Information in the Wild Week 8: Browsing a Gift Shop

[ThousandJP]

Week Eight!! If you don’t know what’s happening, main post here.
Links to the previous weeks can be found in the main post also.

• Tldr: Quick daily practice of using real Japanese to understand and acquire information. The focus being on understanding what is being conveyed sufficiently to interact with or respond to it.

This week we’re going to have a look around a gift shop. Most of the pictures will be small pieces of information. If you want to challenge yourself a bit, before reading it intensively give yourself a chance to skim or scan the information quickly as if it was in your native language and see what you understand from it.

Day 1:

What is the text in the red box telling us?

Day 2:

There seems to be a special deal going on. What is it?

Day 3:

You walk by a door that has this sign on it. What is it telling us and why?
(Could try reading this on two passes, the first just quickly scanning for its relevance to you and the second understanding the details if needed.)

Day 4:

You encounter another sign addressed to customers as you browse the store. What does this sign tell us?

Day 5:

Looks to be a product description sign, does it convince you to get one?
(May be challenging for unexpected reasons)

Day 6:

Looking to pay for your kawaii train towels, you see this sign. You can probably guess what it’s saying but let’s be sure.

Day 7:

Something you spot on your way to the next open register. Would you grab it as a last minute souvenir?

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[ThousandJP]

Sample Answers (Updated the following day)

Day 1

• If you want to buy one please let one of the staff know

Day 2

• You can buy Two 540 yen (tax in) items that are marked with this special mark for 1000 yen. You can mix and match any items that fit that description freely
• Originally you needed a coupon, but right now even if you don’t have one you can take advantage of this deal

Day 3

• It is telling us not to lean anything against the door can open suddenly when employees need to go in and out.

Day 4

• You can pay for all items at any checkout counter

Day 5

• Imabari Towels with a cute embroidery of a Tozan Train/Cable Car (A funicular)
• Recommended as a souvenir or present

Day 6

• This register is currently closed, please use a different register.

Day 7

• Hakone Rusk Mix (Plain and Caramel Almond)
• A special product that you can only buy here at the Hakone gift shop!!
• Recommended by Manager/Staff

Looks like something that would work well as a souvenir, seeing that this is the only place where you can get it

Suggested format for posting your answers
Will make it easier to distinguish from questions and discussions

[Marcus]

Week eight! Nice one! Thank you everyone!

Day one

What is the text in the red box telling us?

In my first look at it, I can see ‘buy’ and ‘near’ and ‘staff’ and ‘please’. So my guess is: “if you want to buy this, please ask the nearest member of staff”. But now to run it through my cheat machine:

お買い求めの方は, お近くのスタッフにお申し付けください

お - politeness marker
買い求め - to buy
の方 - way to
は - topic marker
お近くのスタッフに - to nearby staff
お - politeness
申し付けください - please ask

Nice one!

Day two

Today’s just doesn’t seem to make any sense at all!

The sign on the top left says:
クーポン無しでも ご購入できます!!
2個 1,000円
You can buy without a coupon, 2 for 1000円

The next sign says:
クーポン利用におすすめ!
まとめ買いがお得! 2個購入で
1,000円 通常価格 税込1,080円
We recommend using a coupon, bulk buying deals, buy 2 for 1,000円, regular price 1,080円

So the deal (though not much of a bargain at all if you ask me) is 80円 off if you buy two.
They recommend using a coupon in order to do this, but you don’t actually need to.

Day three

Could try reading this on two passes, the first just quickly scanning for its relevance to you and the second understanding the details if needed

Another busy day today, with very little time, so again I’m going for just the first quick scan…

… and get very little! I can see from the first line that this is a notice for customers, from the second I can see it is talking about this door and possibly people entering this door.

The third sentence is tough, something about goods, people entering, something (the door) being open? The forth line looks like something being carried?

The final line is a warning!

So I’m guessing that customers can’t carry good through this door? But I don’t see much language for prohibition. So perhaps customers can carry good through this door? Nope, I’m going to have go through Google Translate for this one…

… nope, I was miles off!

Here’s the key, the bit I didn’t know and sadly skipped over… 寄りかかる

Day four

お客様へ
To our customers

どこのレジでも全ての商品のお会計できます
where, till, all, goods, bill, can = you can pay for your goods at all tills

空いているレジをご利用ください
please use any empty (free) till

Day five

Tired today. I’ve not had much free time the past few days, my Japanese study has gone out the window, and my reviews are piling up something rotten. So one look at today’s and I just don’t feel like I have the energy to be honest.

But I can see it’s advertising an オリジナルのハンドタオル, which they describe as かわいい, and they recommend we buy it, いかがですか. But no thanks, not today.

[severian]

Day 1

If you’re wanting to buy this item, please ask a nearby member of staff.

