'Unko Drill' Lets You Learn Japanese With the Power of Poop!

Part of J-List’s mission to be your Friend in Japan™ has always been to help you get closer to the country and its people by learning Japanese. While I took learning Japanese very seriously before coming to Japan, I believe that any amount of nihongo you learn can make Japan more enjoyable, whether you’re experiencing the country and its culture through anime and manga, or are planning to visit Japan. The place to start learning Japanese is hiragana and basic kanji characters, and one fun way to do this is using the Unko Drill study system, which lets you learn Japanese with the power of poop!

Here are the study books in the Unko Drill study system, which is intended for Japanese elementary school kids but is perfectly fine to use by foreigners who want to immerse themselves in Japanese, which is something I did when I studied the language.

The Unko Drill system is centered around unko (poop), and there are many jokes in the text of the system to make learning fun. The study books consist of a hiragana practice drill book, and two workbooks each for 1st, 2nd and 3rd-grade kanji characters, giving you sample text to write the character in. They also show proper stroke order (the order you’re supposed to write the character) so you don’t learn bad writing habits.

Another nice thing you get in the series are extra items to help you study, like motivational stickers and an erasable practice board that lets you write, erase with a tissue and write again. Best of all for learners of Japanese are laminated kanji mini-posters that show all the characters for that school year, which you can hang up so you see them frequently.

In addition to the Unko Drill series, J-List stocks lots of helpful supplies, from the Genki textbook series to kana and kanji flashcards to preparation books for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). Browse all our Japanese study items here!