Katakana - trivia 19

What sounds are these katakana characters?
ヨ
a) ya
b) yo
c) yu

ラ
a) ro
b) ri
c) ra

Check comments for the answers.

Katakana - trivia 18

What sounds are these katakana characters?
メ
a) me
b) mo
c) ma

ヤ
a) yo
b) ya
c) yu

Check comments for the answers.

Katakana - trivia 17

What sounds are these katakana characters?
モ
a) ma
b) mo
c) mi

タ
a) to
b) chi
c) ta

Check comments for the answers.

Katakana - trivia 16

What sounds are these katakana characters?
ズ
a) zu
b) zo
c) ze

ホ
a) fu
b) hi
c) ho

Check comments for the answers.

Katakana - trivia 15

What sounds are these katakana characters?
ハ
a) hi
b) ha
c) ho

マ
a) ma
b) mu
c) mo

Check comments for the answers.

Katakana - trivia 14

What sounds are these katakana characters?
ナ
a) na
b) ni
c) no

ノ
a) ne
b) na
c) no

Check comments for the answers.

Katakana - trivia 13

What sounds are these katakana characters?
ス
a) sa
b) shi
c) su

セ
a) se
b) so
c) sa

Check comments for the answers.

Japan - facts 9

1) The most important holiday in Japan is New Year's Day.

2) Christmas is celebrated in Japan but it is not a national holiday.

Dakuten and handakuten

Dakuten ゛ (also called ten-ten ("dot dot") and handakuten ゜ (also called maru ("circle") are two signs that are used in the Japanese kana syllabaries hiragana and katakana to change the sounds of some of the characters. They are written after the character. Ten-ten is used more than maru.
An example is the katakana character ハ ha.
It becomes バ ba with ten-ten added. It becomes パ pa with maru added.

Katakana - trivia 12

What are the katakana characters for these sounds? The other character is the sound in hiragana.
a
a) あ
b) ア

e
a) エ
b) え

Check comments for the answers.

Japan - facts 8

1) The Shinkansens are high-speed railway lines and trains.

2) The Yomiuri Giants are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Japan - facts 7

1) Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku are the four largest islands in Japan.

2) Honshu is the largest.

Japan - facts 6

1) Japan is an island country.

2) Tokyo is the most populous prefecture in Japan.

Japan - facts 5

1) Sakura are the flowers of cherry blossom trees.

2) Tokyo is on the east coast of Japan.

Japan - facts 4

1) Shibuya, in Tokyo, is known for fashion.

2) The Yen is the main currency unit.

Japan - facts 3

1) A ryokan is a Japanese inn.

2) Ocha is green tea.

Japan - facts 2

1) Japan is Nippon or Nihon in Japanese. Nippon is more formal. Nippon and Nihon mean "the sun's origin".

2) Japan is known as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan - facts 1

1) Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

2) Tokyo is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan.

How to remember katakana characters

Some of the katakana characters look like something already familiar or remind you of a word. Here are some examples that I use.

The katakana character エ "e" looks like an "I".
The katakana character ウ "u" reminds me of a hanger.
The katakana character キ "ki" looks like a cross.
The katakana character レ "re" reminds me of the word rev.

Romaji

Using the Latin script alphabet to write Japanese is called romaji in Japan. Romaji is used for non Japanese speakers who can't read kanji or the kana scripts hiragana and katakana. It is used in dictionaries and textbooks and other places. It is also used to input text into computers.

Kanji

Kanji are adopted logographic (logograms are visual symbols that represent a part of a word or whole word) Chinese characters which are used in the Japanese language along with hiragana and katakana. Several thousand kanji are in regular use in Japan.

Learning Japanese language

The best learn order for learning the Japanese language is: hiragana, katakana, and then kanji. Romaji is also sometimes used at first for non-speakers of the language.