system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do the Japanese not smudge their letters when writing from top to bottom and right to left?

Right-handed people would get ink all over their wrists.
gpt
Keep in mind that it's top to bottom first. One column is analogous to one line in western text. So by the time you get to a new column the ink at the top has dried.

On top of that, traditional style top to bottom writing is usually reserved for formal situations (and manga for some reason, but that's mostly printed these days) so you'll be being more careful with your text. Everyday Japanese is written left to right, same as with western text.