Personally, if I see a notice like this, I tend to shy away and hope I can get something similar elsewhere. Little anxiety things like not being able to すみませぇん！ with the best of 'em. Reminds me of when I was shopping for earbuds in Yodobashi and specifically picked ones that weren’t in a little cabinet…

Day 2

If you have an “Iza, Kanagawa!” coupon, you can get the very special and prestigious offer of 80円 off when you buy two. Any item with the logo on, and priced at 540円 each, can be freely mixed-and-matched. But then, apparently, you can buy 1000円 for two anyway regardless of whether you have the coupon or not, so all seems a bit moot.

Wow! Gee whiz! What a fantastic offer! Maybe there’s something I’m missing here, or maybe they simply typoed the No-Coupon-OK sign’s price, but it’s not really selling it to me. Not that I can buy into the Iza, Kanagawa! campaign when I’m living in the prefecture, but y’know.

[eclipse77x]

Wow, we’ve been at this for 8 weeks already? Crazy. I think we should do some introductions and get to know each other a little better. I’ll start. And I’ll do it in Japanese so we can have more practice!

デーヴィッドと申します。私は四十一歳で、ニューヨークに住んでいます。職業はウェブとグラッフィックデザイナーです。アニメやテレビゲームなどが好きで、料理と撮影も好きです。僕の写真を見たいと僕に聞いていい！それになんでも聞いていい！よろしくお願いします！

Day 1

お買い求めの方は、お近くのスタッフにお申し付けください。

If you’d like to buy this, please ask the staff nearby.

*Yay, I didn’t need help for this one at all!

Day 2

Sticker with blue lettering:
クーポン無しでもご購入できます！！２個 １,０００円
You can purchase even without a coupon! 2 for ¥1,000.

Sign:
クーポン利用におすすめ！
Coupon offer!

まとめ買いがお得！２個購入で
Bargain for buying in bulk! Purchase 2:

通常価格
Regular Price
税込１,０８０円ー＞１,０００円
Tax included ¥1,080 → ¥1,000

対象商品：値札に「。。。」マークがある
税込５４０円の商品
組み合わせ自由

Target Products: Products that have a […] mark on the price tag
Products that are ¥540 with tax included
Feel free to combine (products)!

*Today we looked up まとめ買い.

Day 3

I think I understood everything on the first pass: It’s a door that leads to the sales counter. It can open suddenly so don’t put anything in front of it.

And now, we translate:
お客様へお願いします
Notice to Customers

こちらのドアは販売台への出入り口になっております。
This door is the exit/entrance to the sales counter.

生業員の出入りの際、急に開くことがありますので、手荷物、ドアに寄りかからぬように御注意をお願いします。
The door can open suddenly when a salesperson enters or exits, so please (be careful) do not put any luggage/packages near it.

市箱根の市
City: City of Hakone (might be something else, not sure if the 根 kanji is correct)

Day 4

お客様へ
To Customers

どこのレジでも全ての商品のお会計できます。
You can pay for all (any) product at any register.

空いているレジをこ利用ください。
Please use (all) open registers.

市箱根の市
City: City of Hakone (might be something else, not sure if the 根 kanji is correct)

*Wasn’t sure about 会計.

Day 5

This one looks like it’s going to be tough to read. Here we go! Actually not that bad once I started reading, your brain kind of starts to fill in the familiar words.

The sign is talking about how the hand towels have a cute train on them and suggests buying them as a souvenir or present.

And translation:
今治タオルのオリジナルのハンドタオルです。かわいい登山電車の刺繍が入っています。お土産やプレゼントにいかがですか？
This is an Imabari original hand towel. A a cute mountain railway train is embroidered on it. How about (buying it as) a souvenir or present?

*Had to decipher the second kanji in the first line (治) and the second kanji in the fourth line (繍) and check the meanings of 今治 (I think it is a company/brand name) and 刺繍 (embroidery), and make sure 登山 meant what I thought it did. (Nobody should feel bad about having trouble with proper nouns/places, it can be difficult to guess at the reading if you haven’t encountered them before.)

Also, it felt REALLY good to have done well with this one after initially being intimidated by the font.

Day 6

お客様へ
To Customers

このレジは休止中です。お手数おかけ致しますが、他のレジをご利用ください。
This register is closed (suspended/pause/rest/stoppage). We apologize for the inconvenience, (but) please use another register.

箱根の市
City of Hakone

And the little sign at the bottom:
一枚5円（税込)
¥5 each (counter for flat items) (tax included)

*Got the meaning right away but felt like had to double check 休止.

Day 7

First glance tells me it’s some kind of product/souvenir from Hakone. I don’t know what “RASUKU” is so I’m thinking we will be looking at least a few things up today.

Callout:
箱根登山名産店でしか買えない！！
Must buy Hakone Tozan* famous product!!
(登山 means mountain climbing, but I guess here it’s a proper noun)

Red Circle:
担当者おすすめ商品
Person in Charge recommended product (Naturalized would probably be something like Staff-recommended.)

Blue Parts of the Packaging:
Caramel Almond スキャラメルアマンド
特級杏仁
Special Apricot Seed
アーモンドを散りばめた上品な甘さのリッチなラスク。
Rich biscuit with elegant sweetness topped with almond.

Plain プーレイン
原味
Original Flavor

サクサクとしたラスクの定番。シンプルなので素材のおいしさが楽しめます。
Basic Crunchy Biscuit. Enjoy the taste of the simple ingredients.
*サクサク is a “crunchy” sound effect/onomatopoeia

White part of the packaging:
箱根ラスクMIX
Hakone Rusk* MIX
*Rusk is a biscuit or cookie

• 箱根ラスクプレーイン（7枚）
• 箱根ラクスキャラメル • アマンド（7枚）
Hakone Rusk Plain (7 pieces)
Hakone Rusk Caramel Almond* (7 pieces)

14枚入 ￥１,０８０ （税込）
14 pieces ¥1,080 (tax included)

アレルギー：乳 • 小麦 • アーモンド • 大豆 本体価値：¥１,０００
Allergy (information): Milk • Flour • Almond* • Soybean
Actual value: ￥1,000 (I think this means that the tax is ¥80)
*Almond is being spelled two different ways here: アマンド comes from the french “amande” and アーモンド from the English (In Japan sometimes products use French words to make them more elegant and desirable.)

*I had to look up ラスク, 特級杏仁, 担当者 (to double check), 散りばめる, 定番, and 本体 (to double check).

Thank you @ThousandJP for another excellent week! See everyone next week!

[Marcus]

@eclipse77x

I think we should do some introductions and get to know each other a little better. I’ll start.

Thanks for starting! And in Japanese too! I got about 80% of it, which I was well happy with! Oh, and nice to meet you!

This is me, right: here.

[eclipse77x]

@Marcus

I got about 80% of it, which I was well happy with!

Let’s work on the other 20% together!

[SteveB]

Day 1

Un-assisted sparse was something like: The thing you have chosen to buy, please ask the nearest staff.
Pretty good on closer inspection

Day 2

Sticking with just an un-assisted peruse for the day:
smaller sign on top: Without a coupon you can get 2 books for 1000円
Larger sign: Coupon use recommendation, when buying more you get the special price of 2 for 1000円, normally 1080円.
(couldn’t read the rest properly or bother translating, as I’m hoping my casual walk past and read the sign got the gist anyway)

Closer inspection:
まとめ買い - buying in bulk (looks like everyone had to look this up)
お得 - good value (not quite the ‘special’ I thought)
通常価格 - normal price (I just assumed that’s what it was!)

Thanks Eclipse for writing out the kanji at the bottom of the sign, I couldn’t recognise it, much less understand what it said.

Day 4

Customers, you can pay for all your items at any register. Please go to an empty register.

Pretty happy with another quick translate off the top of my head. This last few days has been a nice confidence boost haha.
(though i missed day 3, i will go back for a look)

[eclipse77x]

@SteveB

Thanks Eclipse for writing out the kanji at the bottom of the sign, I couldn’t recognise it, much less understand what it said.

You’re welcome! I recognized most of it from last week’s Starbucks signs. (The ones where you buy 1 get 1.) Also just realized I didn’t write out the いざ、神宗川！ in the brown text at the top. I think 神宗川 is a proper noun.

[ThousandJP]

@Marcus

But I can see it’s advertising an オリジナルのハンドタオル, which they describe as かわいい, and they recommend we buy it, いかがですか. But no thanks, not today.

In all honesty, this was probably all you needed to read to decide if you did encounter this sign in the wild

@SteveB

last few days has been a nice confidence boost

Nice!

As an aside, just wanted to highlight that while the signs this week have been quite simple, they haven’t been chosen to be easy lay ups nor do I believe that there is native material that can be considered “too easy”. These signs aren’t graded material, they are the real deal you may encounter in a shop even if you are just visiting as a tourist. Any improvement you make in terms of speed of understanding with or without tools will translate into the real world. The difference in terms of fluency between needing 1 second, 10 seconds and 30 seconds or between 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes to read something is significant.

I’m probably bias but I think this kind of progress is very important.

[SteveB]

@ThousandJP

These signs aren’t graded material, they are the real deal you may encounter in a shop even if you are just visiting as a tourist.

And its a great feeling to be able to read them straight up without help, shockingly I’m actually learning something!
Of course, any progress is good progress, I just need to stop bouncing between “yes, I’m very slowly getting better”, and “why have I just wasted 2-3 years of my life”

[eclipse77x]

@SteveB

Of course, any progress is good progress, I just need to stop bouncing between “yes, I’m very slowly getting better”, and “why have I just wasted 2-3 years of my life”

Oh my god, so much this. Except in my case it’s a lot more than 2-3. I’ve been doing this in one form or another since I was 17. (In 1998.)