ア for an Axe

It kind of looks like an a-mbrella (umbrella).

It's a capital A tilted slightly, with the right leg tucked into the center.

Falling down the stairs but upside down "AAAAAAA"

shArk

It looks like a person holding their arm going AAAAA

Looks like a finger being pricked by a needle .... AAAAHHH

an Attack (a hand with an axe)

some poor person tried to write an ‘a’ and did it sideways, then the line way too long

Internet wires hung on a pole

Looks like an i

Incline

イ(い) looks like the eaves of a house (いえ/ie), or just your regular alphabet I with a fancy hat.

There's a plate on the "i"

flatten the line at the top and add on to the bottom and it looks like a capital letter “i” (the fancy one with lines on the top and bottom)

Its easy to confuse エ with a capital "i", so remember:
エ is wide like "e", イ is thin like "i" !

A steep piece of rollercoaster where you go "iiiiiii!"

イ looks like an eagle

A sloped roof with a beam supporting it.

This roof has a steep "i"ncline!

イlooks like someone (I)ce skating.

Angry eye close up

it looks like someone who did a round kick

incline - i - イ

Looks like the side of an EAsle. イ

The short line of I(い) is carrying the long line

Katakana i looks the same as chi on top, and chi ends with i.

Easy to remember that in Katana they don't dot the "i", they just use a side-swipe in it's place.

I- like Icicle hanging off a roof

The line is unbalanced. You could also say it's unイven (uneven).

イ looks like someone raising their hand to answer a question. "*I* know!"

I without a dot

Unicorn - the top line is the horn

(to differentiate fromフ and ワ) this one has more details than the other two yet it is the simplest sound :)

It looks like a tilted umbrella with a missing part

ウ for Uisukii/ウイスキー (whiskey) a whiskey glass with a cherry on a toothpick

looks like a bowl of Udon (the top line can be chopsticks or steam)

You will distinguish this from フ (fu) and ワ (wa) because UP there is a nub!

Oh no! A U-boat is heading straight toward us!

Turn it upside down and you can kinda see a "U".

Is someone without the head pointing at yo'U'

You will distinguish this from フ (fu) and ワ (wa) because UP there is a nub!

Looks like ooze (Uze) dripping down into a bowl.

As a cyclops, I frown at the fact I cannot be a narwhal no matter how many horns I grow. ウ luckier but just a horse with a party hat.

Looks like a side view of a snake face with a single teeth

Looks a tad bit like an upside down english "U". Only thing is, they cut off half the line on the left side and put it on top! How dare they 3:

It looks like a small middle finger. Makes you go "uuuuuu!" When you see it

I can only remember this as a completely unfurled sail on a mast

the dreidels of hanUkkah

It looks like the "y" in "you", but upside-down. It could also be sUperman's cape!

Looks like "U"fo catcher

U on a stick

It looks like a door from an 「エlevator」

エ(e) The middle line of E has ran away.

looks like an “H” on its side and it is pronounced like “eh” :)

"Do you think this is stable?" "Eeeeh it will be fine!"

Looks like a cross section of a steel i-beam.

On behalf of the top comment, looks like the top and bottom of E's body carrying the broken in half body of the middle (member) of e

It's looks like an classic anime 'e'ye

It looks like shEEp's mouth

"Eh? This isn't I"

Imagine an e above and it will look like "eH?"

The top of E has fallen backwards

I before E..... エ makes the sound E

It looks like drawing a graph that originates from 0. Or O.

You see someone attack you with karate. Your reaction : "Oh.."

オ/o for Oyogu/to swim, horizontal line is the water's surface and vertical lines are the legs of the swimmer.

It looks like cross with a ribbon

Like like a person with their legs (O)pen

It's an Opera singer オ

O no!! the Octopus has lost three arms 😮

A person standing on one leg unbalanced, exclaiming “oh!”

Looks like a superhero wearing a cape. I call him Osaka-man

The line is pointing to the 'o'rigin

It's a scarecrOw

It kinda looks like a shOOting star

The branches of an Oak tree

A rocket heading to "O"uter space

I slain the dragon by slicing it from left to right then up and down then slicing its back down to the left (オ). Works like a charm!

someone balancing on one leg "oo look at me"

It looks like a floating ghost. Ghosts moan "OooOOoooOOoh"

Like electric poles on the street

An Oooopera singer! (On their knees belting out a song)

It looks like someone tripping and they say Oh 🤬

Also, in a graph 0 (o) is called the O-rigin

The heel of a stilettO

A person swimming in the (O)cean

Like a Cartesian Plane. “O” as in Ordinate.

