• 里さと — village, hometown
• ふる里さと — hometown (poetic/literary)
• 郷里きょうり — native village
• 万里ばんり — thousands of miles
• 里山さとやま — village forest

The character 里 combines the ideas of land (土) and rice field (田), originally symbolizing a village or rural land. Over time, it came to represent not only physical villages but also hometowns, emotional roots, and even a unit of distance.

お正月しょうがつ に 里さとへ帰かえります。
I go back to my hometown for New Year's.

郷里きょうりを思おもい出だす。
I remember my hometown.

🎧 Practice the native pronunciation of 里.