In my opinion, practicing to handwrite on a touchscreen is useless because
A) It’s different from writing with a pen
B) In most situations, you will have to write with a pen (If at all)
I will be practicing with pen&paper and make flashcards if I need them.
I use a stylus, though
I take notes with a stylus too, though.
Benefit - freedom of bright colors and changing colors; also, movable text.
I’m in the calligraphy club at my high school [in Japan], so I write a lot of Kanji there.
Mostly I use either one of my fountain pens [my shelf full of ink bottles is staring it at me right now.], or using a kana brush.
I wouldn’t recommend a tablet, as it is quite different from pen and paper and you don’t really use it as much in day to day situations.
Calligraphy is even further away from pen and paper than touchscreen and stylus.
I use Kanji Study on android. It’s not great for correctness, because it will take poorly drawn strokes and replace them with the correct ones, but I have been slowly improving with it. I even made 60 different lists on it with the corresponding kanji from each WaniKani level so I can practice by the level.
I prefer self check mode, I figure that with the app correcting my strokes I’m only learning the stroke order
I am not quite sure how important “stroke order” is, but there seems to be some importance in writing connected strokes. Also, the number of strokes might reinforce proper writing.
Actually, imho, practice writing, even with a finger, is not useless, because it helps you remember Kanji component / disconnected strokes / certain characteristics such as hooks, correctly. I can write on papers too.
Still, for a beginner learning to write, I would recommend a grid paper (one with a large square, divided by 4 or 8), not just any paper. The shape would be more beautiful.
You just need to know that ballpoint pen has a different kind of friction.
So, calligraphy pen is otherworldly, imo. Using a brush to write is very different.
My method:
First I get a pen and whatever I am going to write on, usually it’s a tag for one of my malas for my Etsy store. Then I open Jisho,org and go to the stroke order page for the kanji I wish to write. i then steady myself with a few moments of silent meditation. At this point I study the stroke order and think about how this fits into the typical stroke order pattern. Then, taking my pen and ID tag, I make the first stroke, look at it critically, and throw the tag away because I haven’t left enough room for the whole character. Starting again, this time I mess it up so that the second stroke can’t possibly go where it is supposed to. Another tag hits the trash. Another brief moment of silent meditation, telling myself that frustration is counter-productive, then I begin again. This time I go with the flow of life, purpose, and creativity and write the entire character without stopping to criticize. Looking at my creation, I curse the Gods of Calligraphy for making me a talentless sloth of a human being, and fling the offending tag to rest for eternity with its trash-bound brethren. grabbing another tag, I hiss in annoyance, write out the entire series of kanji, and tell myself that my English handwriting looks like complete crap, why should my Japanese be any different?
I find this method works as well as any for me 
Stroke order is, in my opinion, quite important, but what I meant was that if I let the app correct my stroke that was all I was learning. I prefer self check mode so that I can see exactly what I drew and how well it matches the correct kanji and stroke order, learning to actually write it correctly rather than just in the right order.
I use Kanken Training on the 3DS with a more comfortable stylus from the 100円 shop!
http://www.rocketcompany.co.jp/kanken4/
The app is divided by grade and has a calendar so you can keep track of the days you study.
Kanji UP! for Android is also good.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sekaisys.kanjiup
For handwriting, graph notebook (some nice cheap Moleskine clones out there) and a stiff brush pen, or a pencil, or a Jet pen from Korea.
For apps, JA Sensei seems to be the most accurate at keeping me honest when I mess up.
For apps - I use Kanji Study. I also am using the self correct so I actually learn how to do the strokes more accurately. I just got a new Samsung Tab S3 so I’ll be using the stylus, before I just used my finger.
For fun - I also use the dot-grid notebooks, I’ve become a huge fan of dot-grid! And various pens and brushes. I mostly use colorful erasable pens because I absolutely love them, but I do have lots of brushes I plan to experiment with soon.
For a textbook - Japanese Kanji for Beginners (it only does JLPT N5/4 though) and Kanji From Zero 1 (I use my erasable pens in these so my books look all neat and perfect.)
When first learning kana and kanji, a Boogie Board can’t be beat! When I’m all new and sloppy to the character, I just practice, press button to erase, and repeat.
that really depends on the style.
As I said mostly I just use a fountain pen for writing Kanji, but that
tends to get rather dull, so once in a while I just write the Kanji with a
brush in a simple style as a bit of a break.
Are these good for true beginners who’ve never written kanji before?
The app is definitely maintained too (last update was March 27th this year), and it is a really good app Just wanted to share a free alternative!
@Avoh WK is absolutely worth the money, I agree!
I’m always wary of free apps. Either they have ads or they aren’t future proof.
The non-cursive one (i.e. the one that does not say ‘natural’ in the title) is definitely OK for beginners. Even though none of the text is in English, the text is not really that essential because there are helpful pointer lines and character layout lines to help show how the characters should be written and balanced.
The ‘natural’ one is more advanced. It’s not really full cursive, the characters just have more cursive-like strokes and shortcuts. In some ways it’s just more of the same thing except a little more natural for how day-to-day written characters would look. And it can help bridge the gap to full-cursive writing with pen or brush.
I’m a total beginner since January, and I’m happy with both volumes. I see two main benefits of both 1) learning character layout, stroke, and construction rules (including especially for hiragana and katakana) and 2) actual practice.
I use the old school pen and paper
