Earth

#	kanji	kun-yomi			on-yomi
56	土	つち	土	soil, ground, Earth	どようび	土曜日	Saturday
57	山	やま	山	mountain	ふじさん	ふじ山	Mount Fuji, Mt. Fuji
					かざん	火山	volcano
58	石	いし	石	stone; gem, jewel	せっけん	石鹸	soap

In Japanese, Mt. Fuji is called ふじ山 (ふじさん). The kanji of mountain, 山, is read as やま when it’s by itself (kun-yomi, or ‘Japanese reading’), and as さん when it’s compounded with other kanjis (on-yomi, or ‘Chinese reading’). Thus, the さん of ふじさん is not the honorific, but instead it’s just the Chinese reading.

sky

#	kanji	kun-yomi			on-yomi
59	空	そら	空	sky, air	くうこう	空こう	airport
		すく	空く	to get empty
		から	空	emptiness, vacuum
60	気	みずけ	水気	water content	き	気	spirit, mind
61	天	あまのかわ	天の川	milky way	てん	天	sky, heaven
		あめ	天	sky
62	日	ようび	よう日	day of the week	にしようび	日よう日	Sunday
		２か	ふつか	2nd of the month	ほんじつ	本日	today (formal)
		ひ	日	day, sun, sunshine
63	月	つき	月	Moon	げつようび	月よう日	Monday
					いちがつ	一月	January

The names of the days in a Japanese calendar are fairly unusual. They use the counter 日. The ‘rules’ are the following:

• 1日 is an exception pronunced ついたち
• 2日-10日, 14日, 20日, and 24日 end in か
• otherwise, the name ends in にち

From 2 to 10, the numbers follow the Japanese reading (i.e., ひとつ, ふたつ, みっつ, …) while the rest follow the Chinese reading (i.e., いち, に, さん, …).

water

#	kanji	kun-yomi			on-yomi
64	水	みず	水	water	すいようび	水よう日	Wednesday
65	川	かわ	川	river, stream	かせん	か川	rivers
66	雨	あめ	雨	rain	うてん	雨天	rainy weather
		あまみず	雨水	rain water

In general, Japanese is a language that does not have much pitch. However, there are certain words that absolutely have a pitch. One of those words is あめ. あめ, with a pitch on the first syllable (i.e., on the あ), means ‘rain’ and its kanji is 雨; あめ, with a pitch on the second syllable (i.e., on the め), means ‘hard candy’ and its kanji is 飴. For example, candied apples, tangerines, and strawberries on a stick are りんごあめ, みかんなめ and いちごあめ. Hence, the hiragana for both rain and hard-candy is あめ, but we can tell them apart with their kanjis.

nature

#	kanji	kun-yomi			on-yomi
67	力	ちから	力	force, power	りきがく	力学	mechanics
					きりょく	気力	will power
68	火	ひ	火	fire, flame	かようび	火よう日	Tuesday
69	音	おと	音	sound, noise	おんがく	音がく	music
		ねいろ	音いろ	tone color, timbre

Vocabulary

These are basic words that use only kanken-10 kanjis: