Learn about confirming your destination
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| Today’s lesson is riding on the train part 3. So after you buy your train ticket and you get to your platform, there is still something you should do. Always, always, always check to see if you are on the right train. I cannot stress this enough that’s because local trains and express trains make different stops. So even if you are on the right platform heading in the right direction, the next train that pulls in may not be the one you need to take and in some complicated situations, some train lines split at a certain stop. So you end up going to a completely different direction. That’s happened to me so many times and I cannot stress how important it is to check your destination. |
| You can basically ask anybody who is standing on the platform but the person who would know best is anybody who is working for the train company and you can tell who that person is by looking at their uniforms. So we will try asking will this train go to blah, blah, blah. In Japanese, station is eki, eki. So Tokyo station would be Tōkyō eki. Now to ask, will this train go to Tokyo station in Japanese, it would be Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? Now this sentence alone just says, will it to go Tokyo station. So point to the train and ask Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? Tōkyō eki like we’ve covered in previous lessons means Tokyo station. made means to. Iki masu ka means will it go. Iki masu ka, I-ki-ma-su-ka. Iki masu ka which means will it go. The ka turns the sentence into an interrogative. So altogether we have Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? |
| Literally this means Tokyo station to will it go or will it go to Tokyo station. Iki masu ka. I-ki-ma-su-ka. Iki masu ka which means will it go. Now on to Sachiko Secret. You know that Japan is a country that really emphasizes harmony and getting along and everything and I don’t need to sound preachy but yes there are a lot of rules we need to follow on the trains. First of all, there is no cell phone usage allowed. You know, you still see somebody answering the cell phone really quickly and quietly and whispering into the phone. That might be acceptable. You know, you are expecting a call from the office. It’s really urgent and you just want to pick up the phone and say, hey, I am on the train, I will call you back. I think that’s acceptable but picking up the phone and talking really loudly as if it was your living room, No. That would be frowned upon actually. |
| So you want to avoid that. Also each train car has what we call a silver seat. Silver meaning the greying society. It’s a group of seats usually a comp of four seats that’s reserved for the elderly, the physically challenged and pregnant ladies. It’s okay to sit there if there aren’t anybody in need of those seats but if you are sitting in these silver seats, they are called courtesy seats in English, you may want to give up your seat when an elderly or a pregnant woman or a physically challenged person walks into the train and another thing, trains can get really, really crowded during rush hours and you don’t want your shoulder bag or your back pack taking up space. |
| So what people recommend is that you take off your bags and put it on the overhead racks. Every single train line has a nice little rack above the seats. That’s what it’s there for and you should definitely take advantage of that. It’s just easier for you physically and it takes up less space. There is nothing more annoying than people clogging up space with their luggage. Okay so to close our today’s lesson, let’s practice what you have 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. |
| Will this go to Tokyo station? Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? Tō-kyō-e-ki-ma-de-i-ki-ma-su-ka? Tōkyō eki made iki masu ka? And don’t forget to point at the train that you are talking about. All right. That’s going to do it for today. See you later which in Japanese is Matane. |
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