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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! When you visit Japan, you’ll most certainly do a whole lot of sightseeing. It will be great fun, but there are a few things you need to know first. For example, you’ll need to know basic words for “sightseeing” and “tour bus.” You might not even think about it, but it’s important that you can say, “I’d like to go sightseeing.” And, knowing times will keep you from missing your tour.

This beginner Japanese lesson is packed with everything you need for enjoyable and educational sightseeing in Japan. Discover how the Japanese kankō is used to form words from “sightseer” to “tourist” to “tour bus.” As a bonus, you’ll find charts that provide a helpful review of Japanese times: a.m., p.m., hours and minutes. This real-world Japanese lesson contains plenty of example sentences and review information to make your sightseeing in Japan a breeze!

learn Japanese, taking a tour to Kamakura, Japan



This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 4 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

24 Responses to “Beginner Lesson S4 #26 - The Right Way to Sightsee in Japan”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Hi Mina-san! Have you ever been a part of a sightseeing tour in Japan? Or, have you encountered Japanese tourists in a sightseeing group? Would you like to try a sightseeing tour in Japan? Please leave us a comment.

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masa says:

I am going to Japan next year and will be going as a part of a tour. I CAN’T wait! I’m so excited. I can’t wait to sightsee, to buy lots & try speaking Japanese :D I hope to see all the beautiful places there are in Japan.

:) :nihon:

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gilin says:

i never been to japan but i really want to go there. but my mother said that it is hard to go there because she said that japan is strict(???).. hahah is that true?.. but i still want to go there!!! heehehehehe I :kokoro: :nihon:

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Giovanni says:

Happy new year everyone!

Kamakura is a lovely place, I had a good time there. I have a bad feeling about organized tours though. Sightseeing tours are the “fast food” equivalent approach to traveling. I prefer to spend more time on things.

On a less serious note, I am slightly puzzled by the tendency of japanesepod’s “actors” to over-act. I think its fun, but in Japan, most people do not sound like that! Expecially in bus and trains. Seems more targeted to manga and anime audiences. Maybe this is the way to attract more people, but there are dangers.

This overacting combined with the overuse of slang in your translations makes me wonder weather there is some confusion between acting and teaching, or translating and interpreting. Is it intentional? As it makes learning much harder people would come for more lessons? Again, I am not sure weather this is the right approach to learning languages. Maybe other listeners have a better idea about this. I suppose its better to engage the language at some level rather than nonthing at all. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of tedious reading and doing exercises, does probably not sound appealing to anyone.

Because of the overacting, maybe, the translator in this lesson sounds so flat in comparison that it stands out like a sore thumb! I noticed it in your englishpod (which I think its a misnomer, but I actually think its useful to learn Japanese) where the English speaker sounded like a synthetic computer voice! I expect him any moment to start talking about black holes losing mass… The good thing is the Japanese spoken is very … “real”!

I am glad to see that you have toned down the hyperbolic introductions of your lessons. I am referring to statements like

“With the last two lessons, you’ve learned to speak Japanese in the passive voice. This final lesson of the three part series puts the finishing touches on your excellent new abilities!”

or

“In the last lesson, you mastered the basics of speaking in the passive voice.”

which sound really odd to say the least to any serious language learner. Well done! Looking forward to more sensible statements, non offensive to intelligent listeners, that acknowledge the complexity (and, according to much recent research, haplessness) of “mastering” a language!

For Peter which is fond of “exemplify with an example” let me quote a dictionary definition of exemplify: “To illustrate by example: exemplify an argument”

“exemplify with an example” is, at the very least, a pleonasm.

Hope you had a great start of the year….

Giovanni

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Lia says:

こんいちわ みんなさん! あけまして おめでとうございます!

I live near Kamakura; it’s such a lovely area of Japan. Thank you for highlighting the Kanagawa region! However, I recently went with my mother on a ‘hato bus’ tour (albeit of Tokyo) in English, and it was absolutely horrible. I did a similar bus tour a year ago in Japanese, and the guide was much more professional (even if I couldn’t understand her!).

Sono d’accordo con Giovanni … but remember to distinguish your ‘weather’ from your ‘weather’ :wink:

One of my resolutions is to study more Japanese this year. Thank you Japanesepod101.com for helping me out with this goal!