Origami ice skater

O, a bug!

Oh! Its a stick man

A person who playing golf but he is missing a golf ball (o)

It looks like someone is fallin' on a slippery surface and saying ,,Oooooh,,

A bit advanced, but it's the Kanji for KAtana 刀 with a shorter line in the middle.

It looks like a CAr カ 🚗.

カ for KAuntaa/カウンター (counter) a reception table of a hotel or a supermarket.

ChiKAra ちカら 力

Looks very similar to hirigana "ka" without the top stroke, that makes it look like a broken romaji k.

For those who learned hirigana first:
カ is very similar to か only the latter has a lil dash at the top and is rounder.

Almost a "K" before it got mixed up with "A"

Crow saying "KAw".

Looks like a KAngaroo. 🦘

Looks like a 't' and an 'n' so you can remember it by remembering KAtaKAna

Looks like a hero with a cape (ka)pe

Looks like ka (か) in hiragana

A samurai's head (they use a KAtana)

It looks like a man without a leg doing KArate

The line on left is crows back and the right is the wing, Crow says KAw KAw

キ looks like a scar, which happens when you avoid getting KIlled

Like hiragana き but without the line at the bottom

It looks like a Christmas tree 🎄 (KI-ristmas)

キ(ki) for でんき/denKI (electricity), as it looks like an utility pole. Or once again trees (木/ki)

Looks like an antique, double sided, two notch, skeleton key{キ}.

キ(ki) looks like any tree and couple it with 木(ki) which does mean tree

Looks like a Kite. Ki >>te

a same as hiragana ki.with botoom par chopped off き キ　🌳tree got chopped at bottom

Its tall like a gerafe

キlooks like a (ki)te

KI is tree in Japanese. If you look at it and connect the sides it looks like a tree. Without connection, it looks like a tree with no leaves.

when i see "キ" i think of the suzu instrument. the bells make a "ki~!" sound!

It kind of looks like a key (ki-y)

The key for a lock

キ, a pirate ship's sail...... A pirate is telling you, "Hey *Ki*d! Raise the sail!"

Looks like a thumbs up. And then you say kuul (cool)

A big slash-y CUt. (Hard 'c' sound, of course!)

ク for KUjira(whale) it looks like a whale's tail!

Looks like a chef hat for cooking (ku ki n gu)

Mom with her arms outstretched holding her baby and COOing.

I feel like this looks like, like the sound the katakana makes

upside down "cu"p

This looks like a long cook's hat.

Looks like the blade of a cleaver / butcher knife used to prepare Japanese cuisine "KUisine"

Looks the fangs of KUount Dracula.

Looks like a hunched over old crone laughing and scheming "ku ku ku ku"

An incision, or CUt, that a doctor would make to peel back part of your skin without removing it entirely.

It's a KUkri! The bent-forward part of the blade!

Looks like a finger "kuraw" (claw).

Ku, italic up side down u with corner, so "ku"- cool.

It looks like two of Wolverine’s three claws. “Wolverine” in Japanese is *ku*zuri.

Don't KUlimb(climb) up the slide!

It looks like a (ku)cougar's fangs. ク

looks like a cooks hat

Here is the teapot spout. Would you like any KU-ream with that?

Look like a crow bark and going Ku Ku Ku~

looks like a rotated K --> ke!

It’s when you wanna be cool and say oke and make a handgun (viewed from the side) while you say it.

Person about to throw something "KEtch (catch) this!"

Person holding a plate for ケーキ (ke-ki).

A "k" hunched over. Are you okey?

Looks kinda like the hiragana け, which looks like a dude with a cap whose name is ken

Looks like a kettle

Looks like 'K'u with 'E'xtra lines

Looks like (K)u (ㇰ) with (E)xtra lines

if you tilt it sideways a little, it looks like a big K.

Half-open KOtak (box in malay)

if you speak turkish aswell, this is a sidewards KOltük

It’s a korner.

Like the こ kana, but blockier, and the little tail on the top line now meets it's friend on the bottom.

