Learn about buying a train ticket
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yoshi, Takase:おはよう東京。 |
| Takase: タカセです |
| Yoshi: ヨシです。 |
| Peter: Peter here, survival phrases #28. Alright we are back with part 3 of riding the rails. Now in the past 2 we covered getting around Japan on a macro level, the whole country. Now we are going to get down to the micro level inside the cities, inside the subways and the local lines. So to help us out today we have the Nagasaki connection. Welcome to the show guys. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Takase: よろしくお願いします。 |
| Yoshi: よろしくお願いします。 |
| Peter: Takase San, you take the subway every day? |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: How do you like it? |
| Takase: How do I like it? No one likes it. |
| Peter: Why is that? |
| Takase: So crowded. |
| Peter: It is extremely crowded. But here is the thing. I want to recommend that everybody try riding the subway once at rush hour. It’s worth it just to experience the pushing, the shoving, being jammed into the train. Come on, it’s a little bit fun. |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: We call it Takase shoulders because she drops the shoulder and pushes. |
| Takase: Yes I do. |
| Peter: Now Yoshi San, he is a pretty boy. He, Yoshi San, in one week, on a weekly basis how often do you ride the train? We wanted to find a train here for the subway and local lines. |
| Yoshi: About 5 times a week. I mean 5 days a week. |
| Peter: Takase San come on, is that true? |
| Takase: I only see you once a week. |
| Peter: Me too. Come on Yoshi San give us a real answer. |
| Peter: 5 days a week. |
| Peter: Now here is the thing. During rush hour in the morning if you are coming into Tokyo it’s going to be crowded but going the other way it’s a pleasure. You can almost sit down when you get far enough out so it always depends on the direction. At night time if you are coming into Tokyo it is definitely not as bad as going out from Tokyo. So it’s the direction and the time of day. Yoshi San, where are you going these 5 days a week? |
| Peter: I come to Akasaka, then after I am done working I go back to Yokohama. |
| Peter: Now I remember Tokyo and Yokohama are two huge cities. How far is the commute between these two cities? |
| Peter: I change about 3 trains. |
| Peter: And how long does it take, time? |
| Peter: It takes me about, you know it also depends because of express trains or local trains. If I can catch the fast train, still, it takes about an hour and maybe 20, 30 minutes. |
| Peter: Yeah, really close. So it works out quite nice getting around and going to the place and seeing different things, but on the other hand there are just so many people riding the rails. Now I think we are alright compared to India and hopefully maybe some of our Indian listeners can tell us what’s going on there but I’ve heard really, if we think we have it bad I think I heard India has it the worst. So maybe we shouldn’t complain too much but rush hour in Tokyo is enough to complain about. But again please try it once. Now when you are coming to Japan you are definitely going to ride the subway at some point and as we said if you are going to see a bunch of cities then we recommend the Japan rail pass, but say you are just coming to Tokyo, or you are just going to Osaka, or Nagoya, or just one of the cities, so you will be taking the train all around just that city. So in today’s lesson what we are going to do is we are going to take you through the process of getting a ticket and getting through the entrance gate and then we are going to leave you there, because just this process is one of the most difficult for some people and this is actually based on our listeners opinions. So with that said, let's get into today’s lesson. Now up until this point we’ve had a lot of listeners come to Japan and email us. We’ve also had a lot of listeners come down to the office, right Takase San? |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s great when they come down and when they come down to the office we always ask them, first thing is first we get all the information we can out of them. What’s difficult, what’s easy? We give them the 5 minute questioning and our chief interrogator is Takase San. So if you come down to the office these are the type of questions you are going to hear. Here we go. |
