As someone who has been to Paris and been unable to speak a lick of French, I can understand that travelling to a country where you do not know their native tongue can be daunting. And, for all those French speakers out there, the prospect of travelling to Japan with little to no language skills may seem impossible. Honestly, its not. Japan has been working really hard over the past few decades to bridge the gap between themselves and the Western world.

However foreigner friendly Japan may be, it is always really handy to have a few phrases up your sleeve. Whether it be to impress a friend or just find out where something is, I present my top 30 phrases you might need in Japan!

Before I begin, I would like to explain the table below. The first column holds the English phrase, the second, the direct Japanese equivalent, and the third, the romaji. Romaji is Romanised Japanese words, and helps people who can’t speak Japanese to be able to read / speak the language {Think: Tokyo}. Also, I’m going to leave out the generic: hello, goodbye, etc – I’m sure you can figure that out yourself!

This has just been a brief compilation of some useful phrases and expressions. I find myself using them frequently in everyday life, especially ‘I’m full’ and ‘Please look after me’. I’ll admit I’ve never had to use the expression ‘I’m lost’, and hope that I won’t ever need to. But sometimes getting lost is the best way to find yourself.

-H