Ever since I started to learn Japanese, I've done a lot of studying on the train to and from work. At first this meant carrying around home-made paper flashcards and a big English to Japanese dictionary, but these days an iPhone can replace both of those and help you do much more – there are apps for flashcards, for learning the stroke order of kanji, and even fully fledged dictionaries.

I've downloaded and tried loads of apps, and even created a few, but here's my personal top five covering everything from basic kana to kanji-lookup.

1 & 2) For learning Hiragana and Katakana

I learned hiragana and katakana before the iPhone existed (sadly – it was a pain), but still need to brush up on my katakana every so often. There are dozens of kana apps, but the best I've found come from a Japanese independent developer called Kenji Hioki (hk2006).

They are rather large to download, but this is because they're packed with audio: the app spells out a word (in the screenshot above right, the audio says: "ku – ku – kuruma… kuruma"), while you tap it out using the kana shown on screen. This helps to build up recognition between the sound and forms, while also teaching you basic vocabulary at the same time.

The hiragana and katakana apps are completely free – I also like his Kanji apps as a quick way to revise basic kanji.

3) For learning Vocabulary

For vocabulary, I've found that nothing works more effectively than flashcards: English on one side, Japanese on the other, so you can learn from Japanese to English first, and then the other way around. There are dozens of flashcard apps, but for me the key thing is ease of adding cards: you need to be able to add them quickly, in bulk, and in either kana or kanji.

It's much easier to do this on a computer, and for that reason I recommend Touchcards 2. This relatively simple flashcards app has one great trick, shown above and to the left: it can import vocabulary from a Google Docs spreadsheet. This means you can easily create and manage huge lists of vocab, then sync them onto the iPhone to learn when you're out and about.

That function aside, it's simple and to the point: you can study cards in both directions, customise the size of the text, study in order or at random, and enable a scoring system when you want.

4) For Kanji, and as a Dictionary

Only a few years ago I had a big, heavy paper dictionary and was tempted to buy a Canon Wordtank. Now, I just use the appropriately named Japanese, by CodeFromTokyo. This great dictionary app is ideal for looking up words by sound (as shown above, you can type phonetically in roman letters), or kanji (by component, SKIP, or handwriting).

It also has a handy lists function (shown above, right), and an extensive flashcard system for learning those. I use this for drilling through kanji – it works for vocab, too, but you can't set kanji or kana display per item or add cards that aren't forms in the dictionary. The app costs $10, but that's ridiculously cheap considering just how much it can do.

4) For Verbs

A huge disclaimer here: I made, and I sell, this app. But the reason for that is that there wasn't a good one available before. There comes a time – after you've picked up kana, and a bunch of vocabulary – where you'll need to start learning various verb forms beyond the simple masu / masen / mashita / masendeshita ones, and I wanted a way to learn these in a flashcard-like fashion. So, here's my Japanese Verbs app, which does just that.

The app is free, with ten basic verbs included, and teaches the masu, dictionary (plain), nai, ta, and te forms of each, along with English translations and classification (Regular 1, 2, irregular). You choose the verbs you want, pick the front and back of each card – English to Dictionary, say – and then drill through the flashcards. A 99c / 69p in-app purchase unlocks 35 more verbs, covering most basic tasks. A second app teaches transitive and intransitive pairs.

So those are the Japanese apps that never leave my iPhone. If you've got a recommendation for another I should try, please leave it in the comments below or tweet it to @tomroyal.

Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima-ken

Three years ago, most people probably hadn't heard of Fukushima. Today everybody has heard of it, but very few people are visiting. This is a great shame, for many reasons.

The name itself is something of a problem. Fukushima is the prefecture, a city within it, and also the namesake of the nuclear power station that suffered a level-7 disaster after the earthquake. Both the city and the majority of the prefecture (pretty much everything west of the city, in fact) are located outside the exclusion zone, and considered safe for travel by the FCO. So off I went.

Getting into Fukushima-ken isn't hard, but you can't rely on the quickest trains: Hayate services on the Tohoku shinkansen bypass both Fukushima and Kouriyama. Instead you'll need a stopping service; these have some unreserved cars making them easy to catch.

I jumped off the main line at Kouriyama (tip: exit station, straight across main road, tiny katsu restaurant, fantastic food) and changed onto the Ban'etsu West line, which is a tiny one-track service into the countryside. After a long, dozey ride, I arrived in Aizuwakamatsu.

