http://lmgtfy.com/?q=which+is+hiragana+and+katakana I'm all for questions and answers, but are you being serious?

The first set of characters is hiragana. You'll notice that they include a lot of curves and might be considered aesthetically pleasing. The second set is katakana. You'll notice that include mostly straight lines and are not necessarily "pretty." I believe hiragana were originally used by women who, a very long time ago, weren't allowed to go to school and, thus, couldn't learn kanji. By using hiragana, they were still able to communicate through reading and writing. I have heard that katakana were originally invented along with the telegraph and typewriters. It was much easier to mechanically create the necessary printing blocks to be used in electronic machines if the characters mostly consisted of straight lines. I'm not completely sure if this origin information is correct or not though; if you're interested I'd recommend researching a bit more yourself. As far as their use today. Hiragana is used for grammar. By that, I mean they're used to write articles and prepositions and also the conjugated ends of verbs and adjectives. They are also used instead of kanji when one feels the kanji is too difficult to write or just can't remember the kanji. Katakana is used to write foreign loan words and is often used to give onomatopoeia and expletives emphasis. They can be used anytime a writer wants to give a certain word emphasis. You may think that katakana might be the least important but if you're planning to come to Japan, make sure you know them well or you'll be struggling when trying to read menus.

1) Hiragana 2) Katakana