I live in Tokyo. It seems unnecessary to say, but it’s an excellent city to live in, and also an ideal location to conquer that wild, spitting squid known as the Japanese language. This ditty will act as part-one in a series that will attempt to delve into common day to day living and moving through Tokyo (or any large Japanese city), and how one might use the city’s many tangled limbs to better your Japanese proficiency while exploring its many strange wonders.

Tokyo Morning Practice

You wake. Your apartment/hostel/dorm/hotel is hot and muggy. Start your morning with a much needed shot of caffeine and a quick Japanese lesson to get your mind on the right track. You turn on your computer and open one of the many language software programs you’ve come to love: Rosetta Stone, Transparent Japanese, Anki, SmartFM, etc… They’re all good. Waking up with a lesson and studying before you go to sleep are good ways to begin and end the day. The human mind requires constant reminders. Install the language in your head as often as possible.

Moving about in the heart of a Tokyo summer can be a life changing experience. The heat and humidity boils unprepared human flesh on a daily basis. Forget it! You’ll power through. Take a cold shower, throw on some shorts and grab your smart phone that you’ve loaded up with Japanese dictionaries and language apps. You’re going to to need it.

Items around Tokyo

First you begin by grabbing a cold can of coffee from one of the millions of vending machines around the city. Your read the sign on the brightly colored machine:

安い. ¥100 (Yasui. Hyaku Yen.)

やすい

What does it mean? You contemplate, and then it strikes you. Cheap! One hundred yen! It’s perfect and you buy of cold, green tea(お茶/ ocha) and drink it in one go, tossing the empty bottle in the recycles bin placed conscientiously next to the machine.

You make your way to the local metro station. You want to go to Shinjuku, so you find the Kanji you’ve worked hard to memorize using endless hours of study on the computer.

新宿 (Shin, which means new and Juku, meaning lodging or station. Shinjuku: the busiest station on the world!)

You approach a train attendant and ask him how much it costs to get to Shinjuku. You ask as simply as possible.

新宿に行きたい. いくらですか
Shinjuku ni ikitai. Ikuradesuka?
“I want to go to Shinjuku. How much is it?”

The train man points to your price.

ひゃくろくじゅうえん
“Hyaku roku-Ju yen,” he says. ¥160

You pop you coins in the slot and grab your ticket and you’re on your way.

The train stops at Shinjuku station. Your stomach rumbles and you decide to pop in to a popular Gyudon (牛丼) shop. You pull out your trusty phone and look up the meaning, where you see that Gyu (beef) don (bowl) is a popular fast food in Japan that consists of thinly sliced beef, onions cooked in a sauce and served over a bowl of rice. Sounds good.

You sit at the bar. A young waitress approaches. The menu is ridden with difficult Japanese and you have no idea what it means.

ちょっとまってください
Chotto matte kudasai,” you say. Which means “one moment please.”

You spy a mountain of beef and onions with a raw egg atop a steaming bed of rice with miso soup and a salad. That’s it, you think. I must have it.

これおください
“Kore o kudasai.”
“This one please,” pointing to the picture. Pointing to pictures while using the phrase “Kore o kudasai,” works wonders. It may seem juvenile, but it works and is the easiest way to choose something when you don’t how to say it in Japanese. The food arrives.

Smells good, you think.

いいにおいする

“Ii nioi suru,” you say.

The waitress smiles. The day awaits!

In the early stages of learning any foreign language it is absolutely necessary to practice
as often as possible. This seems needless to say, but within the busy pace of modern-
day life, it’s not always convenient to keep a regular study schedule going. Due to
the fact that Japanese is one of the more challenging foreign languages for an English
speaker, this time-honored concept of regular re-enforcement should be held as an
indispensable motto in the quest to master Nihongo (Japanese).

From a personal point of view, the hardest period of my own Japanese learning
experience was the “the point of departure.” Where do I begin? What sorts of study
materials do I need and where do I find them? What is useful and what is a waste of
time? Of course, asking friends who’ve been down a similar path is always a good place
to start. After much deliberation and plenty of dead ends, I decided the best route to
travel was through online resources.

Ask anyone who has taken it upon themselves to really attack a language. The majority
of “tech-savy” individuals will point you in the direction of online resources.

Thankfully, there are a plethora of useful online resources to take advantage of for the
common beginner, and advanced students alike. Of course, it is important to find the
tools that work the best for you as an individual, because (as we all know) everyone
learns at a different pace and through different methods.

