On: Katakana, Hiragana, and Unicode

[hinoki]

My understanding is that katakana is used for situations where it’s the sound that is important, not necessarily the meaning. So it’s used for loan words, but also for onomatopoeia, and when writing your name down on a waitlist at a restaurant. (Often it is not clear how to pronounce a name from how it is written)

[enqk → hinoki]

Katakana is also used for the names of animals. Even when the name is native japanese.

[innocentoldguy → enqk]

The reverse is true for words like たばこ (tobacco). It's a foreign word but is almost always spelled using hiragana.

[hinoki → enqk]

Yes! Sushi menus are often entirely in katakana.

[teek → hinoki]

This is not correct. Sushi menus for restaurants in Tokyo use a mixture of kanji, hiragana, and katakana.