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Daily lessons · Day 12 of 90

Buying a train ticket

Get from A to B without English

Japanese stations are efficient, well signposted and completely overwhelming the first time. The good news is that buying a ticket is a short, predictable exchange, and the machines have an English button. Today covers what you need for both the machine and the counter, plus the words on the signs above your head.

Buying the ticket

At the counter, or the midori no madoguchi for longer journeys:

tōkyō made no kippu o kudasai.
A ticket to Tokyo, please.
まで until, の linking, きっぷ ticket. Swap the destination.
otona hitori, kodomo futari.
One adult, two children.
おとな adult, こども child.
katamichi desu.
One way.
おうふく (ōfuku) is a return.
shiteiseki o onegaishimasu.
A reserved seat, please.
じゆうせき (jiyūseki) is unreserved. On the shinkansen this matters.
Why it works

まで の きっぷ is worth unpacking. まで marks the end of a journey, and then の links that whole phrase to きっぷ. So とうきょうまでの きっぷ is a ticket that goes as far as Tokyo. This is の doing the same linking job you met on day 9, just with something longer than a single noun on the left.

Finding the right train

The questions that get you onto the correct platform:

tōkyō-yuki wa nanbansen desu ka.
Which platform for Tokyo?
ゆき attached to a place means bound for. なんばんせん which platform number.
kono densha wa tōkyō ni tomarimasu ka.
Does this train stop at Tokyo?
とまります to stop. The single most useful question on a platform.
tsugi no densha wa nanji desu ka.
What time is the next train?
つぎ next, again linked with の.
Why it works

ゆき (also written 行き) turns any place name into a destination label, and it is written on the front of every train and above every platform. 東京行き is Tokyo-bound. Once you can recognise that one character you can read most of what the platform signs are telling you, even without the rest.

Words on the signs

You will read these far more often than you will say them:

noriba
boarding point
Literally the riding place. Above platforms and taxi ranks.
deguchi / iriguchi
exit / entrance
で out, いり in, ぐち mouth or opening.
kyūkō / kakueki teisha
express / all stations
Getting this wrong is how you end up an hour away.
Why it works

でぐち contains 口, mouth, which you met in the kanji course as an opening of any kind. 出口 is literally the exit-opening. Japanese builds a lot of everyday vocabulary this way, and once the kanji start to stick you will find you can guess words you have never been taught.

Carry over, from earlier days

tōkyō made no kippu o kudasai.
A ticket to Tokyo, please.
tōkyō-yuki wa nanbansen desu ka.
Which platform for Tokyo?
kono densha wa tōkyō ni tomarimasu ka.
Does this train stop at Tokyo?
katamichi desu.
One way.

Check yourself

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