Hello, everyone. Today I'll show you how to make your handwritings look more natural to Japanese native speakers' eyes.
Take a look at the sentences I wrote 「日本の領海の近海に落下」. Can you find any differences between the 2 rows? Okay, my handwriting looks a bit ugly, but what I'm trying to say is: Typeface. I wrote the upper one in so-called 楷書(kaisho-style) and the lowercase one in 明朝 (Ming style.) Take a closer look at 領 and 近. Many Japanese people actually use the 楷書 style when they write by hand; the 明朝 style is originally designed for printing, not for handwriting. Most people grown up in Japan have learned Kaisho-style in their elementary schools, so they are familiar to it.
Learning 楷書-style can make your handwritings look more natural to Japanese people's eyes; it's worth practicing. This Web site (https://www.arcody.com/tools/kyokasho/) helps you see how to write Kanji in Kaisho-style.
Another name for it is 教科書体, so you can find good resources by entering the keyword 教科書体 into a search engine like Google.
by yu-ogawa