So, back in the Online Dictionaries section, we were filling up our web browsers with a lot of nasty, intimidating Japanese words and kanji, right? It might seem overwhelming, but actually there are some really amazing tools for browsing the internet in Japanese.

You can download an add-on for your web browser that will automatically look up Japanese words for you when you scroll over them.

For example, let's say that I go to Japanese Wikipedia and, OMG, too much Japanese!

I could call my mom and tell her how hard my life is studying Japanese. Or, I could just activate Rikaisama, my Japanese browsing ninja tool:

I click that, then Rikaisama tells me that it's enabled, and I have all of these super-duper options for looking stuff up:

So now, when I don't know a word, I can just scroll over it, and I'll get the definition, reading, and option to use any of those features listed above:

I don't know about you, but I think that's amazing. Don't you kind of want to browse the web in Japanese like right this second? Because, you know, you could if you wanted to.

As you may have guessed, my favorite of these tools is the Firefox add-on Rikaisama, which I was using for the example above. I mostly like it for its speed, but also for its plethora of options and features, which are detailed on the Rikaisama page. Unfortunately, I usually use Chrome, which means that I'm stuck using the add-on called Rikaikun, which is about four-hundred times less cool.

This all started with Rikaichan, by the way, the original and awesome Firefox plugin. So props to whoever made that, as well. If you're using Safari, then as far as I know, your only option is to use Safarikai, which you can find via this page.

I also just recently learned about a program called KanjiTomo. The thing that differentiates KanjiTomo from the others is that it's not tied to a web browser. Instead, it uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read kanji characters. This means that you can use it in a web browser, just like the other examples, but you can also use it on images and outside of web browsers, something the plugins above are not capable of doing. This is pretty cool, because a lot of times you'll see Japanese words online, but they're be inside of images, which means that Rikaisama and the like are rendered powerless. This is when you can get some help from your friend KanjiTomo. Awesome!

Here's a screenshot (of what would happen if you scrolled over 漢字):

These are all free by the way. Props to people out there sharing the language love. So, yeah, the homework assignment for Ninja Tool #7 is to add one of these life-saving plugins / add-ons / whatever to your computer and never be afraid of a Japanese webpage ever again.

Sudden Japanese Lesson: Maybe some of you are wondering why these programs all start with “rikai." Rikai means “understanding" or “comprehension" in Japanese. Here's the kanji: 理解 / rikai. If you take the meaning of those two kanji separately, you get Logic (理) + Unravel (解). If you “unravel" the “logic" of something, then you understand it, right? That's why, if we add する / suru to 理解 (understanding), then we can make it into the verb 理解する / rikai suru / “to understand; to comprehend." The kanji 理 shows up in a ton of words, but instead let's look at 解 for a moment. To make this as a verb all by itself, we just add く / ku to the end of it, making it 解く / toku, which means “to untie; to undo; (to unravel!)." And it's totally okay to say that you “unravel" a problem: 問題を解く / mondai wo toku, which, in more natural English, would probably become “to solve a problem:" その 問題を解く能力は私にはまったくありません. sono mondai wo toku nouryoku wa watashi ni wa mattaku arimasen. Solving that problem is totally beyond my capabilities. - 研究社 新和英中辞典 彼女は数学の 問題を一つずつ解いた. kanojo wa suugaku no mondai wo hitotsu zutsu toita. She solved math problems one by one. - 研究社 新和英中辞典 If any of you ever watch the anime Naruto, you may have noticed that when they break an opponent's 幻術 / genjutsu / “illusion technique," they say Kai! Well, that's actually the Onyomi (reading) of 解. So, in a way, they're actually saying “Unravel!" Only, in more natural English this gets translated to “Release!" Pretty cool, right? I love Japanese. (Wow, I'm a nerd.)