Do you know where you are going in Japan?

Let’s say you’re in Japan and you want to take a bus to Tokyo Station. Do you know what to ask? What if you are planning a Japan tour? Will you be able to ask where the tour is going and when it leaves? These obviously very important questions will be a big part of your Japanese experience. This Japanese for beginners article introduces essential concepts such as how to ask about a destination. If you need to ask where a bus is going in Japanese, this article is for you. Save time and enjoy Japan much more by reading this Japanese article. Plus, learn a plethora of casual, polite vocabulary words and phrases.

Vocabulary: In this article, you will learn the following words and phrases:

fuji-san – “Mount Fuji”

kirei (na) – “beautiful” (final adjective -na)

watashi-tachi – “Us”

ikimasu – “go” (form masu)

densha – “train”

kyoo – “today, this day”

Grammar: In this article, you will learn the following words and phrases:

Vocabulary and useful phrases:

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kyoo “This day”

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We can read the Kanji for kyoo in two ways: kyoo Y konnichi. we use kyoo most commonly in everyday conversations. Please review the definitions below.

1. kinoo – “yesterday”
2. kyoo – “This day”
3. Ashita – “morning”

*Kinoo, Ashita, Y kyoo have irregular readings. We call this jukujikun or “idiomatic reading”. It means that the Kanji we use in jukujikun they were chosen based on the meaning of the characters, not Chinese readings of individual characters.

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watashi-tachi “Us”

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tachi is a suffix that we add to personal pronouns or human proper names that makes the preceding noun plural.

Unique (“English”) / Plural (“English”)

watashi (“ME”) / watashi-tachi (“us”)

anata (“you”) (singular) / anata-tachi (plural you)

kodomo (“little boy”) / kodomo-tachi (“kids”)

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Are we going to Mount Fuji today?

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Please review the following definitions:

1. kyoo “This day”
2. watashi-tachi “us”
3. wow “topic marker”
4. fuji-san “Mount Fuji”
5. me “particle marker”
6. ikimasu “go” (masu form)

the particle me marks the place or goal toward which the action moves along with the particle neither. Notice that we pronounce the particle me ace [e]No Hears.

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sentence patterns

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Affirmative sentences: See Japanese newbie article, Tickets Let’s Talk: Getting Around in Japan, for more details.

1. Theme / wow / Place or Address / neither Prayed me / ikimasu.

   Watashi-tachi / wow / fuji-san / neither / ikimasu.

   konobasu / wow / Tookoo-eki / me / ikimasu.

Simple interrogative sentences: The sentence final particle what makes the prize a question.

1. Theme / wow / Place or Address / none oh / ikimasu / ka.

   Watashitachi / wow / fuji-san / neither / ikimasu / ka.

   konobasu / wow / Tookoo-eki / me / ikimasu / ka.

   kono densha / wow / Nagano-eki / neither / ikimasu / ka.

Negative sentences: You can get the negative form of the masu form of a verb by simply dropping masu and adding more in Look at the examples to be continued:

1. “English” / masu verb form / polite negative

   “understand” / wakarimasu / wakarimasen

   “to carry out” / ikimasu / ikimasen

   “to come” / kimasu / kimasen

   “to return” / kaerimasu / kaerimasen

1. Theme / wow / Place or Address / neither / ikimasen.

   Watashitachi / wow / fuji-san / neither / ikimasen.

   konobasu / wow / Tookoo-eki / neither / ikimasen.

   kono densha / wow / Nagano-eki / neither / ikimasen

Interrogative Interrogative Sentences: As you can see above, the sentence, watashitachi wa fuji-san ni ikimasu ka, means “are we going to Mount Fuji?” When you want to say, “where come on”, he put doko (“where”) in the “place” section for the actual place.

1. Theme / wow / doko (“where”) / none oh / ikimasu / ka.

   Watashitachi / wow / doko / neither / ikimasu / ka.

   konobasu / wow / doko / me / ikimasu / ka.

   kono densha / wow / doko / neither / ikimasu / ka.

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More examples

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1. Sumimasen. Kono basu wa Tookyoo-eki ni ikimasu ka.

   “Excuse me. Does this bus go to Tokyo station?”

2. That is, ikimasen.

   “No, he does not do it”.

3. Sumimasen. Kore wa Narita e ikimasu ka.

   “Excuse me. Is this going to Narita?”

4. Hi ikimasu.

   “If it does”.