This is a third-party app and is not created by the WaniKani team. By using this, you understand that it can stop working at any time or be discontinued indefinitely.
I live in northern Japan and built the app I wanted on arrival: something for the Japanese physically around me: shop-door signs (営業中/準備中), prices the way registers actually say them, and konbini phrases. It also includes honest JLPT coverage tracking. It’s called Yokoso (yokosoapp.com). Free, no ads, nothing locked; web + iOS.
The reason I’m posting here: it imports WaniKani progress, because being quizzed on 一 like a stranger after two years of WK is insulting.
How the import actually works, for the people who’ll ask:
You paste a read-only API token (no permissions boxes needed). Calls go directly from your device to api.wanikani.com. The token is never sent anywhere else, and there’s no server between you and WK.
It pages through /assignments (stages 1-9, radicals included) and resolves subjects in batches. Your SRS stage maps to a review interval on my side (Apprentice ≈ days, Guru ≈ a week+, scaling up through Burned), and items re-verify on a schedule instead of being blindly trusted forever.
Re-syncs daily. Continued WK study keeps flowing in, and re-syncs don’t re-roll your due dates (learned that one the hard way).
Kanji/vocab that exist in Yokoso’s own content get matched; everything else carries over as imported items with recognition-format reviews. I deliberately don’t do typed recall on imported vocab because WK’s English glosses are too ambiguous for fair grading (一 vs 一つ are both “one”).
What does NOT carry over: mnemonics and lesson content. That’s WK’s work and it stays theirs; Yokoso has its own memory-hook system (user-editable).
Just to be clear, this is not a WaniKani replacement and doesn’t try to be. There’s no 60-level curriculum here. It’s the street-level layer: what the kanji you’re learning look like on actual doors, menus, and price tags, plus the number/price listening drills Japan runs on you daily. WK numbers stay your WK numbers; the import means the two tools never re-teach each other’s
work.
Recently added, inspired by things this community built: a depth ladder so every word climbs recognition → reading → recall → typed production. KaniWani and KameSame users will recognize the idea. Nothing asks for production before recognition is proven. I also added a self-grade “I was actually right” correction (KameSame’s synonym leniency, basically).
Happy to answer any technical question about the integration, and genuinely interested in feature requests from people deeper into WK than I am. If the import misbehaves against your account, tell me and I’ll fix it while respecting the API rate limits, of course.
I’ve only just started playing with the app on the web, but I find the general concept to be interesting.
In fact, it somewhat jibes with recent plans that I’ve made to try what I think of as “nichijou” studying, namely saving up receipts and packaging and instructions from things that I buy, taking photos of signs that I see, and using those as practice material for learning practical, everyday kanji that I am exposed to.
I’m currently visiting Sapporo for a couple of months, and I’ve generally been dealing well with daily life activities - getting meals either at a konbini or a restaurant (such as Bikkuri Donkey or Matsuya, or Yoshinoya, or Kura Sushi, etc.), using the subway, shopping for stuff at Book Off or BIC Camera or Tokyu Hands, etc., but there are definitely gaps in my knowledge, and using the camera with google translate is not quite the same as studying the writing that I see around me.
For example, the Sapporo children’s science museum was both an interesting challenge and a frustrating one - experiencing it as an adult with the Japanese reading comprehension level of a child.
So I will continue working with it to see how it goes.
Thanks for trying it and for sharing this! I took a look at your Japanese library thread after reading your reply. It made the part about saving receipts, packaging, and signs from Sapporo make a lot more sense. Receiving my first piece of mail in Japan and answering my first phone call made me realize how unprepared I was to be here.
The science museum is a good example of the gap I was trying to address. Knowing enough Japanese to get around but still have a hard time with a wall of explanation. Your description of experiencing it as an adult with a child’s reading comprehension is exactly how I feel most days.
I would be interested to hear where Yokoso helps with the material you’re collecting and where it doesn’t, especially while you’re in Sapporo. That would help me decide what to improve next.
One of the core design concepts of the app was reducing friction to studying as much as possible, while I don’t think I can make it as fun or mindless as social media, I wanted to replicate the ease of opening a social media app and using it. I get a lot of the targeted ads on Instagram for “tiktok but it makes you smarter” types of apps, and I think that concept appeals to me - which is probably why I keep seeing the ads!
Thanks for the panorama too. It looks like a very cool place! I will definitely make my way up to Sapporo when I need a new adventure. I want to see the snow festival, but I’m worried about getting trapped since it’s the worlds second snowiest city and I’d be trying to get back to the world’s snowiest one.
Just getting started with it, but the ‘business is open’ vs. ‘preparing to open’ is exactly the type of info that is useful to know on a daily go-about-your-routine-day basis.