Aizuwakamatsu

Aizuwakamatsu is an old city nestled in the mountains. It's obviously put some real effort into tourism: there are tourist offices not just at the station, but also in other locations around town, with a bike rental scheme and a decent map of the town in English. There are, however, not many tourists. If you can, grab a bike: the city plan looks small, but it's actually a good day's walk to get around.

There are several interesting things to see. At one end of the town, a huge seven-tiered castle keep: this is a fake, rebuilt in the 60s, but it's still impressive to see and there's a good view from the top. There's also a site commemorating the Byakkotai (a group of very young soldiers who committed ritual suicide) – strangely this includes a huge and hideous memorial sent by Mussolini.

Nearby, there's the Sazaedo, a curious wooden temple that conceals two spiraling staircases, each hidden from the other – it dates to around 1790, and you can walk up and down it. The whole temple area is really rather pretty.

Finally, there's a small cluster of onsen ryokan just outside the town – you'll need a bus or bike to get there, I think, and sadly I didn't have the time.

Staying and Eating

Aizu has several hotels; I stopped at the Toyoko Inn next to the station which cost next to nothing. There are some cheap restaurants near the station, plus a few convenience stores and izekaya.

Unfortunately, Fukushima marked the end of the line for me on this trip. Out of time, out of money and out of clean clothes, I headed back to Tokyo the next morning, from Tokyo to Narita and Narita to home. Given a few more days, I'd like to have explored a bit further into the backwoods around Aizuwakamatsu: the local train line runs on, through dozens of smaller towns, for anyone with the time to travel it.

Next time, then.

This post is a part of my 'Japan on a Budget' collection – you can browse the rest here.

Inside the Hakkoda-Maru

Aomori-ken sits at the very top of Honshu. Getting there on the train is as easy as you could hope: Shin-Aomori is the current terminus of the Tohoku Shinkansen, so you can leap on a Hayate service from Tokyo or, like me, catch it from Morioka, where the Akita mini-shinkansen line meets the Tohoku service (Morioka, incidentally, seems like a rather pretty little city with some nice gardens and the remains of a castle). The train covers quite a distance from Morioka to Aomori, but with very few stops it's quick.

Like many towns that get linked to the Shinkansen, Aomori has an older station (called, well, Aomori) and the new Shinkansen one (Shin Aomori) outside the town. At Shin Aomori you will find every conceivable type of car rental depot and just about nothing else, so your best bet is to jump on the Ou Main Line service to Aomori (a couple of minutes) or Hirosaki (quite a long way – be sure to get an express, or it'll take forever).

Hirosaki

Hirosaki lies to the south-west of Aomori, closer to the volcano Iwaki-san. It's notable for its castle, which also features on the head of the town's wonderfully bonkers mascot, Takamaru-kun, as seen here cheering on the Tohoku region:

The castle is indeed rather beautiful, with a big moat, a number of gates, and a white keep perched up above: it would probably look stupendous in cherry-blossom season.

Castle aside, the town has a large temple complex (Choso-Ji) that's worth seeing, and like most of Aomori is big on apples. So much so, in fact, that you can visit the Hirosaki Ringo-Koen (apple park) – just outside the town this has a small museum, a lot of apples, and a hell of a view over to the mountain:

The town's a very walkable size, but to get to the apple park you'll need wheels of some kind: there's (apple-branded) bike rental available from the tourism office at the station. And if you do go there, don't miss the restaurant where every possible dish is available in some kind of apple-themed or apple-based variant. I had apple curry with apple something on an apple plate. And apple salad with apple dressing.

And an apple. It was delicious.

Aomori

From Hirosaki I doubled back to Aomori. Up on the coast, it's not the prettiest city you'll see: the most striking bit of architecture is the ASPAM building, which looks rather like a giant alien tortilla chip. You can pay a few quid to see the city from the second-from-top floor, though, which is worth it for orientation purposes.

There are two things in Aomori that are absolutely worth seeing, though. First, and near the station in a rather splendid modern building, is the Nebuta museum, host to some of the giant illuminated floats that parade through the city during this annual festival (Hirosaki has one, too):

They are huge and absolutely stunning. Secondly, Aomori is the major link on Honshu with Hokkaido to the north, and the traffic back and forth used to travel on huge rail-ferries such as the Hakkoda-Maru:

Now the ships have been replaced by a tunnel, and soon the Shinkansen will go through directly, further relegating Aomori's importance. The Hakkoda-Maru, though, has been preserved as a museum: inside you can wander through the bridge and accommodation, and boggle at the deck that held three complete trains per journey. The atmosphere is actually quite overwhelming, especially when you see the ship's crew filmed before its final voyage – there's a real sense of an important part of the community ending up out of time and passing on.

