
This is the photo of Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan. It is the most famous mountain in Japan too. But do you know how you call it in Japanese?
It’s written as ふじさん, so it is “Fujisan” – Yes, it is right, but how do you actually pronounce it?
Even though many Hiragana chart lists ふ as “fu”, as the Japanese language does not have the English “F” or “V” sound, the pronunciation is:
NOT
If I rewrite it phonetically it should be “who-ji-san”, not “fu-ji-san”.
So if you’d like to sound like a native speaker, please try to pronounce all “f” sound with “wh” sound from now on!
By the way, all 4 climbing trails of Mt Fuji are open now for this year and will be open until 10 September. Many people say the sun rise viewed from 3776m above sea level is very beautiful!