You’ve heard it before, but tools like flashcards are undeniably helpful when it comes to
absorbing vocabulary and the memorization of kana and kanji. Regardless of how busy
we are, it is not impossible to set aside 15 minutes a day. Below are some tools that I
(and scores of others) have used to keep my skills sharp and growing.

Anki

Anki is one of the best dowloadable flashcard programs available. The word Anki is
Japanese for memorization. The program is so helpful because it uses algorithms
to employ spaced repetition, so the viewer practices the cards he or she has trouble
remembering the most. One of the most useful perks of the program is that the “decks”
of cards are created by users, so there is an almost infinite amount of different resources
to access through the program. I use Anki to practice Japanese vocabulary, kanji
and useful Japanese phrases.

Rosetta Stone

Maybe the most popular program used worldwide for studying Japanese (and other
languages), Rosetta Stone is a useful computer software program that teaches using
a method similar to “the way in which humans learn languages naturally.” Rosetta
Stone software uses something called “Dynamic Immersion method” which promotes
memorization without drills or explanations. The user is subjected to words, characters
and grammar with a difficulty level that raises as the student progresses. Rosetta Stone
can be purchased online at or at one of its many vendors, world-wide.

Japanesepod101

Japanesepod101 is a Japanese language podcast that has recently picked up a lot
popularity due to its affordable price and easy to access podcasts offered online and
on itunes. This website uses daily podcasts with textual supplements to offer its users
a good blend of materials. One of the most impressive things about Japanesepod101
is that its podcasts offer the viewer a helpful dose of casual Japanese and cultural
information that really comes in handy when traveling to Japan and meeting Japanese
friends at home and abroad.

Podcasts, flashcard software and highly sophisticated computer programs are just the
tip of the iceberg when considering online resources to study Japanese. Use the web as a
tool to find what’s best for you.

Regular re-enforcement and practice everyday with one or more of the above tools will
undoubtedly improve a students Japanese ability and keep one’s (previously acquired)
skills heightened and improving.

One of the most difficult hurdles to cross when studying Japanese is a lack of confidence. Japanese is rated one of the most difficult foreign languages for a native English speaker to learn, but its also a very simple language to communicate with.

A Stressful Venture

Japanese is a language through which a lot can be said with a limited vocabulary. In everyday conversation the Japanese tend to use as few words as possible to get their points across. This may be contradictory to what one may think of polite Japanese, which seems to utilize an unneeded amount of verbal posturing and vocabulary to express simple, everyday concepts.

As a foreign speaker studying Japanese, it may seem daunting when considering the vast mountain of material that must be studied in order to reach a desired level: Kanji (Chinese characters), Hiragana, Katakana, Japanese pronunciation and English meanings…the list goes on and on.

At the beginning it is important to remember that learning Japanese is no easy task, but with the right mindset, amazing strides can be made and it can be a lot of fun.

Learn a Small Arsenal and Polish it

If you are living in Japan, or you just want to practice in your own country for future use, the best way to begin is by starting with a few extremely common and useful words and phrases that will give you the confidence to speak.

For example, one might ask you “Do you like it?” and you might answer “Yes, I like it.” Easy enough, right? Well it is even easier in Japanese. Here’s what the same conversation might look like in Japanese:
“Suki?” (Do you like it?)
“Suki.” (Yes, I like it.)

To ask the question, simply use rising intonation and to answer, use a flat or falling intonation.

It is that simple. In casual Japanese, one word answers and questions are not only accepted, they are seen as natural and efficient. In Hiragana, Suki is seen with two sounds: すき.

To give yourself a kick-start, let’s look at some other phrases which might be helpful in a similar situation.

If somebody shows you something that you think is great, or amazing you might think to tell them how it makes you feel or that it is really interesting or cool. For one to express this in Japanese it is very simple. One of the most common phrases heard when walking around Japan is Sugoi, which simply means “cool” or “that’s great!” It is very common and the word is made up of three simple sounds: すごい.

More Useful Words

*Genki? 　　げんき
-This word can mean “energetic” or “full of life,” but when used as a question, it simply means “How are you?” To answer, simply say yes and repeat the word: “Hai, Genki desu.”

*Daijoubu?　だいじょうぶ
-This word when asked as a question means “Are you OK?” To answer simply say “Hai, Daijoubu desu.”

It would be impossible to list all of the common and useful words one might see or hear in Japanese, but it is important that the individual learner find the words with which he or she feels most comfortable. Practice them everyday and remember that Japanese can be challenging, but it can also be very fun if you look at it from the right perspective.