Learn about getting on and off a bus
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yoshi, Chigusa: おはよう、東京。 |
| Yoshi:ヨシです。 |
| Chigusa:チグサです。 |
| Peter: Peter here, survival phrases #31. Alright Yoshi San who is joining us in the studio today? |
| Yoshi:Chigusa San. |
| Chigusa: Yeah, yeah. |
| Peter: Yeah, yeah, Chigusa San. It is great to have you here for survival phrases. It’s been a while since you’ve been here on of these, right? |
| Chigusa: Right. It’s really good to be here again. |
| Peter: Alright. Yes. Because Chigusa is here we are going to have a great episode. Chigusa San, what will we be talking about today? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chigusa: Today we are going to talk about buses. |
| Peter: That’s right. Yes. We spent so much time talking about trains, trains, trains, trains that we needed a bit of change because the bus is pretty important especially if you are going to be traveling around Tokyo and you don’t have the JR pass. Plus people living in Japan can really take advantage of this and for those of you living in Japan sometimes riding the bus can be a bit problematic the first time. Now there are a couple of things we want to get right off the bat. First, why don’t we find the bus stop? So Yoshi San can you give us the word for bus stop |
| Yoshi: Ok. Its バス停。 |
| Peter: Break it down |
| Yoshi:ば・す・て・い。バス停。 |
| Peter: Alright. Up to now we have given you so many different ways to ask where is (something). Now this is where it all comes into play. Now we are going to use some of those structures we’ve already worked on to ask where is the bus stop. Chigusa San, if you’re walking down the street and you want to find a bus stop, what would you say to somebody? |
| Chigusa:バス停はどこですか？ |
| Peter: Perfect. Yoshi San please ask Chigusa San one more time slowly please. |
| Yoshi:もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Chigusa:ばすていは、どこですか？ |
| Peter:Where is the bus stop? And of course this structure, where is (something, something). We’ve introduced this over and over. What stays constant? Yoshi San お願いします。 |
| Yoshi:は、どこですか？ |
| Peter: And here we are just inserting. |
| Chigusa:バス停。 |
| Peter: And that’s all there is to it. Now again there is going to be directions involved but we went over directions for the most part. So you should be able to get the directions you need to get to the bus stop. If not you can always try what we’ve given you. |
| Yoshi:英語で、お願いします。 |
| Peter: In English please. Now get to the bus stop. If you are in the middle of nowhere there may just be one bus stop, but if you are in major station Yoshi San how many bus stops are there going to be? |
| Yoshi: 5000. A lot. |
| Peter: You are being a little conservative there right? |
| Yoshi: Yeah. There are a lot. |
| Peter: A lot. They are just lined up everywhere. So which bus is going where? In a previous episode we gave you a way to ask if a bus is going to a certain destination. Chigusa San can you give us that phrase? |
| Chigusa:Something, 行きですか？ |
| Peter: Just like in the train series when you are asking if this train is heading somewhere, location plus |
| Chigusa:行きですか？ |
| Peter: For example if we wanted to know if this train was going to Shinjuku we asked |
| Chigusa:新宿行きですか？ |
| Peter: Or we also asked |
| Chigusa:新宿に、行きますか？ |
| Peter: So there are these two ways to ask for the train. Now Yoshi San can we use these for the buses? |
| Yoshi: Of course you can. |
| Peter: There it is. The same structures can be applied to asking about where a bus is headed. Yoshi San, if we wanted to ask if a bus was headed to Shinjuku, what could we say? |
| Yoshi:このバスは、新宿へ、行きますか？ |
| Peter: Is this bus headed for Shinjuku? Or |
| Yoshi:このバスは、新宿に、行きますか？ |
| Peter: Again, same structure we had when talking about the trains. Even the この is in there. One more time, Yoshi San. |
| Yoshi:このバスは、新宿へ、行きますか？ |
| Peter: Ok. This bus. How about the train? |
| Yoshi:この電車は、新宿に、行きますか？ |
| Peter: Same thing. The only thing that changes is the word for bus and train. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: That’s it. So listening to the series on the train gives you the tools to ask not only for the train but also the bus. So we are pretty confident you can get to the bus stop, find out which bus you need. Now some tips on riding the bus. Chigusa San do you have any tips when getting on the bus? There are few things done differently then where I come from, so do you have any tips for us? |
| Chigusa: First of all some buses have entrances at the back and others have entrances at the front. |
| Peter: Yes. Now, a good key here is to look at the first person lining up. |
| Chigusa: Yes. |
| Peter: Because you are maybe waiting in the wrong place. Now when you say back entrance it’s kind of located in the middle of the bus right? |
| Chigusa: Right. |
| Peter: In most cases |
