Japanese travel vocabulary: 60 words for airports, hotels and directions

60 Japanese travel words

Each word is in its usual Japanese spelling with a Hepburn reading; a line over a vowel (kūkō) means it is held twice as long. Verbs are in dictionary form. This is the travel pack the Contos web app uses for flashcard review.

Which travel words are loanwords, and which are false friends?

A quarter of this list is borrowed, so a traveller can read more signs than they expect. Most loanwords come from English and are spelt in katakana: タクシー (takushī), パイロット (pairotto), フェリー (ferī). Say the English word with a vowel after every consonant and you are usually understood.

Some borrowed words have shifted on the way in. フロント (furonto), from "front", is a hotel's reception desk. ガソリンスタンド (gasorin sutando) is a petrol station, a phrase made in Japan that English speakers don't use. リュックサック (ryukkusakku) comes from German Rucksack and is usually cut to リュック (ryukku).

Two more to watch: お土産 (omiyage) is usually a gift you bring back for family or colleagues, very often boxed sweets from the place you visited, rather than a keepsake for yourself. And 遠い (tōi) in the list is the adjective far: 駅は遠いですか (eki wa tōi desu ka), is the station far? For "far away" as a place, use 遠く (tōku): 遠くに見える, visible in the distance.

How do you count bags and ask the way?

Japanese nouns have no plural. 荷物 (nimotsu) is one bag or all your luggage, and you add a number with a counter. For bags and suitcases the everyday counter is つ: 一つ (hitotsu), 二つ (futatsu), 三つ (mittsu). At an airport desk you will also hear 個 (ko): 一個 (ikko), 二個 (niko).

Directions are built from 右 (migi, right), 左 (hidari, left) and まっすぐ (massugu, straight on), with 曲がる (magaru, to turn). The point where you turn takes を: 交差点を右に曲がる, turn right at the crossroads. Large stations name their exits by the compass, so 北 (kita), 南 (minami), 東 (higashi) and 西 (nishi) turn up as 北口 (kitaguchi), the north exit, and so on.

Phrases for the airport and the hotel

Six verbs in the list are a noun plus する (suru, to do): 予約する, チェックインする, 荷造りする, 荷ほどきする, 着陸する and 離陸する. Drop the する and you have the noun, which is what you hand to staff with お願いします (onegai shimasu, please).

Signs at Japanese airports and stations are usually in English as well, so recognising 出発 (shuppatsu, departures) and 到着 (tōchaku, arrivals) matters less than knowing what to say at the desk. For a full journey in Japanese, see the Japanese daily routine words, which cover the station, platform and ticket.