For first-time visitors to Japan
Understand the Japanese you’ll actually hear
Phrasebooks teach you what to say. The harder problem is what you hear — a fast, polite question from a clerk, and a pause while everyone waits for you.
These guides work the other way round: they start from the Japanese you will actually hear in one real situation, and end with the smallest thing you can do next.
How each guide works
Hear
The Japanese as it is really said, at real speed, with romaji.
Understand
What the sentence is doing — not a word-for-word translation.
Know what to do
The smallest move that answers it. Usually a nod, a point, or one word.
Recover if you missed it
The line that restarts the exchange without embarrassment.
You are not expected to learn Japanese to use these. You are expected to get through the next thirty seconds without freezing.
The guides
Start here
9 situationsJapanese Convenience Store Checkout
The questions a convenience store clerk actually asks at the register in Japan, what each one means, and the smallest way to answer each one.
A line from this guide
ポイントカードはお持ちですか
pointo kaado wa omochi desu ka
Guide
8 situationsYour First 90 Seconds at a Japanese Restaurant
What staff ask in the first ninety seconds at a Japanese restaurant, how to recognise each question, and the smallest move that answers it.
Guide
6 situationsWhen You Don’t Understand What Japanese Staff Said
Six calm, practical ways to recover when you did not catch what Japanese staff said, with the exact words to use and what comes back.
How these are written
- Built from one real situation at a time, not from a topic.
- Japanese is written as it is actually spoken, always with romaji.
- Where shops, chains or regions differ, that is said plainly rather than smoothed over.
- Where something cannot be stated with confidence, it is left out.