Language in Tokyo

Hello,

Do alot of people speak English in Tokyo?

I have a trip comming up, and am worried about communication and language barriers. Particularly getting from the HND airport, to out hotel.

Worried that I'll become lost, or won't be able to communicate with people. I don't really know which method of transportation would be best...
Pleas help ^.^

I have a trip coming up, and am worried about communication and language barriers.

As to railroad, in major stations you can see here and there signs in non-Japanese languages including at least English.
Please pay attention to information given to passengers in English and feel free to ask a station attendant.

In HND International Terminal there are two stations of two railroad operators: Keikyu and Tokyo Monorail.
There must be attendants who use both Japanese and English.

In Tokyo subway network, transfers between lines are not always simple and easy, but symbol colors of lines and station codes along with a lot of signs may lessen the risk of visitors' getting lost.

Particularly getting from the HND airport, to out hotel.

Does your hotel mention a station nearby with a name or a number of its exit / gate?
Information like "Exit A2 of PQR Station on XYZ Line" may well help you reach your hotel.

Alisa,

I'm sure your hotel has a map in Japanese language. Print it out, carry it around, and just show it to someone when you get lost.

There are also "Koban" police booths here and there throughout Japan. They're suppose to help people find directions.

You can bring along or rent a mobile phone that works in Japan so that you can call your hotels and information centers that have English speakers.

Alisa, hordes of foreign tourists that don't speak Japanese travel in Japan year in year out without any problem. This includes me and also friends that were afraid but enjoyed Japan a lot once they were there.

You do have to do some basic work in advance, the same one MUST do before visiting any country or town one has never been to:
Look in guidebooks and on the internet for maps of a town or even districts of a town, and look also for information on railways, subways etc.
This is all so very easy!

On Japan-guide.com look, at the top, for a tab marked A-Z. click on it...under transportation then trains you have lots and lots of info.

Are you familiar with Google Earth? if not download it for free on your computer. You can zoom on a town area then, when the streets and buildings are visible, move the little orange guy on the right of the Google Earth screen towards an area you want to check. Streets will change to a blue outline. Put the orange guy in one spot, wait a while and you will see photos of that area. You can turn one photo 360 degrees around to see in each direction.

Google Earth is amazing! I can look at a photo of my current home in North America, the homes I lived in in several countries etc..

I've noticed that Japanese people are more open to read English than speak/hear it. I think it comes from the many accents we English speaker have (American, British, Australian, etc.) and that may complicate things. Most do take 6 years in school and I'm sure are familiar with English. As a whole, they don't volunteer this because they may feel embarassed about pronouncing it correctly.

But show these same people something you wrote on a piece of paper and things change tremendously. They can read it and understand it. When I took out a pen and paper to explain I wanted a particular kind of store, the 6 associates working that floor darted over to where I was to see what I was writing. Once they figured it out, some started drawing me a map, some took their cellphones out and started calling people, etc. Their customer service is exemplary. And I wasn't looking for anything closely related to the store I was currently at!

Very few will speak English to you, unfortunately, because of the potential embarassment, some won't want to get involved with a gaijin, and some just won't care. But there are a few I encountered that are a treat to deal with.

You may want to carry a simple phrasebook that contains the romaji phrase you can attempt to communicate with, but make sure it has the hiragana/katakana/kanji phrase as well so they can read it. If you're going to be in Tokyo for a while, think about getting a map. I used the same map for the 3 times I've been there and it's the best thing I've seen for ground-pounding Tokyo. I think the publisher is Kodansha and it's called Tokyo City Atlas.... You can't go wrong with that book and I can't imagine you can get lost with it.

But Red Frog is right. Hundreds of thousands of tourist hit Tokyo each year and most don't speak the language. Yet they seem to get by, so I know you'll do the same. It's going to be very interesting, so have fun!

I went to Japan in May as I was not at all fluent in the language. However, the transportation systems are pretty English friendly. However, I did have a little difficult time with the JR subway in tokyo as there's less English on their maps vs Tokyo metro/Toei subways.

