Japanese is usually written in three different characters hiragana, katakana, and kanji (or Chinese characters).

Hiragana
Hiragana is the most basic form of writing. Even though hiragana is a form of writing in Japanese it is normally used for the grammatical endings of verbs, nouns, and adjectives. It is also used for word of Japanese origin.

Katakana
Katakana is used for words that have been barrowed from other languages, such as keeki (cake) and wanwan (Japanese for bow - wow).