| Takase: どこから来ましたか？ |
| Peter: Where are you from? |
| Takase: 何を見ましたか？ |
| Peter: What did you see? |
| Takase: 今からどこへ行きますか？ |
| Peter: Where are you going after this? |
| Takase: いつまで日本にいますか？ |
| Peter: When are you here till? |
| Takase: 独身ですか？ |
| Peter: Are you single? And the final question. |
| Takase: 何か困ったことはありましたか？ |
| Peter: What gave you problems? Did you have trouble with something and one of the most popular and common answers is reading the pat at the train station. Now we are going to limit this conversation for now to the Tokyo subway system. Now if you have an English map of the Tokyo subway you may be ok, but still there are places in Tokyo where the map, right in front of the place you buy the tickets. Now you buy the tickets from automated machines and right above the machines there is a big map and many times it’s in all Japanese. So you are looking at the map and you are trying to figure out where to go but you can’t. You can compare it to the English map if you have one and try and figure out where you are but what we recommend is this next phrase and what you do is you go to the person who is working there and you ask them this following question and they will give you the price. The following conversation takes place at Tokyo station. A foreigner can’t read the map and it's going to ask the station worker a question relating to where he wants to go. So please listen, see if you can pick up this following conversation. Here we go. |
| Yoshi: すみません。秋葉原までいくらですか？ |
| Takase: 秋葉原までは130円でございます。 |
| Yoshi: もう一度、お願いします。 |
| Takase: 130円でございます。 |
| Yoshi: すみません。書いてください。 |
| Takase: はい、どうぞ。 |
| Peter: Alright we are going to go through the conversation one more time slowly. |
| Yoshi: もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| すみません。あきはばらまで、いくら、ですか？ |
| Takase: あきはばらまでは、130えんで、ございます。 |
| Peter: もういちど、おねがいします。 |
| Takase: 130えんで、ございます。 |
| Peter: すみません。かいて、ください。 |
| Takase: はい、どうぞ。 |
| Peter: Ok this time we are going to put the translation in. And we are going to break it down line by line. Here we go. |
| Yoshi: すみません。秋葉原までいくらですか |
| Peter: How much to Akihabara? Yoshi San, what's the name of the place in the sentence? |
| Yoshi: 秋葉原 |
| Peter: Well known for its electronic goods, also known as electric town. Now this comes in the front of the sentence. This is followed by? |
| Yoshi: まで |
| Peter: To. To Akihabara. |
| Peter: いくら、ですか？ |
| Peter: How much is it? Now we’ve had this expression, how much is it, before. One more time, Yoshi San? |
| Yoshi: いくらですか？ |
| Peter: Now in front of this we add to |
| Yoshi: あきはばら、まで、いくらですか？ |
| Peter: How much to Akihabara? If we wanted to change the location and ask the same question the only thing to change is the location. Everything else remains the same. Give us the part that stays the same Yoshi San. |
| Yoshi: まで、いくらですか？ |
| Peter: For example if I wanted to go to Shinjuku? |
| Yoshi: 新宿まで、いくらですか？ |
| Peter: Takase San example please, give us a few names of places that we would like to go? |
| Takase: 池袋 |
| Yoshi: 池袋まで、いくらですか？ |
| Peter: Ok. So now that you can say this, you have the tools to ask a person working at the station or maybe someone right next to you how much it is to the place you want to go. So if you can’t read the map all you have to do is ask someone next to you or the station master, a person working at the station, how much is it to go to the location and then you put the amount in the machine and you buy the ticket. When you are buying the tickets the amount of money you put in the machine allows you to buy a ticket up until that amount. For example if you put in 500 yen you can buy tickets up to 500 yen. So just put in money and pick out the ticket. Also many of the machines, especially in the big cities have an English explanation so you just need to know how much it is to get to where you are going. Ok. Then the answer to this was? |
| Takase: 秋葉原までは、130円でございます。 |
| Peter: To Akihabara it is 130 yen. Now in the question we had location plus 2 which was |
| Yoshi: まで |
| Peter: Now in the answer this is repeated and marked with the particle は |
| Takase: 秋葉原までは |
| Peter: Location plus |