Two 90 degree KOrners

コ/ko for コーヒー/coffee. oh no, the cup has fallen down.

The children's 'mirror' game also works - as in japan they say 'Daruma-san ga KOronda' /Daruma(doll) has fallen down.

It looks like broken cup

Looks like a KOala holding an invisible tree

looks like a backwards C
so it sounds like co

A net you use to catch the koi (the hirigana for ko, こ, looks like 2 koi fish)

If you study mandarin chinese, it looks like the hanzi 口(kǒu) while missing a stroke on the left, thus KO

If you know russian, it looks like a KOrobka ("box")

Looks like a can of COla lying on it's side.

there’s a line sticking out the corner (“KO”rner)

A headless KO-ala clinging to a tree.

Looks like ko (こ) in hiragana with an extra line

Hiragana "ko" (こ) looks like koi fish swimming horizontally.
Katakana "ko" (コ) looks like a 'Ko'rner

"Two people on a see-saw"
katakana sa サ looks like the mirror image of the hiragana for se せ.

SAddle of a horse

A person crying because they're SAd

"Skewer of a Sandwich"
It looks like the two vertical strokes are slices of bread skewered by a horizontal skewer.

A guy holding a sack

”saw" Picture the straight line straight line as a saw going through two tree trunks, one tree trunk is longer

A SAber tooth tiger. The two lines look like unequal SAber teeth.

Sa-rdine and a Sa-lmon on a skewer

SAspicious man in a hat.

It reminds me of the hand trap from the second Saw (sa) film

I remembered hiragana Sa さ as a monkey (Saru) in sunglassess with a nose and a smile, and you can kind of see it here too (if you look from the right)

It looks like ri (リ) got サwed in half

Reminds me of a SAmurai holding a sword over their head

Uncle SAm with his top hat

Letter H is for H&M. Buying a surplus clothes at H&M.

Surplus = SaH•plus = Saサ•plus

SAvavaged with a sword

Teeth of a SAlivating vampire

You know シ is し and not つ because it looks towards the little kana (ャ、ュ、ョ) when it has them. ツ can't hold any little kana, so it looks away from where they'd be.

シ(shi) for しあわせ/shiawase (happiness) as you smile and look up to the sky. A happy little smiley-face.

シ tick are more horizontal, so shi* can stack, but ツ are more vertical so the water from a "tsu"nami can fall through it.

"My son's (ソン) Shih Tzu (シツ) has a lot of ticks."

The Shitzu has a lot of ticks (シ + ツ have two ticks each).

The son only has a couple from petting his dog (ソ + ン have one tick each).

The (outer) two in (ソン+シツ) i.e. (ソ+ツ) have more vertical ticks that follow the V pattern. Because when you go to (outer) space you are launched vertically.

The (inner) two in (ソン+シツ) i.e. (ン+シ) have more horizontal ticks that follow the > pattern. Because when you have (inner) peace you lay down horizontally.

The sheep シ run away from the falling tsunami ツ

シ ticks point horizontally like a running sheep, ツ ticks point down like a crashing wave.

The top lines are SHIfted down (compared to tsu)

the short strokes (eyes) are looking at someone else. maybe its a she? (sounds like “shi”) :)

The top lines are stacked horizontally, just like sheets (SHI-tsu)

Shi has a bad face. (She)

The strokes in シ form the sides of a 'shi'eld. The strokes in ツ form the steam and side of a hot bowl of soup ('tsu'p).

Looks like a smug face "Nice shick" (chick)

How I tell シ (shi), ツ (tsu), ン (n), and ソ (so) apart. Stroke order here is vital!
シ SHI and ン N go LEFT or counter-clockwise from the top stroke(s) to the lower end of the bottom stroke. ↙️
ツ TSU and ソ SO go RIGHT or clockwise from the top stroke(s) to the higher end of the bottom stroke. ➡️

If it’s looking at its tail, it’s a SHI-tsu シ

If it’s looking at you, it’s TSU ツ

When you look up at the sky, your eyes SHI-mmer

Shi laugh at you

It looks like two hands held vertically, fluffing out a sheet.

So "Shi" i remember as fiSHIng hook for Hiragana, and this is "shi" like you're referring to a female fish looking up from the fishing hook.

