Yep. That's hiragana, their phonetic alphabet for native words. So each of those symbols is two letters, except for the n, which is their only consonant that can end a syllable.
KO-N-NI-CHI-WA (HA pronounced with a w for reasons).
They have another alphabet for borrowed words, and then a system of kanji that they actually use to write instead of spelling most things out phonetically.
I have never, before or since, felt as dumb as I did during my semester of japanese. The hardest part is their formality system.
However, they do recognise reading is harder there so the signage telling you wtf to do in tokyo is very clear and often romanized. Whole city is like a series of signs from one place to the other with no apparent organizing principle. Very few cars. You just pop into and out of trains, crosswalks, malls, escalators outside, alleys, and just follow signs like a dream. Amazing place.
