Thanks, Nyororin and masaegu, for your responses
So, I get that using excessive kanji is in poor taste. I suppose, then, that I should look up each new kanji I encounter and hope that the usage description in that entry is accurate (if any specific usage is delineated there to begin with). Is there a better way to address this issue, though?
I agree with masaegu that overuse of kanji is a problem with people who have a background in Chinese language. It is difficult for me to "unlearn" a kanji that I know should only be written in hiragana (especially if I know the kanji already from Chinese language studies).
Also, I'm a little confused by the lookup method. I looked up つまらない in Jim Breen's dictionary and it shows the kanji for that word right next to the hiragana. That entry doesn't seem to say anything about it being more common to write the word in hiragana. jisho.org does though. Anyway, I promise I do understand your point, and know better than to question those who are intimately familiar with the Japanese language