| Takase: までは |
| Peter: So almost the same. Then this is followed by a number. In this sentence we had |
| Takase: 130 |
| Peter: Now the Japanese currency is yen, but in Japanese it is |
| Takase: 円 |
| Peter: Drop the Y. This is attached to the number. |
| Takase: 130円、でございます。 |
| Peter: Followed by. |
| Takase: でございます。 |
| Peter: The polite form of the copula. Now just think of this です it is. It is 130 yen. Give us the whole sentence one more time? |
| Takase: 秋葉原までは130円でございます。 |
| Peter: So in this sentence the two things that will change are the location and the amount. What stays the same Takase San and please insert inside the place that changes なになになに, something, something, something |
| Takase: なになにまでは、なになに円でございます。 |
| Peter: To exemplify this lets give a location and a price amount and see those two changes. Why don’t we go with Ikebukuro and 300 yen? |
| Takase: 池袋までは300円でございます。 |
| Peter: Location and the amount. How do we say 300 yen in Japanese? |
| Takase: 300円 |
| Peter: Now the amount and the answer is the tricky part. What we are going to do now is count an increment of a 100 all the way to a 1000 because some tickets do actually get there and actually, some tickets actually go over that, but the majority of the tickets would probably fall into that range. Ok? Takase San, Yoshi San お願いします。 |
| Yoshi: 100(ひゃく) |
| Takase: 200(にひゃく) |
| Peter: 300(さんびゃく) |
| Takase: 400(よんひゃく) |
| Peter: 500(ごひゃく) |
| Takase: 600(ろっぴゃく) |
| Peter: 700(ななひゃく) |
| Takase: 800(はっぴゃく) |
| Peter: 900(きゅうひゃく) |
| Takase: 1000(せん) |
| Peter: Now this is almost everything you need to buy the tickets, but the tickets actually come in increments of 10, so what we are going to do now is count 10 to 90 in increments of 10. お願いします。 |
| Peter: 10(じゅう) |
| Takase: 20(にじゅう) |
| Peter: 30(さんじゅう) |
| Takase: 40(よんじゅう) |
| Peter: 50(ごじゅう) |
| Takase: 60(ろくじゅう) |
| Peter: 70(ななじゅう) |
| Takase: 80(はちじゅう) |
| Peter: 90(きゅうじゅう) |
| Peter: Now 10 to 90, what we just gave you, you can combine any of those directly to the numbers we have for the hundreds. For example 550. Can we have first the number for 500 and then the number for 50? お願いします。 |
| Takase: 500(ごひゃく) |
| Peter: 50(ごじゅう) |
| Peter: Put them together, 550 is? |
| Takase: 550(ごひゃくごじゅう) |
| Peter: Just put them together. Now on our homepage what we are going to do is we are going to have inside the learning center, exclusively inside the learning center we are going to have Yoshi San and Takase San counting in increments of 100, from 100 to 900 and then in increments of 10 from 10 to 90. So if you want to play around you can get a bunch of combinations for any ticket. So as you are asking in Japanese the answer might come back in normal speed, regular speed Japanese, so it might be a bit quick for you, so the way we dealt with this was? Yoshi San? |
| Yoshi:もう一度お願いします。 |
| Peter: One more time please. |
| Takase: 秋葉原までは130円でございます。 |
| Peter: To Akihabara is 130 yen. Now if this is still too fast there are a bunch of options you can go with. The one we gave you in the dialog was |
| Yoshi: すみません。書いてください。 |
| Peter: Please write it, so that way you can get the amount and go over to the machine, put the money in and as we said, when you put the money in the machine, if you put in a 1000 yen you can buy any ticket up to a 1000 yen, so for 130 yen as long as you put in over 130 yen you can buy the ticket. Now one of the best things about the machines, some of them, now you have to confirm this with the bill amount. There is a slot to put in bills and they will have numbers and of course Japanese yen has 1000, 5000 and 10,000 yen bills so for a 130 yen ticket some machines will actually break that 10,000 yen bill. So it works out pretty good if you want to break your money and get a ticket at the same time. Now another way, a while back we covered the expression in English please and this was? |
| Yoshi: 英語でお願いします。 |
| Peter: In English please, so you can ask them to write it by saying |
| Takase: 書いてください。 |
| Peter: Or in English please? |
| Yoshi: 英語でお願いします。 |
| Peter: Or in this case if the person doesn’t speak English, there is no writing utensil, you can even say help please which is? |
| Takase: 助けてください。 |
