Kuretake: write with water!

[Explorer]

This kit is one of my favorite tools to practice kanji. It contains a water brush pen and a special sheet of paper that you can write on over and over using water instead of ink. How cool is that? The strokes are dark and well visible when wet. As they dry, they disappear, and you can write on the paper again. No more wasted paper! It also includes a booklet with tips for forming well proportioned characters. Price is about $ 15.

[Madame Sensei]

Do you like it, Explorer? I considered buying a set for my classes, but then decided it wasn't as much fun as grinding your own ink. The whole process is very meditative and calming. And the students like putting their best kanji on display on the walls of the classroom. But I am very interested in hearing your thoughts: How often do you use this? How quickly are you writing your kanji, or are you planning before you put brush to paper? Do you only have the one sheet? Do you feel that it disappears too quickly, or just the right amount of time, or too slowly? Thank you for your insight.

[Explorer]

Do you like it, Explorer? I considered buying a set for my classes, but then decided it wasn't as much fun as grinding your own ink. The whole process is very meditative and calming. And the students like putting their best kanji on display on the walls of the classroom.

Yes I do like it very much! From my point of view this set is not meant to replace the experience of writing with real ink, which I love too. This is rather about learning through repetition and improving the student's handwriting speed. Everytime I learn a new kanji, I write it several times on a sheet of paper. Then, as a training exercise, I use the water pen to practice it dozens (hundreds, thousands, gazillions!) of times without wasting precious paper and ink. Characters seem to stick better in my memory this way. It doesn't hurt to give it a try I guess

But I am very interested in hearing your thoughts: How often do you use this? How quickly are you writing your kanji, or are you planning before you put brush to paper? Do you only have the one sheet? Do you feel that it disappears too quickly, or just the right amount of time, or too slowly? Thank you for your insight.

I use it every week. I'd say I'm a very slow writer. The strokes start disappering after 20-30 seconds depending on the temperature and humidity in the room. This is usually more than enough for me.

[Madame Sensei]

Do you like it, Explorer? I considered buying a set for my classes, but then decided it wasn't as much fun as grinding your own ink. The whole process is very meditative and calming. And the students like putting their best kanji on display on the walls of the classroom.

Yes I do like it very much! From my point of view this set is not meant to replace the experience of writing with real ink, which I love too. This is rather about learning through repetition and improving the student's handwriting speed. Everytime I learn a new kanji, I write it several times on a sheet of paper. Then, as a training exercise, I use the water pen to practice it dozens (hundreds, thousands, gazillions!) of times without wasting precious paper and ink. Characters seem to stick better in my memory this way. It doesn't hurt to give it a try I guess

But I am very interested in hearing your thoughts: How often do you use this? How quickly are you writing your kanji, or are you planning before you put brush to paper? Do you only have the one sheet? Do you feel that it disappears too quickly, or just the right amount of time, or too slowly? Thank you for your insight.

I use it every week. I'd say I'm a very slow writer. The strokes start disappering after 20-30 seconds depending on the temperature and humidity in the room. This is usually more than enough for me.

Japan boasts a 99% literaxy rate, and it is because of constant repetition, so you are not alone in practicing a gajillion times. I had one class when I went to school in Japan where the teacher would give us a kanji and practice paper (looks kind of like graph paper), and we had to write the one kanji over and over for an hour until the bell rang. The teacher would walk up and down the aisles and comment on how ugly or beautiful our kanji looked.