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[uk] Usually written in kana.

[1] Syllables with long vowels are pronounced for about twice the length of time as ordinary syllables. To English ears they tend to sound accented. The general rule is that each kana character gets the same amount of time, except for “i-y” combined characters like じゃ (ji-ya pronounced ja), which are pronounced like a single character. (This is what gives spoken Japanese a stattaco sound to English ears.)

There are several ways of representing the long syllables using Roman characters. The Hepburn system, which is used in most academic writing, relies on macrons, which are hard to produce on standard English keyboards. The waapuro (word-processor) system, which is commonly used on the Internet, uses multiple vowels that imitate the hiragana spelling, thus mimicking the keystrokes needed to product the Japanese characters.

Remember, the vowel sounds the same as in the short form of the syllable, it is just drawn out for a longer period.