In the last travel lesson, we looked at numbers.

Quick! Read through all of these at least once:

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十、十一、十二
いち、に、さん、し、ご、ろく、しち、はち、きゅう、じゅう、じゅういち、じゅうに
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

十二、十一、十、九、八、七、六、五、四、三、二、一
じゅうに、じゅういち、じゅう、きゅう、はち、なな、ろく、ご、よん、さん、に、いち
12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

一つ、二つ、三つ、四つ、五つ、六つ、七つ、八つ、九つ
ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ、いつつ、むっつ、ななつ、やっつ、ここのつ
1 (thing), 2 (things), 3 (things), 4 (things), 5 (things), 6 (things), 7 (things), 8 (things), 9 (things)

I know it's a pain studying numbers, but just by repeating these every now and then, you'll get good at them pretty quickly.

Bonus points if you recite numbers in your head while you're in line at the grocery store, while your boss is talking to you, etc.

Now, we've counted up to twelve so far. And in this lesson we'll count up to 1 million!

...

...

I'm kidding. I don't think I could bear to teach two lessons about numbers back to back. We can worry about counting to a million when we talk about Japanese money.

Let's look at something more practical in this lesson...

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Asking for Help at Train Stations, Bus Stops, etc.

So, you flaked on your Japanese studies. And now you find yourself at Narita Airport, and you need to get to your hotel.

You walk up to a person working at or near the train station and, in fluent, speedy English, say, "Hello, so I'm trying to get to Ueno, and I was wondering if you might be able to tell me which train I should take?"

A lot of workers in Japan have a system for dealing with requests that they receive in English:

Step #1: Panic.
Step #2: Oh no! What did he say?!
Step #3: Repeat Step #1.

If you're lucky, they might catch words like "Ueno" and "train" and be able to help out. (And to be honest, the workers at the train station in an airport are probably pretty good at English compared to workers at other stations.)

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Even if you can't understand a response in Japanese, I think it is helpful to state your request in Japanese. Even a person that can't speak English can help you if they know what your problem is.

I'd probably start by getting the station worker's attention:

すいません。
Excuse me.

(↑ We already saw this!)

Then I might say:

[Place] に行きたいんですが…
[Place] に　いきたい　んです　が...
I'd like to go to [Place]... (Can you help me?)
Literally: “[Place] + に + want to go + んですが…”

Instead of place, you would say the name of whatever town or station you're going to. For example, if you want to go to Shinjuku, you should say 新宿 (しんじゅく // Shinjuku) or 新宿駅 (しんじゅくえき // Shinjuku Station). If you have an address or a place name that is hard to pronounce written on a piece of paper somewhere, you can show that to the person and say ここ, which means "here."

行きたい (いきたい) means "want to go." To learn more about conjugating verbs into "want to VERB" format, see this lesson: [NDL #427] - JLPT N5: ～たい.

に is a "destination-marking particle." Particles are a unique characteristic of Japanese. They are used to perform a number of functions. Sometimes they will match up nicely with English prepositions. For example, に often becomes "to" in English translations.

The use of ん (or の) is a topic too complicated for this lesson. Just know that it can be used when you are hinting that you want the listener to somehow respond to what you are saying. In this case, you are hinting that you need this person to help you get somewhere. For more on this, see [NDL #426] - Basics: Feminine の and [NDL #433] - Basics: Intro to んだ. The endings んです and のです are often combined with particles that mean something like "but." Speaking of which...

が is a particle that, among other uses, can mean something like "but." Here, though, it is acting as what I like to refer to as a "content marker." That is, が is showing that the thing you're thinking of saying is not complete; there is another sentence coming after this one. But you don't say that sentence and allow the listener to guess what it is. Making direct requests is often avoided in Japanese culture, making this a very useful sentence ending. It's a somewhat complicated topic, but for more info, you can check out this lesson: [NDL #387] - JLPT N3: けれど（も）(content marker).

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You can also specifically ask a person to tell you how to get somewhere:

[Place] にはどう行けばいいですか？
[Place] に　は　どう　いけば　いい　です　か？
How do I get to [Place]?
Literally: “[Place] + に + は + how + should I go (=if (I) go + good) + です + か?”
Note: Since this は is a particle, it is pronounced "wa" and not "ha."

A more literal translation of this sentence would be something like "How should I go to [Place]?"

行けば (いけば) means "if (one) goes." Combining it with いいですか, which means something like "is good?", gives us "how should I go?" Breaking this down in detail would take too much time at the moment. Instead of worrying about how to conjugate other verbs like this, we can just remember all of this as a set phrase.

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Now, if you're feeling really fancy, you can combine all of this stuff into one sentence:

すいません、[Place] に行きたいんですが、どう行けばいいですか？
すいません、　[Place]　に　いきたい　んですが、　どう　いけば　いい　です　か？
Excuse me, I'd like to go to [Place]. Can you tell me how to get there?
Literally: “excuse me, + [Place] + に + want to go + んですが, + how + should I go (=if (I) go + good) + です + か?”

OK, that sentence might be a bit long.

I have good news, though: You can use these questions in a variety of situations.

Aside from asking directions at a train stations, you can use these to ask for directions to places like shrines, temples, stores, restaurants, and so on.

In short, these phrases are worth taking the time to memorize.

As I said in the last lesson, 頑張ってください！（がんばってください！）