Overnight Pizza Sourdough (12 inch)

280g flour

182g water

42g starter

5.6g salt

Mix flour, water, and starter until hydrated. 

Rest 30 minutes. 

Add salt and mix until incorporated. 

Bulk ferment 2–3 hours at room temperature with stretch-and-folds at 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes. 

Shape into a round and place seam-side up in a floured banneton. 

Cover and refrigerate 12–24 hours. 

Remove from fridge and let sit 30–45 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 500–550°F with steel or stone for 45 minutes. Stretch dough to 12-inch disk. 

Top as desired. 

Bake 12–15 minutes until golden. 

Cool 2–3 minutes before slicing. 

 For faster room-temperature proof, skip the cold retard and proof 4–6 hours at room temperature after shaping. 

For longer 16–24 hour fermentation, reduce starter to 28g.

Katakana

Katakana, the sister script, is identical in sound to hiragana and uses the same five vowels.
Only the shapes are different.

It is the script Japanese uses for words borrowed from other languages and for the sounds of things.

When you travel, katakana is the script that most often rewards you, because once you can sound it out, you discover that many of the words are borrowed English hiding under Japanese pronunciation.

The word "hotel" is written in katakana,
"taxi" is written in katakana,
"ramen" (which is really Chinese noodles) on a shop sign is often written in katakana,
"Terebi" is television,
"Kōhī" is coffee,
"Toire" is toilet.

Because the sounds are identical to hiragana, the five vowels carry over without change.

Where hiragana is round and flowing, katakana is angular and sharp, built from short straight strokes.

Here is the full set of katakana, laid out exactly as the hiragana chart, so you can see that only the shapes have changed.

	a	i	u	e	o
—	ア a	イ i	ウ u	エ e	オ o
k	カ ka	キ ki	ク ku	ケ ke	コ ko
s	サ sa	シ shi	ス su	セ se	ソ so
t	タ ta	チ chi	ツ tsu	テ te	ト to
n	ナ na	ニ ni	ヌ nu	ネ ne	ノ no
h	ハ ha	ヒ hi	フ fu	ヘ he	ホ ho
m	マ ma	ミ mi	ム mu	メ me	モ mo
y	ヤ ya		ユ yu		ヨ yo
r	ラ ra	リ ri	ル ru	レ re	ロ ro
w	ワ wa				ヲ wo
n	ン n

The same two marks appear here as well.
The dakuten strokes soften a consonant, so カ ka becomes ガ ga.
The handaku circle turns the h row into a p, so ハ ha becomes パ pa.

A long vowel is not written by repeating the vowel but by a single horizontal bar, called chōonpu.
So the long oo in a borrowed word is a bar, and rāmen appears as ラーメン, with the bar holding the a long.
When you see that bar, simply hold the vowel before it.

Between the two kana charts you now have every basic sound in the language, and every one of them rests on the same five pure vowels.

Hiragana

Here is the full set of hiragana, the script used for native Japanese words.

Read across each row as the consonant joined to the five pure vowels.

	a	i	u	e	o
—	あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
k	か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko
s	さ sa	し shi	す su	せ se	そ so
t	た ta	ち chi	つ tsu	て te	と to
n	な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no
h	は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ he	ほ ho
m	ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo
y	や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
r	ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro
w	わ wa				を wo
n	ん n

A few of these are not spelled the way an English eye expects.

The し in the s row is "shi", not "si".
The ち in the t row is "chi", not "ti".
The つ in the t row is "tsu", a single sound, the "ts" of "cats" followed by "oo".
The ふ in the h row is "fu", a soft "f" made with both lips rather than teeth.
The ら row is closer to a light "d" or a flap than to an English "r", but "r" is the accepted spelling.

Two more marks change the consonant, not the vowel.

A small pair of strokes, called dakuten 濁点だくてん, softens a sound:
か "ka" becomes が "ga",
さ "sa" becomes ざ "za",
た "ta" becomes だ "da",
は "ha" becomes ば "ba".

A small circle, called handakuten 半濁点はんだくてん, turns the h row into a p: は "ha" becomes ぱ "pa".
The vowels underneath stay exactly the same.

