It's in the car.

First, there are two different ways of saying something exists. One is for animate things (people and animals) and one is for inanimate things. These are the verbs imasu and arimasu. These both mean "to exist." Imasu is used for animate things and arimasu is used for inanimate things. To ask where a place or inanimate object is, one can use the form: XX wa doko ni arimasu ka. Where is XX? For people and animals, imasu is used instead: XX wa doko ni imasu ka. Where is XX? Note the use of ni. Ni was previously shown in lesson 7; its meaning here is slightly different. Ni in this case means 'at.' Doko ni means 'at what location.' Similarly, koko ni would mean 'at this location.' The above sentences literally translate as 'As for XX, at what location does it exist?' In order to say where something or someone is, just replace the 'doko' with the location.
Examples: Maiku-san wa doko ni imasu ka. Maiku-san wa gakkou ni imasu. Neko wa doko ni imasu ka. Neko wa asoko ni imasu. Watashi no ringo wa doko ni arimasu ka. Koko ni arimasu. Kaban wa doko ni arimasu ka. Kaban wa Arasuka ni arimasu.	Where is Mike? Mike is at school. Where is the cat? The cat is over there. Where is my apple? It's here. Where is the briefcase? The briefcase is in Alaska.
OK, now we can move on to specific locations. Where exactly is the cat? Is it under the desk? Inside of a box? Is the book in the bookshelf or on top of it? We will need some more vocabulary in order to say these things. mae front ushiro back, behind yoko next to, along side ue top, above shita bottom, under naka inside, middle soto outside aida between, interval mukou beyond tonari next door, neighboring hidari gawa left side migi gawa right side Now that we have more location words to work with, we can make more location sentences. Just place the correct location word in the sentence.
Examples: Neko wa doko ni imasu ka. Soto ni imasu. Naka ni imasu.	Where is the cat? It's outside. It's inside.
Now we need to combine the location words with objects to create such locations as 'in the bag' etc. We do this using the particle no. Recall from lesson 2 that no indicates possesion.
Examples: kuruma no ue kuruma no shita kuruma no naka kuruma no soto kuruma no ushiro	on the car under the car in the car outside of the car behind the car
Note that where in English these phrases are indicated with prepositions these are more likepostpositions. OK, now that we have our new locations, we can insert them in our location sentence as before.
Examples: Neko wa doko ni imasu ka. Kuruma no ue ni imasu. Kuruma no shita ni imasu. Kaban wa doko ni arimasu ka. Kuruma no naka ni arimasu.	Where is the cat? It's on the car. It's under the car. Where's the bag? It's in the car.
Vocabulary: arimasu imasu ni no mae ushiro yoko ue shita naka soto aida mukou tonari hidari gawa migi gawa kaban Arasuka kuruma	to exist (for inanimate things) to exist (for animate things) particle meaning at possessive particle front back, behind next to, along side top, above bottom, under inside, middle outside between, interval beyond next door, neighboring left side right side bag, briefcase Alaska car