N2 Content Drop #26

You know what the best part about spring is? More than any bunny-themed chocolates, chirping birds, warm weather, or blooming flowers, the best part of spring is that my allergies finally stop playing hard to get and just come out and say it: “Screw you man.”

Like, they’re there all-year-round, sneaking about, causing the occasional sneezing fit, tickling my throat and running away with a giggle. But come spring, they finally own their maliciousness, and I’m free to fight them full force with the power of the modern antihistamine.

And speaking of allergies, I hope you’re not allergic to awesome grammar lessons, because we’ve got a fresh batch ready, just for you!

In this week’s drop, we’ve got five new paramount grammar points for you, not limited to the likes of ～(より)ほかない, for when we have no choice to blow our nose, even if it hurts; ～でしかない, for when allergies have made an actual cold feel like “nothing more than a mild annoyance”; and その上・上に for “on top of X”, which you can use to stack various allergens on top of one another and maybe exclaim in frustration that “these things are all literally everywhere”.

For vocab, we’ve got words worth mulling over such as 嘆き for “grief”, 猛烈 for “fierce”, and 縁起 for “omen”. Very topical, as always.

And in this week’s reading, we’ll discuss Japan’s other Valentine’s Day, give a cautionary tale about plagiarism, and learn a bit about Japanese surnames.

All of this and more awaits you now, in The Sands of Mastery!

Happy studies!

N2 Content Drop #25

Do you want to build a snowman? If so we’d better hurry, because it’s the last N2 drop of winter 2026! And you know what they say about spring… once it springs,... it has sprung, forth. And such.

This drop features enigmatic yet charming grammar points such as ～ことにはならない for “it doesn’t become that thing”, or in a less literal sense: “just because you bought me flowers doesn’t mean you are forgiven for eating the last donut (which happened to be a Boston cream, btw)”; ～はさておき for “setting aside X” as in: “setting aside their sense of humor and personal hygiene and general vibe, it was a good first date”; and どうせ～ for when we want to be negative and gloomy and down on ourselves/others.

What’s more, learn words such as 惨め for “wretched”, 文字通り for “literally”, and 摘まむ for “to pinch/to pluck”.

Then practice recent vocab and grammar in this week’s reading, featuring a bit of volleyball, a discussion regarding Halloween costumes, and some trouble regarding vanishing files in the workplace.

All of this and more awaits you in the Sands of Mastery… right now!

Happy studies

P.s. We've arrived at the mysterious inside of N2 (second part of the region) 👀

New Mobile Apps Update - v1.0.16 - New Search art, Maru's Notes, Adventure Unlock SRS Statuses and more!

Hello once again!

As mentioned in yesterday's changelog, we've got a bunch of new features and bugfixes for the app as well!

Here goes:

New Features:

• 

  Navigation Bar - We've replaced our MaruMori logo with a new illustration to better indicate that you can tap on it in order to search! Maru's even wearing a special outfit for the occasion:

  
• 

  Maru's (Context) Notes - We've started adding context/extra notes for vocabulary and kanji items. These notes now also show up in the app on the dictionary pages and during SRS. Here is an example of what it looks like:

  
• 

  Similar Kanji - Just like on web we've added similar kanji data to the SRS and Dictionary pages for kanji items! This will make it easier for you to compare similar looking kanji and memorise the difference. You can tap on the zoom icon to compare:

  
• 

  Adventure - Vocabulary & Kanji Unlocks - This page now shows the current SRS statuses (level, suspended or marked as known) for each item in the unlocks batch.

  
• 

  Kanji Imposters - Added the N1 mode and highscore leaderboards! Test your advanced kanji knowledge on the go!

  

Bugfixes:

• 

  SRS Results - Fixed an issue where the navbar would overlay and hide the last few results when reviewing/learning a large amount of items.

• 

  Conjugation Trainer - Fixed an issue where entering a high number of max items would error out the page.

• 

  Conjugation Trainer - Fixed an issue where on android some buttons would be below the system navigation bar (back/home buttons etc).

Aaand that's about it for this update! Though in the coming weeks I'll probably focus a lot on the mobile apps again in order to get it ready for general release. So expect some more news to drop soon!

Maru's (context) notes, changing your username and a whole bunch of other smaller features, improvements and bugfixes!