The line is falling like O "SHI"-

If you trace シ you'll get し (ticks are aligned vertically on the left)
If you trace ツ you'll get つ (ticks are placed horizontally on the top)

she(SHI) looks up シ

Your face when staring at "She"

シ is a smirk face always with eyes not straight and very inclined to the left. ツ is a smiley face usually with eyes straight or nearly bit to the right

シャワー = shower
the ticks look like shower water; the shower is facing the person. i remember it because it looks like droplets hitting someone's nose, from the side.

Shi makes me happy

I looked up at the sun and said SHI-eeeeesh

Simple pronunciation based mnemonic with shi/シ and tsu/ツ: the two lines on shi are angled (more) up, and the ones on tsu are angled down. This mirrors the 'angle' of the pronunciation of the two syllables, where shi is kind of pronounced shí, and tsu is pronounced tsù. Then, it is only necessary to remember that the secondary line does the opposite, to help accentuate the visibility of the first part (otherwise, it would be hard to tell how 'down' and 'up' angled the two lines are!).
This might make more sense if you speak a language with accent markers, unfortunately.

This is a person's face and he is thinking to himself "SHIt I pooped, I need to keep a happy face"

I call her Sue or Su for short. And she is running at super Speed.

It looks like someone about to do a split (SU-plit)

Right side of a soup bowl with a spoon leaning on the side of it.

Her name is "Suzy". It has some "z" element and upsidedown "y".

upside down bent spoon handle > spoon > SUpu-n > su

It looks like フ but with a little bicycle SUtand (stand) coming out of it: ス 🚲

It looks like a "Z". That one sounds similar to the letter "S". The example up there is a spoon. And you eat SUp (soup) with a spoon

Looks like a Naruto character running at high S(u)peed

Here’s something you ought to know: historically, ス was derived from 須 (4th, 5th+3rd and last strokes)

SUit hanger ス

Super hero running

Nose with snot shooting out. “AHH-SU!!”

It looks like a sideways Ma-SU-room (mushroom) tilting to the left

For those who know hiragana already: remember SUN! The "Su" in katakana looks like a "N" in hiragana!

Looks like an umbrella. You can use it If the rain is SUper heavy.

It would be SUper bad if the boat got a leak.

Ronaldo is jumping in his pose and screaming SUUUU

It looks like Cristiano Ronaldo getting ready to scream SUiiiiiiiiii

half of your friends mouth laughing after you say SUp in a british accent

Naruto-running won't get you there any SU-ner!

Imagine a swan gracefully swimming in a lake. Its long neck curves in a way that resembles the shape of ス. (Smooth cUrve)

can you “S”ee the little “E” in this kana? (together is “se”) (looks like the hiragana)

it looks similar to the hiragana, せ which has the same pronunciation.

square face with eyes crossed out (can't "SE"e)

The bus driver is telling you to take a "Se"at

It looks like a pair of SE-ssors (scissors)

A fish (from top left to bottom right diagonally) swimming through the SEe

It's just settin' around.

SE-t sail, because it looks like a ship mast

A ships anchor on its side on the 'se'a floor

Both L's are for lo"se"r

When you SEet down in a hot tub

A person pointing to their shirt and saying “SEe?”

Upside down SE-ven.

Se•e this? On my lap?

Se•t on my lap!

Look likes a SEcurity man open his arm to protect his boss

Looks like someone doing a SElfie

ソ = man about to stand and take a (S)h(O)wer
ン = man about to take a (N)ap

You sit down on a SOfa (ソ), hence the tick points down.

"My son's (ソン) Shih Tzu (シツ) has a lot of ticks."

The Shitzu has a lot of ticks (シ + ツ have two ticks each).

The son only has a couple from petting his dog (ソ + ン have one tick each).

The (outer) two in (ソン+シツ) i.e. (ソ+ツ) have more vertical ticks that follow the V pattern. Because when you go to (outer) space you are launched vertically.

The (inner) two in (ソン+シツ) i.e. (ン+シ) have more horizontal ticks that follow the > pattern. Because when you have (inner) peace you lay down horizontally.

the short stroke is pointing downwards, like how your tone goes when you say, “SOooooo, how was your weekend?”

Contrary to ン, the strokes of ソ come from the sky (*so*ra).

ソand ン are similar
But for ソ(so) the line points downwards. If you add a connecting like up top you'll close off the shape. Creating an O like sO

ソ SO serious?

