Kotu.io is a website with a variety of tools to help students learn Japanese. Among these is a tool for interfacing with Anki, another that helps generate subtitles in transcribed media, and even a reader app that lets you paste in a link to some Japanese text – for example, an article – which enables コツ to highlight words based on frequency, pitch accent, or show the point in a word where the pitch drops.
Pitch accent is a common sticking point for many English-speaking Japanese learners, as Japanese is a pitch accent language as opposed to English's stress-accent focus.
コツ also hosts a few different tests, the most interesting one being for Pitch Accent Minimal Pairs. Pitch accent is a common sticking point for many English-speaking Japanese learners, as Japanese is a pitch accent language as opposed to English's stress-accent focus. For Japanese learners looking to improve their pronunciation this is a great resource. The ability to discern the different pitch accent patterns as they are applied to words, and then turning this newfound mindfulness on one's own Japanese isn't something they typically teach in a Japanese-language classroom, but it's invaluable to sounding more natural in spoken Japanese.
To that end, コツ's Pitch Accent Minimal Pairs Perception Test is one of the best ways to check your ability to perceive different pitch accent patterns. A minimal pair is a set of two words whose only difference is a single sound. The site plays audio of a native recording of a word in isolation, and then asks you to select which pronunciation was given. You can filter by which patterns you'd like to be tested on, either Heiban, Odaka, Atamadaka, Nakadaka, or a combination from that list. You're graded as you go, and given the opportunity to hear both pronunciations after a mistake, to help avoid it in the future. It's a simple test, but it doesn't leave much to be desired. For Japanese learners looking to improve their pronunciation, it's well worth your time to begin incorporating this pitch accent test and other forms of pitch accent awareness as soon as possible to your study habits.