Trip to Japan in a month

Japanese
#1

Hey there

I’m going to Japan in a month and was wondering whether anyone has any tips on what I should shift my study focus to in preparation.

Obviously I’m not going to make any amazing improvements in a month, I’m not asking for tricks here, more like a “oh, this might come in really handy if you do it”.

For example I was thinking of shifting my focus to speaking a bit more but I don’t really know how to do that without spending lots of money on iTalki lessons.

I assume there’s also specific vocabulary/phrases/kanji/maybe even grammar that makes less sense to train when you’re just generally learning but makes a lot of sense for a tourist. I’d be happy to hear any advice on that!

(For reference, my listening comprehension is good enough that I almost always understand Natives as long as they speak clearly and maybe adjust words if I haven’t understood them so this probably isn’t the area I need to put any focus on)

I have a bit of extra time on my hands this months so I would love to use that effectively. Thanks in advance!

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#2

It depends a bit on what you’ll be doing but I assume you are going to want to eat, so vocab/kanji you’ll see on menus falls nicely into the category you describe. Knowing the kanji names of the places you’ll be visiting can also be helpful, but those generally have rōmaji.

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#3

From my experience, just jump in blindly and figure it out as you go. I used to be a careful planner of planning, then I realized that most planning is just useless productivity grinding that got me nowhere.

Instead, try thinking about the types of donuts they sell at Mister Donut. Maybe join a side in the classic きのこの山 versus たけのこの里 candy war. You’ll remember way more from trying to order the wrong donut than from a dozen mock conversations.

Let the ideas flow and have a damn good experience in Japan when you arrive.

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#4

So happy for you that you are going to Japan! Somewhere you could start with is learning how to order food and common phrases. I recommend あけね的日本語教室 to get a general feel. Words like お会計 (bill), 持ち帰り (to-go), 店内 (inside the store), 別々 (separate), and 袋 (bag) come to mind as being pretty commonplace.