本
hon
Even a phone call is one 本
The picture Pulling out one long, slender thing and standing it up. If you can see a line running through it, it's 本. Long and running in a line: 本. Flat and spread out in a sheet: 枚.
Where the picture shows up in 本
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a bottle standing up
ビールを二本ください。
bīru o nihon kudasai
Two beers, please.
Two beer bottles taken from the fridge and stood side by side on the table.
The sound shifts: 一本 ippon, 三本 sanbon, 六本 roppon.
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something with a shaft
電車に傘を一本忘れました。
densha ni kasa o ippon wasuremashita
I left an umbrella on the train.
One umbrella lying full-length along the empty train seat.
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a line of talk
今朝から電話を三本かけました。
kesa kara denwa o sanbon kakemashita
I've made three calls since this morning.
Three calls running down the call log since this morning.
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a road running on
そこの道を一本入ったところです。
soko no michi o ippon haitta tokoro desu
It's one street in from that road.
Tracing with a finger the street that runs one block in from the main road.
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a reel wound up
週末に映画を二本見ました。
shūmatsu ni eiga o nihon mimashita
I watched two films over the weekend.
Film unspooling in a long line off the reel.
本 also means 'book', but books are counted with 冊, not 本.
All of it in one picture
A beer bottle stands as a line, an umbrella is a shaft, a phone call is a line of talk opened and closed, a street runs on as a line, a film is a strip of celluloid wound on a reel. Glass, cloth, voice, asphalt — whatever it's made of, if you can see something long running through it, 本 is the counter. What matters is the shape of the line, not the material or the thickness. That's why even a call, which you can't hold, still counts as 一本.