Learn about buying a bus ticket
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| Buses are pretty useful for getting around in Japan if you have a detailed map of the bus routes. In today’s lesson, we will go over how to pay for the bus fares. Now for long distance routes like buses to the airport or intercity buses, you will have to pay for the tickets beforehand. Today we will practice getting a bus ticket to Narita airport. |
| First of all, in Japanese, Narita airport is Narita kūkō, Narita kūkō. Let’s break that down by syllable. Na-ri-ta-ku-u-ko-u. Narita is the name of the airport and kūkō means airport. So our location is Narita kūkō. In Japanese, one ticket to Narita airport please would be Narita kūkō made no kippu o ichi-mai kudasai. Yeah that was a really long one. Let’s take it slowly. Na-ri-ta ku-u-ko-u-ma-de-no-ki-ppu-o-i-chi-ma-i-ku-da-sa-i. Narita kūkō made no kippu o ichi-mai kudasai. Yeah let’s break this down because it’s a really long sentence. The first word we just covered it means Narita airport. The following word made means to a destination made, made. This is followed by no which in Japanese is the rough equivalent of of and this is followed by kippu which in Japanese ticket. |
| Now Japanese nouns don’t have a distinction between singular and plural. So the word itself kippu remains the same no matter how many tickets you are getting and this followed by O the object marking particle. ichi means one and mai is a counter for paper, tickets and other things. Together ichi-mai means one ticket and the last part kudasai means please give me. kudasai. ku-da-sa-i. kudasai. So altogether we have Narita kūkō made no kippu o ichi-mai kudasai. literally this means Narita airport to one ticket please give me Narita kūkō made no kippu o ichi-mai kudasai. |
| Now if you want to buy more than one ticket, for example, you want to buy two, you can accomplish this by saying ni-mai instead of ichi-mai. Ni means two and mai is the counter for paper objects. So in the sentence, here we go. Narita kūkō made no kippu o ni-mai kudasai. we simply substitute ichi-mai with ni-mai. Now you might also need to ask how much is it to your desired destination. For this, we will use the same destination as above. In Japanese, how much is it to Narita airport becomes Narita kūkō made wa ikura desu ka? Narita kūkō made wa ikura desu ka? Now let’s break it down by syllable. Na-ri-ta-ku-u-ko-u-ma-de-wa i-ku-ra-de-su-ka? Altogether it’s Narita kūkō made wa ikura desu ka? The first half of the sentence is the same as before. Narita kūkō made means to Narita airport. Wa is a topic marking particle. ikura desu ka means how much is it. So literally this means Narita airport two tickets, how much to mean how much is it to Narita airport. |
| Now it’s time for a Sachiko secret. If you are going to ride the local buses, that circle around a small neighborhood, you won’t need to buy tickets beforehand. Usually a local bus ride is one set price regardless of where you get off. Fares are usually about $2 or so for a one way ride and the way you get it is very simple. When boarding a bus, you simply pay the fare into a machine right next to the driver. It’s all right now to have exact change but if you do need change, tell the driver first. He will point to a different machine you will have to put the fare into to get change, complicated yes. |
| Once you are on the bus, don’t forget to press a button around the seats when you’ve neared your destination. If there is no one standing by the bus stop and none of the passengers ring the bell before that stop, the bus might not stop. You don’t want to be left behind when you are trying to stick to your itinerary. Okay so to close our today’s lesson, let’s practice what you’ve just learned. I will give you the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud in Japanese, you got that. |
| I will give you a few seconds before I give you the answer. So good luck Ganbatte kudasai. One ticket to Narita airport please Narita kūkō made no kippu o ichi-mai kudasai. Na-ri-ta ku-u-ko-u-ma-de-no-ki-ppu-o-i-chi-ma-i-ku-da-sa-i. Narita kūkō made no kippu o ichi-mai kudasai. Two tickets to Narita airport please Narita kūkō made no kippu o ni-mai kudasai. Narita kūkō made no kippu o ni-mai kudasai. And lastly, how much is it to Narita airport? Narita kūkō made wa ikura desu ka? Na-ri-ta-ku-u-ko-u-ma-de-wa i-ku-ra-de-su-ka? All right, that’s going to do it for today. See you later which in Japanese is Matane. |
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