Kanji tells stories

Kanji, an adaption of Chinese into the Japanese character system conveys meaning in a more metaphorical sense, compared to the much simpler Hiragana and Katakana.

Kanji conveys visual meaning

For some Kanji, the meaning is quite visual - creating meaning from a combination of its building blocks. For example, one (一) is one stroke, two (ニ) is simply two ones - one atop another and three ones create the third (三).

Kanji tells stories in the character

For other characters, the meaning is quite hard to decipher, requiring a different means to convey the meaning of the word.