Hi!

Kim is joining me today

and today we're gonna go over

eight useful Japanese phrases

that you can use when you're here, travelling, in Japan.

In general, I feel like you can get by with only English,

Yeah.

but, when you're visiting another country,

I think it's very polite

and, it will help you if you do take the time to learn

just a few basic phrases.

So, uhm, we're gonna teach you eight on my channel here, today,

and then if you wanna head over to Kim's channel,

she has a video with eight other useful phrases over there.

Yeah.

Just a quick note before we get started with the phrases,

I didn't go into any detail about particles,

like uh,

*Japanese on video*

Uh, just because I find them pretty difficult to explain,

and they're not really needed when

you're travelling through Japan

and you just need simple phrases to

get yourself through your trip.

So, I didn't bother explaining them to you guys.

I may do that in another video, but, again,

they're not necessary

so I left them completely out of some of the phrases

just to keep them as simple as possible,

and, uh, without them the phrases make

complete sense

even though they're not one hundred percent, uh,

grammatically correct.

So, yeah, don't worry too much about particles,

everyone will understand what you're saying

without them.

Number one would be "sumimasen".

If you're on the street,

and you wanna talk to someone,

Yeah.

Uh, you need their help with something,

You wanna just be like, ah, "sumimasen".

And it's like "excuse me" in English

So, it's just a polite way to stop someone on the street.

Yeah.

I wouldn't tap them on the shoulder

I feel like in Japan you can kind of maybe just

go in front of them a bit,

and be like ah, "sumimasen"

and kind of like bow when you're doing it.

And that's a polite way to get someone's attention.

So, "sumimasen".

"Sumimasen"

"Sumimasen"

Number two is "doko desu ka", which means

"where is something".

So, you can say "resutoran ha doko desu ka",

which is like, "where's the resturant".

"Where is the resturant", yeah.

Or, let's teach them important ones like "eki".

"eki ha doko desu ka"

"Station".

So if you wanna ask where the train station is,

"eki ha doko desu ka".

Or, "toire"?

"Toire", that's an important one.

"Toilet".

"Toire ha doko desu ka".

Oh, one other thing that I think you guys should know

is "kouban".

Which is "police box",

and it's like a small little police station that,

nearly every town has one,

so if you have any sort of problem and you wanna find

the police and ask for their help,

you can say "kouban ha doko desu ka".

"Kouban ha doko desu ka".

And the police in Japan are really friendly,

They are really friendly.

They're not intimidating and scary like they are in Canada,

and probably America.

Yeah.

They're really friendly,

and even if you just wanna ask for directions to somewhere,

don't be afraid to talk to the police here.

Yeah.

They're really great.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm sure most of you know this one,

but number three is "arigatou gozaimasu".

"Arigatou gozaimasu", "thank you".

Uhm, I just think it's nice for you to like,

use a little bit of Japanese.

and even if you only remember one phrase,

I feel like "arigatou gozaimasu" is the best one.

Because you can use it everywhere.

Yeah, and Japanese people appreciate it when you just

try to speak Japanese.

Yeah, like of course they will understand "thank you"

if you say thank you,

everyone has a very basic level of English here at least,

But, yeah, if you try to use their language

and say it in Japanese, "arigatou gozaimasu",

I think they'll be really happy that you're putting in the effort.

Sorry, I'm talking Japanese really fast.

It's like natural for me,

But, "arigatou gozaimasu".

"Arigatou gozaimasu".

That's a really polite way to say it,

and you can short it to just like "arigatou",

"arigatou",

but if you wanna be polite you should add the "gozaimasu" on the end.

Number four is something "ikitai desu".

"Ikitai desu" means "I want to go somewhere", so you add

something at the front, where you wanna go,

and then you add "ikitai desu".

For example,

"shoppingu mooru",

So for example, yeah, "shoppingu mooru ni ikitai desu".

So, "I wanna go to the shopping mall", or

"resutoran ni ikitai desu", so, "I want to go to the restaurant".

Or, "eki ni ikitai desu",

"I want to go to the station".

So, it's very useful.

Yeah, so if you're with like a Japanese friend

and you wanna tell them what you wanna do today,

you can use this phrase.

If you go up to someone on the street and say,

"sumimasen, resutoran ni ikitai desu",

maybe they'll point you in the direction

of a good restaurant or something.