Staying and Eating

In Hirosaki I stayed in the Super Hotel. It's cheap – very cheap – but note that the hotel does not open until 3pm, so you can't even dump luggage there. Also, if you're googling to find out why the INCREDIBLY LOUD FAN in the bathroom is keeping you awake at 3am, there's a strange switch labeled in Kanji outside the door – once translated, that will tell you to flip the switch and wait five minutes to silence the fan. Sigh.

Hirosaki isn't exactly packed with restaurants, especially if like me you show up too late, but I did eat possibly the single largest bowl of ramen  I've ever had (size chuu, or medium, no less) in the basement of the retro department store (check out the paintings on the front) in the shopping district.

Aomori has dozens of business hotels. I used the JAL City, which is right in front of the ASPAM building – maybe £50 per night, with nice modern rooms and a good view. Restaurants of every type abound, including a great basement sushi place near the station.

Aomori marked the furthest north I could visit on this trip. The next day I jumped back on the main line to Fukushima-ken.

Tazawa is a beautiful, almost circular, lake in Akita-ken. Getting near the lake is easy: use the Akita mini-shinkansen, which if you're coming from the south runs together with the main Tohoku line and forks off at Morioka (from the north, change there). Getting to the lake itself is harder.

Having failed to find a free room at Nyuto onsen (more later), I found one by phoning the Rose Park Hotel, which is on the opposite side of the rather large lake. But not to worry: the internet said that there are Orix and JR car rental places by the station. I tried to book a car, but without a Japanese address the online system failed. So I just showed up.

Do not just show up at Tazawako shinkansen station and hope to rent a car.

Car Hire

The JR rental office at Tazawako station is a small shed-like building, and the Orix branch is a nearby shop. Neither had any cars, and this was on a weekday in October, so I doubt there had been a sudden rush – they're obviously there for people collecting pre-arranged rentals. And, as I mentioned, you can't pre-book either without a Japanese address. So I'm stuck at the Shinkansen station, which is nowhere near the lake, with no transport. Buses run, in October, a couple of times a day at best.

I was contemplating a good few hours of hiking with an 80 litre backpack, but the Orix lady saved me: she had the number of another rental shop. Toyota rental isn't by the station, but is a proper car rental lot: call them on (0187) 43 2100. The guy there had one car left; renting it required my 1949 international driving permit, my license, 7000Y, and a lot of fairly broken Japanese and hand gestures.

My vehicle was a Toyota Vitz (a Yaris in the UK). From it I learned the following:

1) Japanese auto-boxes have lots of settings. You need only P(ark), D(rive) and R(everse).
2) This particular one is all too easy to drop into S(creaming noise).
3) The car will beep. This could be because you're reversing, or because you've failed to drop the handbrake completely, or for any other number of reasons. Beep. Beep.
4) Japanese car computers are amazing. The one in this tiny, cheap car had maps, spoke English (well, mostly), and knew where everything is.
5) A one litre automatic Yaris-thing is not at all suitable for driving up a 10 degree incline on a dirt track into the mountains. But it managed, somehow.

Nyuto Onsen

This is not a road. It's not much worse than the road was, though.

About that hill. I wanted to visit Tsuru-no-Yu onsen, which is one of the most famous, and up in the hills behind Tawaza-ko. It's not easily accessible without a car. To get to it you go up a main road, down a small road, which becomes a narrow road with blind U-bends, which becomes a gravel track with huge rocks and potholes. All of the time, you're climbing up the mountain. And at the end: half of Japan's cars are in the car park. Amazing.

The onsen, though, is worth it. It's incredibly old, and has several baths. Unusually, the largest one – an outdoor bath under the mountain, with white water – is not gender segregated. Nor is it in any way private: the changing rooms have glass, and people walk right past the bath edge. Nonetheless, if you can get past that, it's wonderful: huge, comfortable, with a range of temperatures from bubbling out of the earth scorching hot to cool at the other end. I spent a good hour or more floating like a sedated hippo.

If you're male and don't fancy the rather open bath, though, I'm not sure Tsuru-no-Yu is worth the trip: the two indoor male baths are fine, but rather small. For women there's a separate outdoor bath around the back – no idea if it's any good, obviously, but at least there's another option.

