Toujin No Negoto　★　唐人の寝言

I stumbled onto this program quite a while ago, but because of some errors on my part I neglected it until recently. It's basically a flash card application for the DS. A flash card system on the DS has a few advantages over the traditional flash card system: for one, there's the sheer hassle of carrying around sets of flash cards. Also DSLearnJ makes use of the DS's touch screen; you can write the kanji you're trying to remember and compare once you flip the card.

To use it, you don't need an instruction manual. Once you load it up, you choose the flashcard file to open, which parts you want hidden (for example you can hide the English meaning, the kanji, or the reading, or any combination of such), and off you go.

The word will be shown on the top screen, you can write it on the bottom screen. Simple. Press the lightbulb or the X button to show the hidden portions. Compare it yourself, and either mark it as right with the green circle or the A button, and continue, or mark it wrong with the red-X or Y button, and it gets put back into the deck.

Making the decks is not exactly brain surgery, but it can be tedious. You should use the program called JWPce. You have to make a .jis file, with the contents in this format:

Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　ｉｎ　ｆｕｌｌ　ｗｉｄｔｈ　ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ、、よみ、、漢字
Ｓｅｃｏｎｄ　ｗｏｒｄ、、にばんめのよみかた、、二番目の漢字
Note that the commas are Japanese style commas, and there must be two of them. Each section can be up to 28 characters in length I think. I guess you could swap the sections around if you wanted, I've never tried it though.

The main problem I had was that I used Microsoft Word instead of JWPce. It made buggy .jis files that sometimes worked sometimes not, and oftentimes made crazy spastic characters show up. Nowadays I write the flashcard files in word and just save them in JWPce.

A very simple, yet effective little application that has unfortunately been abandoned by its creator. The latest version out at most places is version 0.5, which is a completely stable and good version. Things that this version lacks however, are both the ability to scroll through multiple screens of flashcard files, and also it's missing a round-up summary when you complete every flash card. You can get this version from the official site here(link dead), which may need to be patched to work on your DS's card (you need one of those fancy schmancy DS cartridges that can read SD cards). If you have a newer SD cartridge, like R4, M3 Simply, TTDS or the like, you probably don't need to patch it.

After a little searching, I found some old posts by the creator where he uploaded his final version before calling it quits. This version makes some vast improvements over the previous version. It's version 0.6 and is hard to come by but I have it here for ya. But wait, there's a catch. This one has been pre-patched to work with the R4. It works with my TTDS, and I would guess the M3 will run it too, but it may not work on other cards.

The file is here:
DSLearnJ_0.6-R4.zip

I'll also share some of the flashcard files that I use. Some of them have minor mistakes, or vocabulary so old that even Japanese people don't know them, but for the most part they are very educational.

Kinosaki Ni Te Big.jis is made up of about 200 words that show up in Shiga Naoya's short story Kinosaki Ni Te. Expect these words to be rather old, as the story was written in 1917.

Koukotsu No Hito Big.jis gathers words I didn't know from the first chapter of Ariyoshi Sawako's Koukotsu No Hito (1973). A little newer, so words are perhaps more relevant than above.

Senbazuru Big.jis has words from the opening chapter of Kawabata Yasunari's Senbazuru (1951). Some words relating to tea ceremony here.

Yoji.jis collects a few various four-kanji combinations.

Grammar.jis includes some JLPT Level 2 grammar.

*UPDATE* 20/04/09

General1.jis some words largely relating to fish and describing fish.

General2.jis contains some words relating to sporting.

*UPDATE* 30/05/09

Boku To Issho.jis is made up of words mostly from the manga 僕と一緒 boku to issho.

Vagabond.jis has a lot of words from the first chapter of Vagabond.

Kihon.jis has some random words in it.

Anki 2kyuu.jis has some words I had to learn from Speed Anki.

Medical - The Body.jis An ongoing series of medical Japanese words.

*UPDATE* 4/06/09

Mecial Foot.jis contains words relating to the foot.

Medical Face.jis contains words relating to the face.

Medical Hand.jis has a few words about the hand.

Medical Illnesses and Medical Conditions.jis has a list of some common medical conditions.

Medical Inside The Body.jis contains words for organs/bones etc.

Medical Other Vocabulary.jis has some miscellaneous medical words.

Medical Skeleton.jis words relating to the human skeleton.

Medical Symptoms and Injuries.jis Some medical symptoms and injuries.

Medical The Senses.jis A small set containing words relating to the five senses.

For the purpose of time management, and efficient study, it may be a good idea to split large files into smaller ones. That way you can tackle a portion a day or so. I'll keep this list updated every time I make a new flashcard file.