A little culture with Miyabi
Japanese Nature Words: Mountains, Rivers and the Sky
Learn Japanese nature vocabulary such as yama, kawa, sora and umi, with kana readings, short sentences and a simple picture-based practice routine.
Language basics
Begin Japanese nature vocabulary with 山 (やま, yama, mountain), 川 (かわ, kawa, river), 空 (そら, sora, sky) and 海 (うみ, umi, sea). These are concrete words you can connect to a photograph or a view, making them useful material for your first reading practice.
Build a small landscape vocabulary
Add 森 (もり, mori, forest), 木 (き, ki, tree), 花 (はな, hana, flower) and 石 (いし, ishi, stone). Learn a few at a time. A picture containing a tree, river and mountain gives you three clear things to point to without translating a long sentence.
The kanji are useful for recognition, but the kana show how to say the words. If kanji are new to you, cover them and practice from やま, かわ and そら first. Return to the characters as the spoken words become familiar.
Turn a label into a sentence
山です (yama desu) can mean “It is a mountain” when the subject is clear. あれは山です (are wa yama desu) means “That over there is a mountain.” The particle written は is pronounced wa in this sentence.
To describe a mountain, try 大きい山 (ookii yama, a big mountain). 大きい goes before the noun. You can then make a whole sentence: 大きい山です (ookii yama desu), “It is a big mountain.”
Place names can change the reading
A kanji does not always keep the reading you learned in a standalone word. 山 is yama on its own, but 富士山 is read ふじさん (Fujisan, Mount Fuji). Learn familiar place names as complete words instead of assuming that every character has only one pronunciation.
The さん in Fujisan is a reading of 山; it is not the polite name suffix さん used after a person’s name. The identical sound can hide different functions, so the written word gives you helpful context.
Describe one picture from memory
Look at a landscape picture and choose three visible things. Say これは木です (kore wa ki desu, this is a tree), then point to something farther away and say あれは山です. Adapt the words to what the picture actually shows.
Close the picture and write the three nouns in kana. Reopen it to check. If you remembered the meanings but missed a character, practice that character inside its word rather than adding a new list immediately.