If you need to take a taxi and ask him to take you to Asakusa, say to the taxi driver "Asakuka o onegaishimasu" and he'll understand. Also, their taxis comes with giant gps screens so you can point it out where exactly you want to go.

Here's a dandy printable pocket guide that totally helped me on my trip: http://www.fodors.com/language/japanese/japanese.pdf

I would just like to say a huge thankyou to all of the absolutely lovely poeple who so kindly responded to my message.

It means so much to me, that you would so kindly take the time to reply to me!

Thankyou so so very much, I feel better knowing that others have first hand knowledge and experience, thankyou so much for sharing it with me. ^.^

God Bless you all ^o^

My experience:
- the policeman at the police station in front of karimanon gate did not speak English
I asked where the shitamachi bus stop to get to Ueno was, he didn't understand
I forgot to print the shitamachi bus map
I decided to use subway to get to Ueno, very very easy
- I got separated with my wife at Disneysea, most of those who work there don't understand the word "wife". They had to find someone to understand what my problem was. But, rest assured there will always be someone who speaks English: the woman at the customer relations did, so did the woman at the advanced ticket counter.

My suggestion:
- learn how to get to your destination without help (the signs at train stations are 99% clear)
- but still learn some Japanese words
My poor Japanese skill helped me when I got confused at Shinjuku station after getting off the Saikyo line: there is no sign whatsoever as to where the west exit is!
Luckily there was this janitor. I managed to ask him "nishiguchi wa doko desuka?"
He then explained in detail but I only managed to catch "masugu" & "hidari" while he was pointing down the escalators towards the Chuo line. I made it to the west exit safe and sound. Ha ha ha!
- go and enjoy Tokyo / Japan. We did.

You should be able to get around without TOO much trouble. I was surprised at how much English I saw in Japan! We did most of our travel by trains (with a JR Rail Pass) and most signs in the stations where in both Japanese and English.

One thing I would recommend is becoming a little familiar with the Japanese written name of the train stops and areas you are going to be traveling to. There were some trains we were on that either didn't have screens showing the stops, or that were ONLY in Japanese. On those trains, I had to either identify the kanji of the stop or listen very carefully to the announcements to hear the correct stop. All the big train stations should have an English information booth where you can get information about which train you may need to board to get somewhere or how to find a particular platform. And if you're still stuck just ASK... most people we ran into were incredibly nice!

I forgot to say what another poster did....write something down in English and/ or make a sketch of something you are looking for....

I showed a sketch, with English words, to the info counter at a department store in Tokyo.. The 2 young ladies there talked to one another for a short while then one of them asked me to follow her and actually took me to the right department on one of the upper floors!!!. Amazing..

I am sure that this would never happen in any department stores in my (big) home town! The staff would never ever leave their job area. There is no info counter either..

The younger staff have the annoying habit to say "I don't know, I only work here" whenever one ask questions about something that the store sell..

People don't speak English. Trains and subways do, and are easy and you won't be lost. Don't start walking in the stations unless you know exactly where you are going, it can be frustrating with luggage to go back and forth. Train. Make sure to know which exist you need to take at each station destination. From Haneda is easy, and you won't have any trouble in Tokyo. However, google maps is very handy..basically to know where is north, he he, so you know where it is supposed to be what it right in front of you and you can't see it. Japanese people gets lost in Tokyo too, but you won't ;) Just carry an English map with trains and subways and you will have no problem :) If you plan to go to a small country town, yeah, be more ready with train schedules etc.

Let me know if I can help you more at all. I am happy to do so. I already had to learn all these by experience :P

Thankyou all so much!
To all of you for your responses to my question. I am honestly so over whelmed, and had no idea that so many lovely people would help me out.

I do not feel as worried or concerned now (mind you I saw a few YouTube videos on the earthquake) ^.^

To all my firends thankyou sincerely, this is such a helpful site!
God Bless you all ^.^