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)

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" !

イ looks like an eagle

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

Angry eye close up

it looks like someone who did a round kick

A sloped roof with a beam supporting it.

This roof has a steep "i"ncline!

Looks like the side of an EAsle. イ

incline - i - イ

イlooks like someone (I)ce skating.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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 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:

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

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

The curtains closing at the ‘e’nd of a show

It looks like shEEp's mouth

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

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 😮

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

The line is pointing to the 'o'rigin

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

It's a scarecrOw

A rocket heading to "O"uter space

The branches of an Oak tree

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!

It kinda looks like a shOOting star

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

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

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

Looks like a Kite. Ki >>te

Its tall like a gerafe

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

looks like a backwards C
so it sounds like co

there’s a line sticking out the corner (“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.

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

A guy holding a sack

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

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

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

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

Shi laugh at you

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

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.

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

Historically 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!

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

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

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.

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

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

When you SEet down in a hot tub

Both L's are for lo"se"r

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

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

ソ SO serious?

-The Joker

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.

Sew, needle and thread

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

Wh"Y" "SO"fa?

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

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

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”

Chicken feet

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

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

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

Its an even more simplified 5, compared to hiragana.

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.

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

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

Looks like the headdress of an Indian "CHIef".

A (chi)ld with a hat

A "Chi"ll person

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

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

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.

"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.

ツand シ are really similar! But for ツ(tsu) the two strokes are pointing down creating an U shape
tsU

the two short strokes look like a pair of eyes looking at you (sounds like tsu)

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).

Smiling "Tsup?" (Sup)

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. ➡️

tsunami with two drop of water 💦🌊

It's like there's TSU (two) eyes looking at you (hope this helps)

She(shi) is a TSUndere looking down in you.

Shi +n シ+ン

It looks like it's facing away, it's not interested because it's bored. So it's つまらない... TSUmaranai... Well. That's how I memorized it.

"tsu (2)" eyes looking down

They go downward like a Tsuuuuting star

I see three peanuts growing in the ground

telephone pole

テ/te for テーブル/table, a table with a book on it.

It looks lie a T but if you were to draw a third horizontal line at the bottom it would look like a E

Looks like a tennis table! "テnnis table"!

It looks like a *te*mple with a もこし roof.

A jumping "T"

It looks like a TV anTEnna!

Take your book off that テーブル because it looks like it only has one leg!

TElephone on a table (TE-ble)

Te (hand) look at your right palm it looks like the one in the symbol

The Te(テ) reminds the Ra(ラ) but the bottom line is on the middle

I speak French also, so I say that テ has a hat on his head or on his "TÊte" which sounds like テ！

Looks like a lowercase "t", but pointing TO the right.

It's a mythic TOtem, it defenitely looks like one!

It looks like a bird's footprint.
鳥 (TOri) means bird.

You’d definitely stub you TOe on that

TOmato plant with one branch sticking out

flip it “o”ver and it’s a “T” (together it is to)

Literally just a straightened "t", to

looks like a TOmato stem or plant

"Where can I go TO eat dinner?" A person pointing at the other side of the street

Reminds me of crutches... The small bar is where you would rest your arm

Hirigana to looks like a toe with a splinter in it. Katakana to could also be seen as a toe with a splinter from a different angle.

It looks like a police baTOn.

Hes punching inTO the wall.

It looks like a person extending their hand and saying 'nice TO meet you!'

look like a guy pointing 'TO' the ground

A TOw rope pulling the beam to the side.

From the first two strokes of 止まれ/とまれ “stop.”

Is that a T? NAh, almost.

This is one of the easier ones to remember for me. Notice how it's part of the hiragana already. な。 just hovering abovr in the upper left

A person taking a nap and lying down.

It looks like a plus sign and Na (from the periodic table) has a plus/positive charge.

A person happily skipping away after refusing a gift "Na I don't want it, keep it!". It's happy because the other person who wanted to give them a gift doesn't have much money and ナ is happy to do something good

Like an x, crossed out, "Nah."

It looks like a NAifu (knife)

Na ナ Cl = NaCl, I use this because i think of the compound for sodium chloride a lot due to seeing it on IV bags at work and thinking it sounds nice :P

Looks like a NArwhal ナ

Nuts from "T"ree

ni means two in Japanese, so this is just two lines (and it's the same as the kanji for two).

二(ni) also means two, so two lines for two brothers.

The river nile

Hirigana ni contains two horizontal strokes to the right of a vertical line. Katakana ni looks similar to just the two horizontal strokes.

Ni is like neither in French, so neither of the two lines.

It looks like the little marks on someone's knee

the tip of acanoe with an oar over the side > canoe > kaNU > nu

"The stuff at the end of the menu costs extra."
Just like the hiragana, this reminds you that me メ and nu ヌ look the same except that nu ヌ has the extra line on top.

ヌ/nu for NUmber, looks like an old school number 7, albeit a bit wonky.

Tip of a (nu)new boat being chrisen with a bottle (the line)

メ looks like a 'me'tal sword, ヌ looks like a new ('nu') sword with a tassel on the handle.

A person who jumped into a pool but who will land in the water heads first. They're thinking "Nuuu" (no)

Chopsticks grabbing noodles

"Me"メ with "nu"deヌ colored scarf.

A bowl with a noodle (NUdle) falling out of it.

Looks like a seven: It's "nu"/new, because it's only seven minutes old

A backwards F. “Nuuu! You drew your F wrong!”

Looks like Sue (su) is wearing a new (nu) belt.

hull of a boat with a cross through it makes "nu"ll

looks like a NEcktie

㋧ =🐱

ネ/ne also means root, so we could think that the starting point is a sprout and everything else under it is it's roots - definitely the hardest one for me to remember

Looks like a nose and nose is French sounds like ne

If you draw a head shape from the top left over the top and down the right side, it looks like NEssie, the Loch NEss monster! You can even add teeth in the 'mouth' (stroke 2)

Looks like a tree for me! I posted a drawing of it under the contest post :>

Cat in Japanese is neko. This katakana ne kind of looks like a Cat's nose and whiskers.

imagine driving your k(ne)e through something, like a large stick or pole

Sideways it looks kind of like a 'Ne'ko (Cat) ear. The two extra lines to the right illustrate the ears perking up to hear a sound :)

Looks like a badminton birdie flying toward the NEt.

ノ = No, because it has (no) ticks