-The Joker

As you're standing up, you see an Unidentified Flying Object fly your direction. "SO I am not going outside today"

It's got two lines, so you you remember that it's not ツ (tsu) or シ (shi) - because those have three characters & three lines.

So you're left with (so) and (n).

And in comparison to ン (n) -
the line in ソ is (so)aring to the sky! ✨☁️✨

How I tell シ (shi), ツ (tsu), ン (n), and ソ (so) apart. Stroke order here is vital!
シ SHI and ン N go LEFT or counter-clockwise from the top stroke(s) to the lower end of the bottom stroke. ↙️
ツ TSU and ソ SO go RIGHT or clockwise from the top stroke(s) to the higher end of the bottom stroke. ➡️

She(shi) lost an eye I am SO SOrry.

He lost an eye but doesn’t care, he says “so?”

Sew, needle and thread

Wh"Y" "SO"fa?

it is a singer with a mic (but you look at him from the top). he is singing SOLO

How I tell *so* (ソ) and *n* (ン) apart:
ソ is looking at you after asking a question. "*so* what do you think?"
ン is looking away from you. "hmm... *n*o..."

Looks like a SOft Ice cream cone

One needle and one thread needs to be used to sew (so) a garment

ツソ -> You have a tsumaranai ( =boring, ツ tsu, looks down in boredom) son (ソ so)

Person about to ly down on So fa

"SO High". The stroke starts from the top and is level with the 、as opposed to ン where the stroke starts from the bottom and ends below the 、

SOy sauce and there's a disconnected y

Looks like a parabolic dish reflecting a SOlar death ray

A see-SAW being used by only one person, so it's leaning more vertically (ソ) than ン

A person waits for a SOap to drop on their hand

SOngbird, SOaring up

ソ is the first two strokes of 曽（そう）
The second stroke is long and swoops down all the way to the left because it represents the rest of the character.

there's a little letter T on the left and if you slightly turn your head you can see a big A

Example word is taxi, the little line in the middle could be sitting in it ;)

It’s a hand scratching on a table viewed from the side. This dinner seems stressful.

Hand waving down a taxi

A TAnuki's tail

It's not ku because it looks like an A. So it must be ta

This person has TAped their wrist.

Looks like a little TAdpole swimming upwards タ

It looks like a TA-mahawk (Tomahawk)

this is a man lying in bed. he is TIRED

Looks like a hand holding a TAblet

Looks like the letTA(letter) "A"

タコ ‘tako’ means ‘octopus‘ and the letter does look like octopus！

A TApir's little trunk going up to say hi

夕 looks like a little (ta)dpole swimming in a pond.

looks like someone tackling someone else.. TA for TACKLING

It looks like someone taking an exam and looking sideways away from his table to cheat off of his neighbour. (CHI-t)

A person afraid of CHIckens

A person holding out their arms and shouting their friend’s name because they’re happy to see them. “CHI !! :D”

Looks like a (CHI)cheerleader jumping in a (CHI)cheer!

Chicken feet

Kinda looks like a 'T' and an 'I' so think of taiCHI which it also looks like it's doing

Actually is pretty similar to hirigana chi ち. The virtical line from ち is moved up and rotated to the top of チ, the middle horizontal line stays there but gets a bit longer, and the curvy line is a bit less curvy but moves to connect them.

Looks like a posing hammerhead shark saying "Chiiise" for a photo.

Its an even more simplified 5, compared to hiragana.

Like a knife cutting into a block of cheese (chizu)

A (chi)ld with a hat

A "Chi"ll person

Looks like a CHI-li pepper (with a mustache)

In the early days china was on the rise - chi has a rising slope compared to na

千 is pronounced “chien” in Chinese. Take the first CHI

Looks like the headdress of an Indian "CHIef".

Looks like someone doing tai "chi" (it actually looks more like yoga)

A cheap, bent-up kite

Someone CHIlling out in the sun, hat pulled down low over their eyes.

Someone wearing a fancy hat and holding their arms out because they are very CHIpper today

Chi•nese hammerhead shark flying free.

Goku gathering his Chi

Wind chime , dangling in the breeze.

ツ(tsu) for つまらない/tsumaranai (boring) as you look down at your feet.

The sheep シ run away from the falling tsunami ツ

シ ticks point horizontally like a running sheep, ツ ticks point down like a crashing wave.