Hey all! Over the past few weeks we've been adding some new features, quality of life improvements and bugfixes for the website and apps (app changelog coming very soon as well!)

Without further ado, let's get to it:

New Features:

• 

  Maru's (Context) Notes - We've started adding context/extra notes for vocabulary and kanji items. These notes show up on the dictionary pages and during SRS. Here are some examples of what it looks like:

  
• 

  Adventure Unlocks - Now show the SRS statuses (level / marked as known / suspended) so its clear if you already marked something as known or have already learned it.

  
• 

  Change Username - You can now change your username from the settings page. This can be done once per 30 days.

• 

  Delete Account - You can now delete your account from the settings page. This is PERMANENT and can't be recovered, so please be very careful with this.

• 

  Study Lists - Manage Items Page - The header is now sticky and will stay on the screen while scrolling through items. This means you can easily view how many items you've selected and do management actions (marking as known, starting a lesson session etc).

  
• 

  Register Account - Usernames are now much more strict in what they accept in order to prevent issues when rendering certain pages/profile images etc.

• 

  Leeches - I think I forgot to include this in a previous changelog, but you are now able to see (more of) your leeches based on the total wrong count, rather than the accuracy percentage.

Bugfixes:

• 

  Study Lists - Community Lists - Fixed an issue where it would sometimes not load in all available study lists while scrolling.

• 

  Mock Exams - Listening Section - Fixed an issue with the choices sometimes being half-hidden on iOS devices.

• 

  Mock Exams - Added extra bottom padding so long content is properly visible on mobile

• 

  Mock Exams - Changed the way mobile choices are rendered.

• 

  Mock Exams - Fixed an issue with the sidebar (questions) styling

• 

  Dictionary - Vocabulary - Fixed an issue with pitch information styling

• 

  Dictionary - Vocabulary - Fixed an issue with some (very select) audio files having wrong pitch.

• 

  Billing - Management Page - This page was incorrectly unavailable when unsubscribed, so you could not see your past invoices properly. This has been fixed.

• 

  Grammar Lessons / Reading Exercises etc - Fixed an issue where pages would sometimes have random � (??) tokens in the middle of Japanese words.

• 

  Discord - Fixed an issue with the link image previews not showing up properly on Discord when linking Marumori pages.

• 

  Register Account - Added additional trimming of whitespace and other characters.

• 

  Demote items - Fixed a bug where if you entered anything other than a number (for example, "1q", it would demote the item to level 0.

• 

  N2 Region - Fixed an issue where part 2 (the inside) of the region would show incorrect tiles.

That's all for now, but you can expect a changelog for the mobile apps to drop in the coming days, as well as some JLPT Mock Exams related announcements and something something knowledge base something.

Similar Kanji in the Dictionary & SRS + Kanji imposters N1 Mode & Highscores!

Hey all, we've got a couple new things to announce related to similar kanji.

Similar Kanji in the Dictionary & SRS

We’ve integrated all of our hand-checked similar kanji data (from over 2200 kanji!) into the dictionary, so relevant entries will now display all similar kanji. Hover over the magnifying glass icon to see a side-by-side comparison! (Note that not all kanji in the dictionary will have visually similar kanji.)

During SRS lesson and review sessions you can also view these pesky similar kanji! Just head over to the "extra" tab on the backside of the (kanji) card. Super handy for when you want to determine what exactly is the difference between kanji A and B and hopefully stop confusing them. So if you ever failed 午 thinking it was 牛 during your reviews, you'll be able to compare the two on the backside of the item.

Kanji imposters N1 Mode & Highscores

What's more, we now have the N1 kanji mode available for the Kanji Imposters minigame! This includes both practice, and high score modes, so don’t miss your potentially once in a lifetime chance to get a N1 Kanji Imposters podium screenshot!

Looks like someone already found it 👀

Just in case you're not familiar, our Kanji Imposters minigame is all about fine-tuning your kanji recognition skills, by pairing a given kanji with its similar-looking kanji cousins. (Think 末 vs 未.) It's split into two modes: Practice and Highscore. With the former being very laid-back, while the latter is pretty frantic and great for training your recognition speed (and making new enemies on the leaderboards).

This is what it looks like:

That's all for now, time to get out there and recognize some kanji!