I’ve been coming to Japan for years but haven’t been back in about 8 (had kids + covid). A few things have changed and I thought about a few words that I use a lot more now than I did before.
単品 (tanpin) – ala carte. Everything comes with sets and extras. If you just want an item and not the extras, use this term.
現金 (genkin) – Cash. Now a days, lots of places take regular credit cards or pasmo cards. Not every place takes a card so asking about cash only makes sense.
I’ll edit as I remember 🙂 Things have changed here in the past 5 years but also have very much stayed the same.
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These are good ones. Anyone have others?
がまんじる
えんちょう おねがいします for when you need another hour at karaoke.
In terms of service encounters:
ビニール袋 plastic bag. At least I never learned this word before I went
シール Sticker, but useful to know that stores sometimes ask if you want them to seal your bag with a sticker (or they’ll just do it without asking)
別々でお願いします for asking to split the bill
Getting used to recognizing られる as an honorific suffix, which IME employees will use relatively frequently with customers.
When I first got here it seemed like every time I stated to understand what the staff at the register of the convenience store asked, they added a new question… do you need a bag? Do you have a pint card? Do you want us to heat it up? Do you want two separate bags for the hot and cold items? We don’t have any large bills, is it ok if your change is all ¥1000 bills? Etc. ad infinitum…
So I’ll say when I was new to the country and language, 大丈夫です was a real life saver 😅
This is such a nice post! I love the topic 🐱
てんないで is something tripped me up when I first got here. Takeaway wasn’t such a big thing last time I was here (pre Covid). So being asked if I was dining in threw me.