| Peter: Please help me. And of course we had this in a previous lesson when you were calling for help, but here you are just asking for assistance and at this point you should receive the assistance you need. Now if you are really, really confused and you want to go with one of the more basic approaches we will do the same conversation, Tokyo station to Akihabara and we will give you a different way to ask. |
| Yoshi: すみません。日本語がちょっと分からないんですが、秋葉原まで行きたいんですが。 |
| Peter: One more time please. Slowly please. |
| Yoshi: タカセさん、もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| Takase: すみません。にほんごが、ちょっと、わからないんですが。あきはばらまで、いきたいんですが。 |
| Peter: And one more time with the translation. |
| Yoshi: すみません。 |
| Peter: Excuse me. |
| Yoshi: 日本語が、ちょっと分からないんですが。 |
| Peter: I don’t really understand Japanese. |
| Yoshi: 秋葉原まで行きたいんですが。 |
| Peter: I want to go to Akihabara. And again this is taken from a previous survival phrase. Yoshi San, if you go up to somebody working at the station and you said this to them, what kind of response could you expect? |
| Yoshi: I am sure they will be happy to help you in any way. |
| Peter: Yeah exactly. They can pretty much understand that you want to buy a ticket and maybe they will lead you over and help you buy the ticket or they will tell you how much you need. They will be of assistance. And that’s the main point I want to get across. |
| Yoshi: And even if they couldn’t really understand you, if they could pick the word, like the destination then I am sure they can help. |
| Peter: I think so too. I know from experience from when I first got here. Very helpful. Now you go to get your ticket. You have your ticket and now you are going to approach the entrance gate. Yoshi San? |
| Yoshi: はい。 |
| Peter: Takase San. We’ve had people come in to japanesepod101.com listeners who visited Japan and tell us that there was a problem they had. What happens when you put the ticket into the entrance gate? |
| Yoshi: It comes out at the other end. |
| Peter: Yes. So when you put in the ticket you keep walking and it will come out at the other end and you take it at the other end and it has a little hole punched in it. At first the ticket has no hole punched in it, but when it comes at the other end it’s got a hole punched in it. Now the thing is some people when they put it in they don’t move forward and if you don’t grab it within 5 seconds the machine will suck it back in so you want to get it before the ticket gets pulled back in. Now if you don’t put the ticket in there is no gate, there is nothing stopping you, so it looks like it’s clear walking through, but if you try to walk in without putting the ticket these two little doors come out, it’s kind of like ping pong. They stop you from going. You are kind of like the ping pong ball and it’s like ding, and some noises go off. So what you want to do is you want to put your ticket in, keep walking, don’t miss a stride and take it on the other end. Ok. Just as we said, we got you through the gate and now we are going to have to leave you there. And again for those of you who are not getting the next installment before your trip we apologize, but next week we will be back to get you through the rest of the station. And really important, what we are going to be covering next week is changing trains. In Japanese that is? |
| Yoshi: 乗り替え |
| Peter: And as Yoshi said he changes trains 3 times, so this is one of the most important things about riding the local trains in Japan. Alright. Takase, did you have fun today? |
| Takase: Yes. |
| Peter: And you are going to start coming back from now on? You are going to start working more than one day a week? |
| Takase: I think I did enough. |
| Peter: Enough for today, or the week or? |
| Takase: For the week. |
| Peter: Sorry madam. Apologies. How about Lieutenant Takase? I like that. |
| Yoshi: She likes it. |
| Peter: She likes it. And Yoshi San, did you have fun today? |
| Yoshi: Of course, as always. |
Outro |
| Peter: Alright. That’s going to do for today. We are back tomorrow and tomorrow is the first of a new miniseries and it’s going to cover the next 3 days and carry on. So we are looking forward to that. Alright. That’s going to do for today. |
| Yoshi: またね。 |
| Takase: またね。 |
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