| Chigusa: Yeah. |
| Peter: Alright. Now when you get on the bus, do you pay right away? |
| Chigusa: In some buses, yes, and in others, you take a ticket. |
| Peter: Alright. And what does that ticket do? |
| Yoshi: When you get off you use the ticket to see how much the fair is. |
| Peter: Yes. There are two kinds of systems. A flat rate and one that changes according to distance traveled. Now most of the flat rates are located where Chigusa San? |
| Chigusa: Inside the city. |
| Peter: Yeah. If it’s going to be a flat rate it will be inside the city and when you ride these buses you put the amount in as soon as you get on the bus. Now if you don’t have the exact change it’s not a problem in Japan. When you get on the bus in the front they have a machine that not only dispenses change, not only breaks bills and coins but also that’s where you pay too. So it’s all in one machine. Now for example, say the fare, the flat rate is 200 yen and I only have a 500 yen coin, the big 500 yen coin and I don’t have two 100 yen coins. Chigusa San what can I do? |
| Chigusa: There is no problem because it breaks the money for you. |
| Peter: So what do we do? We take the 500 yen coin and where we put it? |
| Chigusa: In the machine. |
| Peter: Ok. But sometimes there is a bit of confusion because on the top of the machine there is this big open area with a bit of a conveyer built and then there is a little slot where you put the coin in. Now it sounds a bit confusing as to which one to put the money in. How could I ask the bus driver which one do I put this in? |
| Chigusa:どっちですか？ |
| Peter: That’s it. Yoshi San, please ask Chigusa San to say it one more time. |
| Yoshi:もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Chigusa:どっちですか？ |
| Peter: Which one? And the bus driver will know what you are talking about, because one dispenses change and one takes the money, so if you put your 500 yen coin inside the top one it’s just going to go and go and go. So you want to get the change first and then put the money in the top. |
| Yoshi: Right. But in some cases you can just put the money in and it deducts it and gives you the change. |
| Peter: That’s nice. Now imagine inside the city you find these types of buses but you should always ask, just you know by the amount of change that comes out. It also takes bills too. The bills won’t be a problem. There will be a little slot for bills you can put in there and get change, but it may come down to it, you want to ask the bus driver どっちですか？ and he will point to the one you need to put it in to get the change to pay. Now Yoshi San, how about if I wanted to pay for my friend? |
| Yoshi: You can just tell the driver 2人分、お願いします。 |
| Peter:Chigusa San, can we ask Yoshi San to say that one more time slowly please? |
| Chigusa:もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Yoshi:ふたりぶん、おねがいします。 |
| Peter: And break down the first part. |
| Yoshi:ふ・た・り・ぶ・ん。 |
| Peter: Now this will come in handy if you can speak a bit of Japanese and you have a couple of people behind you, let's say you are with your family and you want to pay for everybody at once, instead of paying individually. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: So you can say to the driver. So we have the word for 2 people, now how about 3 people, 4 people? |
| Yoshi:3人分 |
| Peter: The amount for 3 people. |
| Yoshi:4人分 |
| Peter: The amount for 4 people. So you can kind of adjust accordingly. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: Alright. So this is one of the major things to getting by the flat rate buses. Now onto the tricky one. Now the tricky one is, Chigusa San? |
| Chigusa: The tickets. |
| Peter: Alright. Can you explain a bit more about this? What exactly happens? The door opens, we get on the bus and? |
| Chigusa: On the right side there is a machine that dispenses the tickets. |
| Peter: Now when we say ticket what does it look like? |
| Chigusa: The ticket itself is a little piece of paper. |
| Peter: Yeah, white, like 84 paper cut up into long rectangular squares with a little number and what color on it? |
| Chigusa: Usually red or pink or blue. |
| Peter: And so when we say ticket, you know, don’t expect this hard ticket. It’s kind of like when you go to the bakery in the US or if you go to the bank and you pull a number, it has that feel to it but not that much writing, just a white piece of paper with the little number on it. Now you get that ticket and if you don’t get the ticket you may hear over the loudspeaker. |
| Yoshi:お客さん、乗車券を取ってください。 |
| Peter: One more time slowly please. |
| Yoshi:おきゃくさん、じょうしゃけんを、とってください。 |
| Peter: Ok, let's just break this down. What’s the first word we have in there Chigusa San? |
| Chigusa:お客さん。 |
| Yoshi: And this is? |
| Chigusa: Customer. |
| Yoshi: Second word. |
| Yoshi:じょうしゃけん。 |
| Yoshi: And this is? |
| Yoshi: The ticket. |
