Hi all, I’m going for a vacation in Japan in a month and wanted to brush up on my vocabulary. I spent a few years learning Japanese in the past, eventually passing N1, but it has been several years since then without using Japanese at all and I am extremely rusty, even forgetting simple vocabulary. I’m wondering if anyone has any resources to share for traveling-related vocabulary, i.e. hotels, restaurants, trains, etc, especially for someone in my position that theoretically knows the words and grammar but simply forgot them all! I’ll probably pick up a phrasebook at some point but was wondering if anyone had any specific suggestions. Thanks 🙂
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Maybe go through the videos on the [もしもしゆうすけ](https://www.youtube.com/@moshimoshi.yusuke) channel.
While there’s a lot of subtitled JP conversation videos which will help your improve ability for small talk, you can also watch the videos on daily activities, like:
* [taking a plane flight to Shikoku](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcjaxpP24Bc)
* [visiting a conbini](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBbdUAYJWVk)
* [ordering food](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plm2zhLBnVI)
* [meeting with a friend at a restaurant and deciding what to eat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMRwIrcaNnY)
* [visiting Japanese McDonalds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLjPNTpxtjg)
* [going to the drugstore](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzVKlyZeibo)
* [renting a rental car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0kZQoS7tz8)
Also as a fallback, you can always use the Google Translate app (or something like the Deepl app) on your phone. Sometimes it’ll produce some awkward Japanese, but it will usually gets your point across.
Surprisingly, you can actually learn a lot by using a translating app if you have a Japanese friend to help you smooth out some the overly formal or awkward-sounding phrases.
[Watch this Korean highschool girl](https://youtu.be/gnRw8-sqilA?t=791) explain to Kazuma (he’s a polyglot from Nagoya) how she became so good in conversational Japanese mainly just by using translation app and testing them out when talking to Japanese people.