Learn the first five and use them from day one. Here is what is actually understood, and the few lines worth having ready.
Most people in Japan learned English at school and can read it more easily than they can hear it. That means two or three clear words will get you further than a long sentence in either language.
So the phrases below are short English — the ones that are actually understood here. Japanese appears only where it genuinely works better, and only where it is short enough to say correctly the first time.
That is genuinely enough. A long rehearsed sentence tends to produce a long reply you will not follow.
These are the few cases where a Japanese phrase is worth
You may also hand the phone to anyone nearby. People do this without hesitating.
Learn to recognise about ten signs on a two-week trip, and you do not need to. These ten shapes cover most of what actually affects your day.
| Sign | Means | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| 男 / 女 | Men / Women | Toilets and baths. Trust these, not the colours |
| 出口 / 入口 | Exit / Entrance | Stations, buildings |
| 営業中 / 閉店 | Open / Closed | Shop doors |
| 定休日 | Regular closing day | Restaurant windows — the day it is shut every week |
| 準備中 | Preparing — not open yet | Restaurants between lunch and dinner |
| 売切 | Sold out | Ticket machines, food counters |
| 立入禁止 | No entry | Trails, building sites, volcano paths |
| 撮影禁止 | No photographs | Museums, some temple halls, shops |
| 禁煙 / 喫煙所 | No smoking / Smoking area | Streets, stations, restaurants |
| 非常口 | Emergency exit | Hotels, trains, tunnels |
Point at things. At a menu, at a map, at the platform number, at the item on the shelf. It is polite here and it is unambiguous.
Show text on your phone. Written English is understood far more widely than spoken English, and a translation app on screen works in almost any shop. Hand the phone over; nobody minds.