It’s true that on the streets of Japan you will need some kind of survival Kanji and Katakana to navigate Japan’s maps, train network, bus services, restaurant menus and more can be daunting when you are not familiar with the local characters. In fact, Japanese uses 3 different writing systems namely Hiragana, Katakana (Foreign loan words) and Kanji (Chinese Characters) just to add to the confusion.
So, in these next few chapters, I will try to provide some useful guide on important words and phrases, both in Katakana and Kanji (Chinese Characters) that will help make your trip or life in Japan hopefully a little bit smoother.
In today’s post, I have provided some of the more common Katakana and Kanji words you will see around Japan. Good luck 🙂
Katakana（カタカナ）
トイレ (Toire) – Toilet/ Public Restroom
ビール (Bi-ru) – Beer
ワイン (Wain) – Wine
コンビニ (Konbini) – Convenience Store
メニュー (Menyu) – Menu
Kanji（漢字）
お手洗い (Otearai) – Toilet/Public Restroom
電車 (Densha) – Train
電話 (Denwa) – Telephone
危ない (Abunai) – Dangerous
危険 (Kiken) – Dangerous
非常 (Hijyou) – Emergency
出口 (Deguchi) – Exit
入口 (Iriguchi) – Entrance
銀行 (Ginkou) – Bank
禁止 (Kinshi) – Prohibition
禁煙 (Kin’en) – No-Smoking Area
喫煙 (Kitsu’en) – Smoking Area
男 (Otoko) – Male
男性 (Dansei) – Male
女 (On’na) – Female
女性 (Josei) – Female
