Japanese has both short and long vowels and the distinction is often important. In romanized Japanese, long vowels are marked with a macron, so that ō represents "long O".
Hiragana characters (ひらがな)
a i u e o あ い う え お a i u e o k か き く け こ ka ki ku ke ko s さ し す せ そ sa shi su se so t た ち つ て と ta chi tsu te to n な に ぬ ね の na ni nu ne no h は ひ ふ へ ほ ha hi fu he ho m ま み む め も ma mi mu me mo y や ゆ よ ya yu yo r ら り る れ ろ ra ri ru re ro w わ を wa (w)o ん n g が ぎ ぐ げ ご ga gi gu ge go z ざ じ ず ぜ ぞ za ji zu ze zo d だ ぢ づ で ど da ji zu de do b ば び ぶ べ ぼ ba bi bu be bo p ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ pa pi pu pe po ky きゃ きゅ きょ kya kyu kyo sh しゃ しゅ しょ sha shu sho ch ちゃ ちゅ ちょ cha chu cho hy ひゃ ひゅ ひょ hya hyu hyo gy ぎゃ ぎゅ ぎょ gya gyu gyo j じゃ じゅ じょ ja ju jo by びゃ びゅ びょ bya byu byo
a あ/ア
like 'a' in "father"
n ん/ン
short 'n' at the end of a syllable, pronounced as 'm' before 'b', 'p' or 'm'.
Note that "u" is often weak at the end of syllables. In particular, the common endings -desu and -masu are usually pronounced as "des'" and "mas'" respectively.