Finally, two things about rhythm.
A small つ before a consonant marks a short silent pause, a doubling of that consonant, as in the "tt" of "Nippon".

And ん is the one lone consonant, an "n" or "m" sound that stands by itself.

When you reach a Japanese word later, sound it out by these five vowels and it will be close to right.

Katakana, the sister script used for words borrowed from other languages, sounds identical to hiragana and follows the same five vowels.

Japanese "kana" pronunciation

The following brief introduction to Japanese sounds is not intended to teach you to read, but rather to give you an idea of what sounds are available in Japanese.

English, and especially American, readers make pronunciation guesses based on their ABC, and those guesses are almost always wrong because Japanese writing in the so-called "romaji" alphabet is based on Latin, not English.

The good news about learning it is that, unlike English, Japanese is very consistent. Once you learn it, you will be able to read correctly for the rest of your life.

I am not saying Japanese does not have its own problems, but to keep things simple, let's focus on the vowels.

There are only five vowels, and each one makes exactly one sound every time, with no exceptions.

The five vowels:

The "a" sounds like the a in "father". It is never the "a" in "day" or the "a" in "cat".
The "i" sounds like the "i" in "machine". It is never the "i" in "ice".
The "u" sounds like the "u" in "boot". It is never the "u" in "cube".
The "e" sounds like the "e" in "bed". It is never the "e" in "me" and never the "a" in "day".
The "o" sounds like the "o" in "boat", but shorter and without letting it glide into "oo" at the end. It is never the o in "hot".

That is all you need to remember.

The long vowels

Each of the five vowels can also be long, meaning the same sound is simply held for twice as long.
The sound does not change, only its duration.
I mark a long vowel with a bar over the letter, called a macron: ā, ī, ū, ē, and ō.

The "ā" is a long "aa".
The "ī" is a long "ii".
The "ū" is a long "uu", as in the shū of Shūdōkan 修道館しゅうどうかん.
The "ē" is a long "eh".
The "ō" is a long "oh", as in "dō", the way 道どう is pronounced.

Length is not decoration. It can change the meaning of a word.
The training hall is a dōjō, 道場どうじょう, with both o sounds long.
The school is 修道館しゅうどうかん, with a long u and a long o.

Common pronunciation mistakes

Here are a few examples:

Karate is pronounced 空手からて, with the last syllable not "tee" but ending in "e", as in "energy".
It is true that the original name for Okinawan hand fighting was "tī", and it uses the same Chinese character for "hand" 手て as in karate 空手からて. However, the word "karate" is purely Japanese and should be pronounced according to Japanese standards, again, ending in "e", as in "energy".

The rice wine, or "sake", is 酒さけ, ending in "e", as in "energy", not "sa-kee".

However, "saki", meaning "point", is 先さき , ending in "i", as in "machine" and not "sa-kay".

My name, Uki, is 宇気うき, ending in "i", as in "machine", not "yoo-kay".

Japanese syllables

Every other sound in the language is a consonant placed before one of these five vowels, and the consonant does not alter the vowel.

The "ka" is "k" plus "a", pronounced like the start of the word "comma".
The "ki" is "k" plus "i", as in "key".
The "ku" is "k" plus "u", as in "cooper".
The "ke" is "k" plus "e", as in the name "Ken".
The "ko" is "k" plus "o", as in "comb".

The same pattern repeats for every other consonant.

Visiting Japanese schools

Probably the most important reason to practice the Japanese language nihongoにほんご ・ 日本語にほんご is to visit actual schools in Japan.

I know this sounds far-fetched for a white-belt teenager in an American or European town, but it is a real possibility.

Many schools welcome black-belt kuro obiくろおび ・ 黒帯くろおび practitioners to visit their school dōjōどうじょう ・ 道場どうじょう for two weeks to improve their art. Remember, it would be polite to wear the white belt shiro obiしろおび ・ 白帯しろおび as you arrive, out of respect for the school and the "beginner's mind", shoshinしょしん ・ 初心しょしん attitude.

I think everyone should dream of such a visit and strive to make it happen.