In Japan there language has a different alphabet many people take one look at it and think it's too hard to write because it's in symbol. That was my first impression [Being the simpleton that I am], when
I began to actually learn the symbols it became much easier to casually write it. There are two different ways to write Japanese letters one is for more English originated words while the other is for pure homebred Japanese words. The first is called katakana and the second is called  hiragana. I will present it in two columns. So without further a due I present the alphabet [ well...  most of it].                                                                                                                  

English    Katakana    Hiragana  This symbol is prounounced as
A                 ア           あ                          aw
I                  イ            い                            ee
U                 ウ           う                            oo
E                  エ           え                           ay
O              オ          お                            O

Ka               カ            か                        kaw
Ki                キ            き                        key
Ku               ク             く                       koo
Ke               ケ             け                       kay
Ko               コ             こ                         ko 

Ta               タ             た                       ta         
Chi              チ             ち                       Chee
Tu               ツ             つ                       too
Te               テ             て                        tay           
To               ト             と                        Two 

Sa                サ            さ                       Saw
Shi               シ           し                        She
Su               ス             す                       Soo 
Se               セ             せ                       Sea
So               ソ             そ                       Sow

Na         ナ           な                            naw
Ni             ニ           に                           knee
Nu           ヌ            ぬ                           new
Ne           ネ             ね                          ney
No           ノ            の                           no

Ha           ハ                  は                          ha
Hi             ヒ                 ひ                         he
Fu            フ             ふ                        foo
He            ヘ            へ                        hey
Ho           ホ             ほ                        hoe

Ma           マ             ま                       maw
Mi            ミ              み                       me
Mu           ム              む                      moo  
Me           メ              め                      may
Mo           モ              も                      moe

Ra            ラ             ら                      Raw
Ri              リ             り                      Ree
Ru             レ             る                      Roo
Re             ル             れ                      Ray
Ro             ロ             ろ                      Roh

Ya             ヤ              や                     Yah
Ye             ヨ              え                     Yay
Yo             エ              よ                     Yoh

Wa           ワ              わ                     Waw
Wo            ヲ             を                     Woh

N                       ン             ん                        n

Ok now that we got that out of the way we have more, yes, more the dreaded word that teachers use. ok now the first thing is as you may have noticed each letter has a vowel after it and many sounds are missing yes, there are ways to add more sounds. If I wanted to say  kago [Meaning basket; cage] I need a G sound but there are none so I would add a tenten. It looks kind of like a quotation mark. Therefore it would change the ka sound to a ga sound. The change looks like this か to a が. You can in this manner change the K sound to G, [Like you just saw] S to Z, H to B. This process works for both katakana and hiragana. A few special rules apply like if you use the tenten on shi it changes to a ji.  To get a P [Yes it has its own exclusive and annoying rule] you add a symbol like a little circle to a letter beginning with a H sound so Ha would become Pa. The symbol looks like this  は = ぱ
Ha also has a rule where if it immediately follows a subject it is prounounced Wa.

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