Staying and Eating

Noodles just out of shot

From Tsuru-no-Yu I headed for the Rose Park hotel. This is on the west shore, near the golden statue, and seems to have at least three names: it's also the El Mirador and Prince hotel. Whatever it's called, though, it's nice: rather old-fashioned rooms, but large, clean and cheap (7500Y or so including breakfast). Rooms do not have internet access or water heaters but do have a vacuum flask of hot water for tea and, amazingly, a 'background music' knob. For, you know, lift music.

It's worth noting that there is nowhere around to eat in the evening – and the nearest store that opens even vaguely normal hours is a 30min drive on the other side of the lake – so it might be worth booking food at the hotel. During the day, there's a fantastic noodle stall next to the Goza no Ishi temple on the lake shore a 15 or so minute drive away. Or if you head away from the lake via the road that leaves from its eastern side (near the shops), you'll see a pizza restaurant and a small shop selling coffee and honey roll cake. I didn't try the pizza (closes early), but the coffee and cake were nice. You can't miss it – look for the London Bus.

Lake Tazawa might sound like a bit more trouble than it's worth, but it's hard to explain quite how beautiful the place is – tough by public transport, but well worth the effort if you can rent a car. The next day I drove back around the lake to the station, and headed north towards Hirosaki.

Dancers, Sendai

Getting to Sendai is easy: grab a Shinkansen train from Tokyo Eki. The Hayate services are best: you'll need a reserved seat, but these fly past all but the biggest stations. Step out of the huge Sendai JR station and you're within walking distance of just about everything, although there's also a subway system if you need it. The city centre seems almost entirely unscathed by the disaster of 2011, although out towards the coast whole communities were destroyed.

There's not a huge amount to see in Sendai's city centre, although it is worth hiking up the hill to the castle – not for the castle itself (there's nothing left of it) but for a good view out over the town and surroundings. Other than that. grab a hotel and some food and head out for Yama-dera, Matsushima and Hiraizumi.

Yamadera

The view from the top

Yamadera is exactly what the name says – a temple in the mountains. You get to it on a slow local train (Senzan line) from Sendai JR, and then hike up across the river and up to the temple. It's a relatively modest temple by Japanese standards, but the setting and the view from near the top make it well worth the trip, especially in autumn as the leaves are turning. There are omiyage shops and a few simple restaurants in the town.

Matsushima

This cluster of islands off the Sendai coast is one of the famous views of Japan (along with the floating Torii at Miyajima, which I visited last year). Amazingly, it's even more gobsmackingly beautiful.

Like Yamadera, it's a 45-50 minute ride out on a local train from Sendai (Senseki line – there are some slightly quicker red express trains), this time to Matsushima-kaigan. Thanks to jetlag, I showed up around 7am – getting there early is good, as by the time I was thinking about leaving a horde of tour groups had descended. This was on a weekday in October; I wouldn't even try on the weekend.

The view out to the islands is beautiful enough, but you can also cross a red bridge (200Y if the ticket office is open) to Fukuuru Jima of them and walk around its various viewpoints over the bay. Up into the town is the Zuigan-Ji, a large Zen Buddhist temple complex, with a beautifully restored shrine inside – as I wandered in, sutras were being chanted in one of the private halls.

Hiraizumi

Somewhere in the Chuson-Ji

Hiraizumi, whose temples are designated a UNESCO world heritage site, is between Sendai and Morioka – get the stopping Shinkansen (some carriages are non-reserved) to Ichinoseki and change to the Tohoku local line. It's a pretty town with several amazing temple complexes, one of which (Chuson-Ji) is absolutely enormous and houses the biggest golden shrine I've seen outside of, well, the golden temple itself.

There's a guy by the station who rents bikes for two hours (500Y) or the day (1000Y) – two hours might just about cover the Chuson Ji alone, but I'd stay for longer if possible. Renting bikes in Japan is generally easy (cheap, no deposit required, locks built into the back wheel), but if like me you stand on the tall side the frames will be far, far too small.

Staying and Eating

Staying in Sendai is easy, as there are loads of business hotels. The one nearest to the station, though, is the JAL City Hotel – turn right out of the station, past Parco, through the next building (past Starbucks) and the stairs go right down in front of it. This one's actually a bit posher than most business hotels, so you get the chance to buy Yebisu from a minibar rather than Suntory from a vending machine and you check out properly on departure, but it's cheap – around £50-60 per night.

The local specialty of barbequed cow tongue (gyutan) is really pretty good, and there are loads of cheap restaurants if you head away from the station and into the city, then right. Just about every kind of shop you might need can be found on the main covered shopping arcade that runs away from the station entrance.

From Sendai I traveled north and west to Tazawako.