Japanese Vowels

A - like 'a' in 'father'
I - like 'ee' in knee'
U - like 'u' in the 'tube'
E - like 'e' in 'pet'
O - like 'o' in 'octopus'

To listen to the pronunciation I recommend listening to this LINK
While some explanations are a bit odd the womens pronunciation is correct.

Vowels together:

AI - like 'y' in 'my'
UU- like the 'oo' in 'food'

Japanese writing systems:

While the pronunciation stays the same, Japanese use 3 types of characters when writing. These being Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

Hiragana:
Is used for native japanese words ie words that japanese already use in their native language.
example: cat - ねこ (neko)

Katakana:
Is used for foreign words, words that are introduced from outside Japan.
example: television - テレビ (terebi)

Kanji:
Is the writing system that uses Chinese characters. While the kanji can looks the same it is generally pronounced differently in Japanese.
example: cat - 猫 (neko)

Hiragana table: (click to view larger)


Katakana table: (click to view larger)