North, 
East, 
South & 
West in Japanese
North, East, South & West
The points of the compass can be OK to learn in most languages, but they
are really useful when learning Japanese as they are used in lots and lots
of place names. Almost every train station it seems ( well, quite a lot
of them!), has some point of the compass in its name and you'll hear them
everywhere.
When you read the Japanese symbol for North, , on its own, it's read as "Ki ta". When you combine it with
other characters to make place names it sometimes changes and becomes "Ho"
or sometimes "Ho ku". You might have heard of the Northern Japanese
island of 
, Hokkaido, or "North sea road". But don't worry about the changes
too much, in the game above we'll introduce both ways and you can figure
out which one to use by listening to how it's used in conversations.
The symbol for East is , which is read "Hi ga shi" or "Tou". You've probably
heard of 
"tou kyou" ( Tokyo! ) which is "Eastern Capital".
is South and is read "Minami" or "Nan" ( you may have
heard of "Nankin" in Chinese, it's the same "nan").
And finally is "Nishi" or "Sai" which means West. You might fly
into 
"Kan sai" airport in Western Japan near Osaka.
Anyway the best way to learn is by having fun, so switch on your speakers
have a try at the game above. If you can get to 12 you are doing very well!
Read the hints & tips I used to get fluent in Japanese.
Email me if you have any questions or comments,
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