Welcome to Kiki and Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! in blog form for your quick referencing convenience where Kiki and Koko take turns pressing the keyboard one letter at a time until a full blog post is created! 

If you’ve just gotten started learning how to write Japanese, you’ve hopefully started with the first five vowels. あいうえお. Or maybe you haven’t even learnt them yet! Learning an entirely new writing system may seem daunting. Or perhaps after learning just five characters you think, Five characters? I can’t write anything with just five characters! And, that’d be where you’re wrong, my friend! We’re here to show you that even the most minute of efforts are not in vain!  

Today, we’ll start by guiding you through some characters that only use the first and only five vowels of Japanese! That’s only five characters! And you’ll already have such a broad vocabulary that as you continue to learn, you’ll feel like you’re actually making progress. It’s about learning smarter rather than making things too complicated.  

We’ve broken these up into five fun-sized pieces that feel like king-sized learning! You can use these to practise reading and writing as well as learning new vocabulary words along the way! Look at you, learning three things at once!  

As a precursor to each of these, there’s some words with many different homophones and many with many definitions, so we’ll just focus on the main definitions and more common readings—But, we’ll elaborate in another post when you’re up for it! Also, we’re going to stick to one, two, and maybe three character vowel only words. There’s a few that are moreso phrases than words.  

Disclaimer: A few of these are rarer in everyday use, so if it’s a word you don’t think you’re going to ever use, then don’t stress about remembering it! It’s just good exposure to differentiating words and absorbing more vocabulary. 

Okej! Let’s NihonGO!! 

#1. う【卯】 

Definition: Rabbit (Chinese zodiac)

#2. う【鵜】

Definition: Cormorant 
(A cormorant? What an auspicious sign~) 

#3. う【得】

Definition: Acquire, procure

#4. うい【憂い】

Definition: Sorrowful 

#5. うい【愛い】

Definition: Splendid, fine person (kouhai)

#6. うう【植う】 

Definition: To plant or grow (uncommon)

#7. うえ【上】

Definition: Above, up, over 

#8. うえ【飢え】

Definition: Starvation

#9. うえ【筌】

Definition: Cylindrical fishing basket made from bamboo 

#10. うお【魚】

Definition: Fish (usu. さかな)

よくできました！Well done, you! Pat yourself on the back and celebrate! 

Protip: Search using word: and the term in hiragana afterwards if you want to have future reference to specific vocabulary words from this article. Make sure there’s a space between the colon and the first character~! Ex. word: うう

Can’t Read あいうえお, yet? Watch this video to learn how~!

All Video and Music Credits: Indigo East