
04:45 UTC

123

[Beginner] What’s this a drawing of?

18 Comments
2024/12/14
09:07 UTC

44

[Beginner] Sign outside of an okonomiyaki place in Osaka

4 Comments
2024/12/12
03:52 UTC

328

[Advanced]These men are very famous in Japan. Their photos are posted across the country

35 Comments
2024/12/10
23:28 UTC

71

[Beginner] Typical Japanese classroom :)

4 Comments
2024/12/06
11:58 UTC

17

[Intermediate] No Regrets

1 Comment
2024/12/06
07:54 UTC

Back To Top