Following my recent post on getting Japanese Input on Kindle Fire – and also following an interesting discussion on Japanese kaomoji (emoticons) on the Senshi Forums, I have a very interesting thing to share with you.

That thing is that not only can you get Japanese input on Kindle fire as explained in my article, but that when you do it is the single best device for using kawaii Japanese emoticons!

Honored Cure Dolly, in the Forum thread, asks a question that puzzles many of us who have Western keyboards (even when set to Japanese input):

As Piffy-chan wisely notes, we call these emoticons 顔文字 kaomoji in Japanese 顔 kao=face, 文字 moji=(written) character.

Howsoveryever what this dolly wants to know is, where do you find characters like ω and ▽ on your b-chord (keyboard). I just swoggled them from your post but I don’t know how to type them!

And however much I flip the A-key while typing I can’t make it go upside-down like (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞ that.

Tetsudatte onegaishimasu!

Honored Cure Ocha can only reply:

*whisper* _{I cheat – I look on the site until I find what I want and then copy it.}

How to get Hidden Characters and Japanese Emoticons on Kindle Fire

This assumes you already have Japanese input enabled. If you haven’t, read this first.

Step 1: In any setting other than Romaji (i.e. Japanese text or numbers/symbols) press the key that is the Shift Key in Romaji (circled below). Hold it for about a second and release it.

Step 2:
You now have the screen shown below. This contains a vast selection of all the characters you need to make Japanese Emoticons. It even conveniently keeps your most recently used ones in a row at the top (circled below). However…

Step 3:
Suppose you have trouble remembering all those kaomoji or you just want them ready-made like your mayonnaise and cookies. Kindle Fire has you astoundingly covered.

Just press the long button circled below (conveniently labelled 顔文字 kaomoji) and a vast selection of Japanese emoticons opens up. You can scroll this selection for six miles two hundred and seventy yards, four feet five and a quarter inches (well, all right, I haven’t actually measured it, but it goes on and on) ←and on:

Happy kawaii kaomojification!

You’ll just love it! (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡

Related article

• How to get Japanese Input on Kindle Fire (without rooting)

It is possible to type Japanese text on Kindle Fire without rooting the device. It is really easy too.

After unsuccessful Googling, a little experimentation helped me find the way. So here is the Cure Tadashiku step-by-step guide on how to make your Kindle Fire talk Japanese (you can click any picture to get a bigger view):

Stop press: You can type in Japanese without changing the device’s language by following the directions below and choosing “Keyboard” instead of “Language” in Step 3 (but where’s the sport in that?)

Enable Japanese text input on Kindle Fire

1. Pull down the settings menu and click the “More” item.

2. Select “Language and Keyboard”

3. select “Language”

4. Select 日本語

And you’re done!

This is what your keyboard now looks like:

By using the key (circled) in the bottom left, you can switch between kana (which converts to kanji in the same way as your computer’s input) and romaji, so you have the best of all worlds. You even have Japanese (as well as English) predictive text.

But be aware that your home screen now also looks like this:

That’s right. You have a Japanese-speaking Kindle now, and I recommend it as good practice. The Japanese menus are pretty simple. You will get used to it.

But don’t worry if that is too daunting. I’ll show you how to get back.

Getting back to English:

1. Pull down the settings bar as before

Select the same round thing at the end (now called その他).

2. Select 言語とキーボード (Language and Keyboard)

3: Select 言語 (Language)

4: Select your brand of English

And there you are. Your Kindoru speaks English again. Boring, isn’t it?

The Tadashiku School of Japanese recommends struggling with a Japanese-language Kindle. It creates a situation where it is “Japanese or nothing”, and that way you do learn to understand. It is difficult at first but it is this sort of thing that helps Japanese to become part of your life experience rather than just something you study and play with.

But that’s up to you. Either way have fun and がんばってください！

See also:

Hidden Secrets of Japanese Kindle Fire Input
Did you know there is a huge wealth of Japanese characters and kawaii kaomoji (emoticons) hidden away inside the Kindle Fire’s Japanese input system? Find out how to unlock them here!