Beginning Hiragana

I have been drilling on the Hiragana vowels: a, i, u, e, o (Romaji equivalents) They are pronounced like Spanish vowels except e (え) which is like the e in "edge" rather than the long a sound in Spanish. The 46 Hiragana characters are mostly pronounced as consonants preceding these five vowels. For example ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. Thus (in English) k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w act as consonants; not all the consonants have each of the five vowels following them.
There are some exceptions to this:
し (shi): instead of si
ち (chi) instead of ti
つ (tsu) instead of tu
ふ (fu/hu) instead of hu
yi and ye do not exist
ん (n): the only vowel less kana
under w there is only wa and wo and wo is pronounced like Romaji o

Thats it for now, off to home and men's support group.