Language
First, I would like to start off by saying that you don’t need to know Japanese to enjoy traveling in Japan! It definitely helps, like in any other country, but it’s not needed. I have been to Japan more than a dozen times before I started taking Japanese language classes.
While Japanese is the official language, English signs are everywhere from airport to train stations, at least in the major cities. Some shops, restaurants, and hotels even have English speaking staff (and other foreign language speaking staff) so they have been making it easier for travelers to enjoy Japan without language barrier. In addition, translation apps have improved tremendously over the years, and so it’s definitely getting easier to travel around. Other languages like Chinese and Korean are also spoken in certain stores, and signs in other languages can be seen at airport and certain train stations as well.
Thanks to Tokyo Olympics 2020 (which delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), more Japanese people in the service industry are now speaking English fluently! I have recently been to Tokyo in the winter of 2022, and I noticed that more and more Japanese are speaking English to us; and more restaurants now have English menus (and in other languages)!
While learning Japanese is not necessary in order to travel in Japan, knowing some definitely helps! In this website, I will try to add in some useful words, pronunciations and phrases. Bonus point is that Japanese LOVES foreigners who try to speak their language, and learn about their culture.
Japanese language = 日本語, “ni-hon-gor” for pronunciation. Note that this is not the correct romanji, but I am putting down how I would teach my American friends to pronounce it because “go” in romanji is pronounced more similarly to “gor” (no need to stress the “r” sound) with the pitch going up at the end.
Here are a few useful phrases, and I suggest using translation apps to listen to Japanese pronunciation a few times to get used to the language:
Can you speak English? = 英語を話せますか。”ei-ei-gor o ha-na-sei ma-su-ka?” In written Japanese, you end a question with a period, instead of a question mark. However, when you pronounce it, feel free to end the sentence with a higher pitch at the end just like English.
Sorry, I don’t understand Japanese. = すみません、日本語がわかりません。”su-mi-ma-sen, ni-hon-gor ga wa-ka-li ma-sen”.
Excuse me, where is the toilet? = すみません、トイレはどこですか。”su-mi-ma-sen, to-i-lei wa dok-ko de-su-ka?”