| Yoshi: Yeah, ticket to ride. Alright. Next we have? |
| Chigusa:取ってください。 |
| Peter: Please take. And inside we also have the marking particle |
| Yoshi:を |
| Peter: Customer, please take a ticket. So just reminding you because you are going to need that ticket when you pay. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: So if you get on the bus and you go to grab a seat and you hear |
| Yoshi:お客さん、乗車券を取ってください。 |
| Peter: You know that you forgot to take your ticket. So just go back, grab a ticket. Now this ticket will correspond to the number on the big board. I feel we went over this once but we didn’t go over it in detail. So when you go to get off the bus you look at your number and then you find the amount under it and then you take that amount out, you put it in the top of the machine to pay, then you get off the bus. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: Now you can get change in the same way. You put the money in the machine and it comes out, the change comes out and you take it accordingly and you put in. Now there is one point we want to make and that’s outside Tokyo you might find that the machine only gives change for coins. So Chigusa San, say I don’t have the coins that I need. I only have bills. How do I get the change? How do I get these coins I need to pay? |
| Chigusa: You can ask the bus driver. |
| Peter: Alright. What do I say? |
| Chigusa:両替、お願いします。 |
| Peter: Change please. And he will know what you are talking about, if you show him the bills. You got to take out the bills and show him because if not it may look a little strange. So just take out the money, walk up to him and もう一度お願いします。 |
| Chigusa:両替、お願いします。 |
| Peter: And Yoshi San slowly please. |
| Yoshi:両替、お願いします。 |
| Yoshi: Now can you break this down? |
| Yoshi:りょうがえ、おねがいします。両替、お願いします。 |
| Peter: And there it is. So one last thing really important that we forgot to put in there. How do you get off the bus? |
| Yoshi: In Japan you just have to jump off the windows. |
| Peter: It’s a good thing they have big windows, right Yoshi San? |
| Yoshi: Yes |
| Peter:Chigusa little law and order please. |
| Chigusa: You press the button. |
| Peter: Yeah. Now how do you know when to press the button? And you will see there are all these buttons to the right. The top part is red and the lower part is white. And you just push that, it gives off a buzzing sound and it lets the driver know you want to get off. Now how do you know when to get off? |
| Yoshi: The bus driver usually announces where the next stop is. |
| Peter: Yes. So Yoshi San, what if I can’t pick up what he says? |
| Yoshi: That’s what I sometimes do too but when you get on to the bus, like if I am not sure where I am going or if I can’t get off at the right spot, I go talk to the driver first and ask him is this bus going to the place I want to go and make sure he knows where I want to get off. Then usually the bus driver is kind enough to tell you if, you know, even if I didn’t push the button, then he says like お客さん, like Mr. Customer I think this is your stop. So |
| Peter: Great advice. Also can we ask someone next to us? |
| Yoshi: Of course. |
| Peter: So what did he just say? How do we ask somebody that? Remember we had this in the train series too. We just have to change one part so please listen. Here we go. |
| Chigusa:次のバス停はどこですか？ |
| Yoshi:もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Chigusa:つぎの、ばすていは、どこですか？ |
| Peter: What is the next bus stop? This is the same, except for one word as what we covered in the train series. |
| Yoshi:次の駅はどこですか？ |
| Peter: Again here we are just changing one word. Alright so today we covered the basics. Next week is our two part series on buses. We are going a little crazy with these series but hopefully when you are here in Japan all these stuff will just come together. Next week what we are going to do is we are going to have a dialog. We are going to go through a whole dialog of finding your bus stop, getting on the right bus, getting off where you want to go. Plus we are going to talk a bit about highway buses. Now these are buses, also night buses, these are buses that give you options traveling around Japan. Some buses actually leave at night and get to the destination, get to where you want to go in the morning so these are another great travel option. |
| Yoshi: That’s what I used to do on Greyhound. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Yoshi: Yeah. |
| Peter: But come one Yoshi, Japanese buses are a bit different then Greyhound. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: These buses are really, like, kind of like luxury buses. |
| Yoshi: It’s more comfortable. |
Outro |
| Peter: Definitely. But, alright, we will be back with that and that’s going to for today. |
| Yoshi:またね！ |
| Chigusa:またね！ |
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