Japanese Picture Book

小さいひらがなの本 Little Hiragana Book illustrator/author: Cody Rodefer コヲディー·ロデファー with immense praise and special thanks to: Tasuku Agari 上里祐 (あがりたすく） and also for helping: Douglas Rountree Dr. Segi

あ り ari (ah) ant

い ぬ inu (ee) dog

う ま uma (oo) horse

え び ebi (eh) shrimp

お に oni (oh) ogre か い kai shell note: all but one of the Japanese letters have the the a, i, u, e, or o sound in them, as in ah, ee, oo, eh, and oh.

き ki tree note: the kanji (chinese character) for き is 木

く ま kuma bear

け ke hair

こ い koi Koi

さ る saru monkey し か shika deer

す い か

suika watermelon

せ み semi cicada そ ら sora sky

た こ

tako octopus

ち ょ う chou butterfly note: ち has the sound “chi” in English, but can be combined with other characters to make the sounds “cha” “chu” and “cho”, but not “che”, which does not exist in Japanese:

つ き tsuki moon

note: the “tsu” sound does not exist in English

て ん し tenshi angel と ら tora tiger

な し

nashi Japanese pear

に わ と り niwatori chicken

ぬ い ぐ る み

nuigurumi stuffed animal

ね こ

neko cat

の こ ぎ り

nokogiri saw

は っ ぱ

happa leaf note: the ''つ'' in はっぱ is actually a small tsu, which simply doubles the consonant sound after it.

ひ hi fire ふ う せ ん fuusen balloon

へ た heta snake ほ し hoshi star

ま ぐ ろ maguro tuna

み か ん mikan

Mandarin Orange

む し mushi insect

め me (meh) eye

も り

mori forest

や yama ま mountain

yuki ゆ snow き

よ う ち ゅ う youchuu larva; caterpillar; chrysalis

り ん ご

ringo apple

る す rusu

absence;being away from home note: No one is home is でかけています。

れ い rei 0 ろ う そ く rousoku candle

わ た し watashi I

”を”と”ん”から始まる言葉はありません！！ The letters “を”and “ん”never start words. “を”is not in any words, and is used to mark objects of verbs. It is spelled wo sometimes, but sounds like o. “ん”can make a grunt n sound, like going mmm quickly only with n, not m. It can also make the n sound like in drippin', or be part of the ng sound, like in manga.