So, yeah, it's a very useful phrase.

Number five is "arimasu ka".

"Arimasu ka".

You're asking if something exists, an inanimate object.

There's a different way to ask if an animate object exists,

but I'm not gonna get into that today.

But if you wanna ask "shoppingu mooru arimasu ka",

"is there a shopping mall",

I think it's kind of like,

insinuated that you want one in this area

So, you can just

if you go up to someone and say "shoppingu mooru arimasu ka",

they're gonna point you in the direction of a shopping mall.

Or if you're in a store,

Yeah.

you could use it in a store.

Yeah, so say if you want like

a clothing item

uhm, or anything that you want,

say for example,

"T-shatsu"

Yeah, so say for example you want a T-shirt

you can say, "T-shatsu arimasu ka".

So, "is there a T-shirt"

and they'll show you if they have a T-shirt.

Or at a resturant,

"katsudon arimasu ka",

"do you have 'katsudon' at this restaurant".

So, it can be used in so many different places,

so it's a really useful one.

Yeah.

So, number six!

Ah, this one I've used a lot,

and it is something "nakushimashita",

and that means "I've lost something".

And, uhm, you can use this with different things like,

say for example, "pasupooto nakishimashita".

Or, uh, "saifu nakishimashita".

So, you know, you lost your passport, you lost your wallet.

So if you want to go to the police station and be like,

"sumimasen, saifu nakushimashita",

so, "sorry, I lost my wallet".

If you think you left it in a certain store or restaurant,

you can just go there and be like,

"sumimasen, saifu nakushimashita".

And, maybe they'll be like, "Oh, have one! Here, we found it!"

Yeah.

So, yeah. "Nakushimashita".

It's very common to lose things when you're travelling

Yep.

Keys, uh, passport, wallet...

key is "kagi",

passport, "pasupooto",

Or your phone.

Uh, phone! That's a good one! "Keitai".

"Ketai" is a cellular phone.

Uhm, I think those are the important ones.

Yeah, those are most of them.

Yeah.

Or "kaban", maybe?

"Kaban", yeah! My bag.

Yeah.

"Kaban", backpack or bag.

They can all be called "kaban".

Yeah.

"Kaban nakushimashita".

Number seven is one you can use when you're entering a store

and you're not sure if you should take off your shoes or not.

There are some resturants, or some change rooms,

or just some areas in stores where you may need

to take off your shoes.

so if you're unsure, you can ask "kutsu daijyoubu desu ka".

"Kutsu" is "shoes" and

"daijyoubu desu ka" is asking "is it okay".

So you're just asking really simply,

"are shoes okay".

So if you ask them "kutsu daijyoubu desu ka",

and they're not okay,

they'll probably be like,

"ah, dame",

or like "ah, sumimasen, dame desu"

or like uh, "nuide kudasai", "please take them off".

You'll probably be able to tell by their gestures whether it's okay or not,

but if you're unsure in any situation, just ask

it's very polite to ask, uhm, if you should be taking your shoes off or not.

So don't be shy to use that.

So, the last one is a bit long,

so I'm gonna break it up for you.

So the first part is: "nihongo wakarimasen",

and that means "I don't understand Japanese".

And then you can say: "eigo dekimasu ka",

which means "can you speak english".

So, that's very useful if you can't speak Japanese.

and you want to tell someone,

and ask them if they can speak English.

Right, so you could just go up to people on the street

if you really need someone that speaks English.

"Sumimasen, nihongo wakarimasen, eigo dekimasu ka".

Or even, it could just be "sumimasen, eigo dekimasu ka".

Yeah, you can use that as well.

There's been times when I was in Japan,

and there were times where I really had to use English

for important things.

And I couldn't say it in Japanese, so I'd just say,

"eigo dekimasu ka", and then they would either reply

"yes" or "no".

So usually if they can't speak English they'll say,

"Oh, a little," or something like that, yeah.

And sometimes, even when they're really good at English,

they'll still just be like "Ahh, a little!"

And they're almost fluent.

They're really modest.

Yeah, very modest

But, there are many people who can speak

a generous amount of English,

so if you really need English, I think if you search well enough,

you will be able to find somebody who can help you.

So, uhm, don't be afraid to try.

Yeah.

Alright, so those are eight phrases