Mnemonic goroawase system
The Goroawase system is the Japanese equivalent of the major system. Every digit gets a set of possible phonetic values, so that funny phrases can be made up.
0 - rei, re, o
1 - ichi, i, hitotsu, hito, hi
2 - ni, futatsu, fu, futa
3 - san, sa, mitsu, mi
4 - yon, yo, shi, yotsu
5 - go, itsutsu, itsu
6 - roku, ro, mutsu, mu
7 - shichi, nana, nanatsu, na
8 - hachi, ha, yatsu, ya
9 - kyu, ku, kokonotsu, ko
Example
1492 (the year of discovery of America) can be translated like this:
- iyo! kuniga mieta!
and it means in English:
- Wow! I found a country!