I have so far only tried the web app, have not yet supplied my WK API key to the iOS app. The web app seems to start out with a "let’s see what you already know’ approach - I will be interested to see where it takes me from here.
I’m not sure whether there may be a review screen available to look over what you’ve gone through so far - if not, maybe that would be helpful.
But I’ve only barely scratched the surface of working with the app so far.
I’m glad that one hit the mark. That distinction between a place being closed and just not open yet is exactly the kind of small thing that can make everyday life here much less confusing.
There is a Progress screen that shows your last seven days, accuracy, mastery bins, and what you know by category, but it does not currently show an item-by-item history of what you just reviewed. I think that is the gap you are describing, and a simple recent-review list would be useful, especially if it let you go back to a sign or phrase. I have made a note of it.
As you keep using the web app, would you want that list to show everything from the session or mainly the items you missed?
By the way, the web app is currently far superior since I can update it almost immediately whenever a new build is ready. Due to the way the App Store works, that version is quite a few builds behind, but catching up! Hopefully the differences won’t be noticeable within the next two weeks so you can hop between them seamlessly.
Thanks, that helped. The web app now has a Recent reviews card in the Progress tab. It shows everything by default, with a Missed filter if you want to narrow it down. The history stays on your device, works offline, and survives a refresh.
It currently keeps the newest 100 answered items. I also fixed how WaniKani imports merge into the level charts, so that should be less confusing if you add your API key. If you try it, let me know whether the amount of history feels useful.
It’s very nice, was able to import wanikani, not bunpro. The only issue I see is the font size of the web app. It’s very small by default, but I can adjust it so it’s not too much of a problem. I’m using a galaxy ultra s26 to view.
Thanks for trying it on your phone. The default text being too small on a Galaxy S26 Ultra is useful to know, even if browser zoom works around it. I’m going to look at the mobile type size. I am working on a native Android app, and will need beta testers when I do.
For the Bunpro import, what happens after you enter the API key? Does it show an error, or does the import finish without any grammar appearing? That will help me narrow down where it is failing.
Found it. Bunpro removed or moved the public API their site used to offer, so the import is failing upstream no matter what key you use. Yokoso now says that clearly instead of showing a generic error. If Bunpro restores the API, it should start working again without a change on your side. WaniKani import is unaffected.
I also increased the default text size on phones and restored pinch zoom on the web app. If you try it again on the S26, let me know whether it reads better.
Thanks for checking again. I’m glad the text is easier to read.
That 503 wording is not the message you should be getting now, so the clearer explanation is not reaching your session yet. There is no need to keep retrying the key; sadly, the import itself will stay unavailable until Bunpro restores an API.
I’ve been using the web version, and while I just started, I like the challenge of seeing how quickly I can answer the questions. I also really like that I kind of trick myself into learning new things, like I don’t have to actively say “I’m going to learn something new today” it just throws in new things while I’m reviewing things I already know. I’ll keep playing around with it and see what happens when I get past the easy stuff haha.
Thank you so much for the feedback, that was exactly what I was going for! I’m will continue adding content, I’m starting from N5 and working my way to N1 in batches. Let me know how it goes, user feedback is the best way for me to refine the algorithm to get the learning/reviews correct.
Hi, I checked out the website, love the idea of learning practical phrases and signs you’ll see (and hear) in Japan! Is there any way to just study this section (screenshot below), sort of like a focused review session? I loved learning 営業中, 準備中, and 「次は三沢、三沢です。お出口は左側です。」 - those were super useful to me and exactly what I wanted to learn. But I’d rather not have to go through the extreme basics like はい、ください、飲む、水, etc. to get to those cards. I use other resources for SRS so I would personally just use your site to focus on the “out in the wild” stuff.
I really like the idea of this app and would like to give it a try. Is there any chance you could implement Sign In with Apple alongside Sing In with Google? I try not to use my Google account for any outside services for privacy issues.
Also, I haven’t gotten into the content yet, but I’m most interested in learning vocabulary around restaurants and bars – menus, ordering, understanding and responding to questions, etc. Is this sort of situation covered in your app?
That makes sense. There isn’t a separate real-world-only session yet, so the adaptive queue can still mix the basics in. A focused mode for signs, station announcements, menus, and other things you encounter in Japan fits the app very well, and I’m adding it to the next-update list.
Would broad sections like Signs and stations, Restaurants, and Daily life cover what you want, or would you rather have one combined Out in the wild session?
October gives you a useful amount of runway. The app is built around the things that kept catching me after I moved here, especially signs, stations, prices, and the small interactions you repeat every day. If you hit something that feels too basic or notice a gap before the trip, let me know.
This is a third-party app and is not created by the WaniKani team. By using this, you understand that it can stop working at any time or be discontinued indefinitely.
