Are there spaces in Japanese?

I'm confused. Whenever I look at Japanese writing, I don't see any spaces.... Is there a way to know when one word stops and another begins? I don't know how to read Japanese yet so that might be the reason I can't tell.

I am still learning Japanese and asked the same question not too long ago. You may occasionally see it with spaces (especially in textbooks) but generally there are none. It is not as bad as it seems though, as once you through thanks to having hiragana/katakana/kanji as well as particles and various common words that you know, and you can just kind of sense where words start or end, even when you don't know what the words may mean. Sounds crazy, but for me and others learning with me, it is true!

No, we Japanese don't use any spaces when writing Japanese sentences. We write sentences using Kanji and Hiragana mixed. Kanji is a character which has its own meaning by itself, and often used with two or more kanji character compounds. So, it is easy for us to distinguish them as units. Hiragana, on the other hand, is a character representing simply the sound as in Alphabets in European languages. So hiragana characters work as connections of each Kanji words to provide the relationships and subtler meanings.

In addition, we don't use spaces, but do use Japanese specific commas and periods. Commas are placed after the subject of the sentence, and the phrases representing set meaning. Periods are, of course, at the end of the sentence. So commas are useful to indicate where to break the sentence.

You both have been very helpful! Thank you! ^_^