Japan - The Basics: Language

First of all, don't be daunted by traveling to Japan. It's really not that hard! And my job here is to make it even easier - at least that's what I'm striving to do. There's a lot of information I have to impart, so there will be a series of blogs regarding my trip to Japan, the experiences I had, and what I think you should know about this amazing country.

To start, let's get out of the way the things that everyone should consider when traveling to a foreign country: language, money, transportation, accommodation, food, and general cultural knowledge.

Language:

Japanese. Obviously. And the vast majority of people only speak Japanese. Plus you haven't got a prayer of reading Japanese unless you've studied it. The written language is a combination of Kanji (Chinese characters) and two other things called hiragana and katakana. You don't need to know this.

English isn't a common spoken language, but you will see English writing fairly often. Major cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima) have enough written English to get an English-speaking traveler by. You may find someone every now and then who can speak English, at least a word or two (hotel receptionists, train station employees, etc), but even then - no difficult questions and not much more than can be answered with a gesture. Once you're outside of a major city, don't count on finding any English. Learn to pantomime. It never hurts to ask someone for help in English though, if they don't understand you they'll just say "no" or "sorry."

The Japanese also have a funny habit of titling things with English (Lunch Menu at the top of a menu) and then listing everything else in Japanese. So you know it's a lunch menu, but you won't be actually ordering any food off of it. They also have a habit of rambling to you even after it's incredibly apparent you don't understand them.

Train stations always have the train stops and locations written out in English and the announcements of upcoming stations once on a train are in English (80% of the time). Some maps are in Japanese, but you can usually find an English one nearby. Signage in many buildings and transportation centers will usually be in English so you know what to do/where to go.

This menu has pictures and English - double win!

And lastly, if you look lost enough, for long enough, someone may come up to you ask ask in perfect or broken English what you need help with. One day in the train station after we stared blankly at a map on the wall for several minutes a nice gentleman came up and asked where we wanted to go. I told him the train we were looking for and he motioned for us to stay put (he was willing to help us even though he spoke little English). He went to an information counter and got directions. He then personally walked us about three minutes through several floors of the train station right to the platform we needed. On the way he asked where we were from. I told him, and next thing I know he's excitedly playing us The Star Spangled Banner from his phone. People over there really made me happy.

Another day a man who was enjoying a day at the park with some friends/family came and offered us cookies. He didn't speak any English. Just stuck the bag out in front of us and said "free." When neither of us moved except to look at each other with confused expressions, he just took a cookie out of the bag for each of us. We knew it would be rude not to accept, and further more not to eat. Plus all those other people were eating them, so we figured it was safe. Plus, rude! You can't be rude in Japan. The cookies tasted like fish. But I made sure that man thought it was the best thing I'd ever had.

So there you have it. Most people will be content to "communicate" with you no matter who speaks what language. An old woman had a conversation with me on a train one day without me ever speaking back to her. She might have been going off about bananas for all I knew. They want to be helpful and friendly, so just try your best to do the same!

Here are some words I learned...whether or not they are useful is up to you!

Itai (e-tie) - ouch
Arigato (just as it's spelled) - thank you, familiar
Arigato gozaimasu (just as it's spelled) - thank you very much, formal
Mizu (me-zoo) - water
Sumimasen (sue-me-ma-sane) - excuse me (to get someone's attention)
Gomen nasai (go-men-a-sigh) - sorry
Hai (hi) - yes

My pronunciation may be a bit off, but you get the gist. Another good idea is to use Google translate on your phone to translate some key phrases like, "Can you help me get here", "I need the police", or "Where can I find a big piece of chocolate cake?" Once the translation with the original text is on your screen take a screen shot. We showed a man a screenshot of "How do I get here" and then pointed to a map and he pointed (literally) us in the right direction.