Konnichiwa! Welcome to Japanese 101. Actually this is far from a full on Japanese course. However, I know that it's a big thing to have Japanese on anime web pages, and some people don't understand what web masters mean when they say "ne?" or "kawaii". So here you can learn numerous common phrases in Japanese. So you can understand the simple phrases you can find on web pages, on this web page, and can even use them in everyday conversations. Yeah... like that will happen. Thankyou to Pipsi's Sailor Moon web page for supplying this list of terms.

Anime: a common abbreviation of the Japanese term for animation.
Arigatou: Thank you
Baka: stupid, fool, idiot
Bishoujo: a beautiful or pretty girl
Chibi: a short person or kid
Demo: but
Doko(ni): where?
Domo: very much
Ecchi: mildly perverted (softcore porn)
Eigo: English
Fuku: clothes, uniform EX--> Sailor Fuku
Gomen: sorry
Hai: yes
Henshin: transformation
Hentai: extremely perverted (hardcore porn)
Hiragana: one of the Japanese phonetic alphabets, used for native words.
Iie: no
Ja ne: bye
Kanji: Chinese characters as used in Japanese, with different meanings/pronunciations
Katakana: one of the Japanese phonetic alphabets, mainly used for borrowed words.
Kawaii: cute
Konnichiwa: good day, hello
Kowai: scared, afraid, scary
Kudasai: Please
Manga: Japanese comics
Minna: everyone
Nani: what?
Nasai: sorry
Ne: added to the end of a sentence to say "isn't it?" or "am I right?"
Ohayo: Good morning (or Ohayo gozaimasu to be polite)
Onegai: Please
Otou-san: father
Owari: the end
Piku: to shake or tremble
Romaji: The English alphabet, when used to transliterate the original Japanese words.
Senpai: elder or upperclassman, can be used to honor someone. EX--> Higashi-senpai
Senshi: warrior or soldier
Seiyuu: A voice actor or actress
Sayonara: good bye
Sugoi: cool!
Sumimasen: Excuse me, as in inturupting someone, not as in bumping into them.
Tomodachi: friend

Alright class, next i'll tell you how to pronounce all these new words! Cause if you use them in a conversation and can't say them, you'll look like an idiot. And although I may find that entertaining, you won't

Vowels

Here's a list of Japanese vowels and their English equivalents:

'a' sounds like father

'e' sounds like gate

'i' sounds like feet

'o' sounds like note

'u' sounds like food

Here are some basic rules for the vowels:

~Japanese vowels can be either long or short, just like in English. Usually the letter is simply doubled in order to make it long. So a long 'a' would be presented as 'aa.' A 'u' is usually added to an 'o' to make the 'o' long.
~When two vowels are placed next to each other, the pronunciation would be the combination of both sounds. Like the word ai (love) is pronounced like the English word eye. In this case, the vowels are always short.
~The letters i and u are often not pronounced at all, or just barely whispered. This usually happens if they are preceded by 'voiceless' consanants such as p, t, k, ch, f, s, h, or sh. EX-->Suki is actually pronounced as ski.

Consonants

Most consonants are pronounced just like the English ones, but there are a few exceptions. Here's a list of basic things to remember for the consonants.

~The Japanese r is pronounced kinda like a Spanish r, minus the trill.

~There is no L in Japanese. When Japanese is converted into English, all the L's are written as r's. This doesn't mean that every r in Japanese is actually an L, however.

~The f is pronounced more like an English h, but even breathier.

~The g is ALWAYS hard, like in Goober, rather than soft, like George.

~The s is always hissed rather than voiced.

~If a consonant is doubled, always pronounce both consonants or you could end up saying something completly different!

Okie dokie. That's all I have to teach you for now. So go and speak japanese my little minions! GO GO!