Lia

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Torwen says:

I only did one guided sightseeing tour in all my life. I guess it was a traumatic experience, LOL. When I was in Japan I went around on my own, people are so friendly and helpful, there was no problem. And, since I am an archaeologist, I tend to go to a lot of non-touristy and remote places, anyway. So guided tours ガイドと ぜんぜん行きません!

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Patrick says:

Having read Giovanni’s post, I listened to today’s lesson. I’ve been learning about a year and joined japanesepod101 about 2 months ago. Going back to the first lessons when the site started, I can easily see the huge improvements in content, style and voice actors. That is part of the evolution you would expect over time as the processes get better and more routine.

As a resource for Japanese learners, Jpod is very good, and should be used with whatever else you have available. There must be around 1000 lessons/podcasts on the site - a huge resource, and encouragement is important (with out without the hyperbole - I filter that out anyway).

Patrick (New Zealand)

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プチクレア says:

I just hate bus tours… or any kind of group travel as it is… And I just can’t understand the attraction group traveling holds for Japanese… :???:

About the new lessons : One of the nicest thing is the dialogues are once again getting longer (well, with only yesterday’s and today’s lessons to judge, but…). In the past year, some dialogues for newbie and beginner lessons were very, very short, without much to learn or even much practice for listening. I was happily surprised by today’s lesson !

So keep up the good work ! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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Rhys says:

I think there is a little mistake in the PDF. It says, “kuu-fun” for 9 minutes.
I think it should be, “kyuu-fun” unless I’m mistaken.
Thanks.

As for sightseeing tours, I’d prefer just to go on my own. I think you could get more out of it that way, also, you aren’t stuck to any kind of itinerary.

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neil.m4 says:

Sightseeing tours in Japan are really fun. Great practice for your Japanese. I went to Nagasaki last year with eight (Japanese) friends. We had a really nice time.

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soniak says:

I will be leading an 11-day photo workshop for foreigners in Tokyo, Kyoto and Gifu-ken this Fall!

That’s why I’m following all these lessons to brush up on my intermediate Japanese!

(I sure hope I’m not like some of these stodgy tour guides)

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Mayumi says:

Rhys-san,

Thank you for pointing it out. I fixed it. Thank you! :dogeza:

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Naomi says:

I’m not a big fan of “sightseeing tours,” but they’re usually cheaper than going on your own. :wink: So I sometimes use them. :wink:

masa-san
Dono kurai nihon ni imasu ka?
How long are you going to stay in Japan?

Giovanni -san
Thank you for the feedback! We really appreciate it.
Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu. :dogeza:

Lia-san
Yes, the Japanese tour guides (for Japanese) are usually well trained and professional!

Torwen-san
Torwen -san にガイドは必要ないですね。
Torewen-san ni gaido wa hitsuyou nai desu ne. :grin:

Patrick-san
ありがとうございます。
Arigatou gozaimasu.

プチクレア-san
ありがとうございます。
Arigatou gozaimasu.

Rhys-san
Thank you for pointing out the mistake. I’ll fix it right away.

neil.m4 -san
長崎はどうでしたか?
Nagasaki wa dou deshita ka?
How was Nagasaki? I’ve never been there.

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Torwen says:

The examples for class 1 verbs are the same as for class 2 verbs in the pdf. Shouldn’t it be rather kaku, nomu, matsu, etc.?

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Naomi says:

Torwen-san

Thank you for pointing out. I’ll fix it right away.

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Don says:

Even though I’ve been to Tokyo on business a few times before, this past October was the first time I’ve been able to fit in a tourist day for myself. A local friend offered to come along as a guide, so at dinner with her and some co-workers we discussed the options and settled on Kamakura.

What a wonderful place! We walked to (and into!) the Daibutsu first, had lunch, and then took the short train ride to the main town. >>For any Miyazaki fans reading this, there’s charming Totoro-themed shop called “Donguri Garden Kyouwakoku” (どんぐりガーデン共和国) on the way to Hachimangu shrine from the train station!

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Tess says:

It would be helpful if the “Vocabulary Sample Sentences” in the .pdf were written in Romaji. Absolute Beginners can’t read the complicated Kanji, so having the sentences there doesn’t serve much point if we can’t see the sentence structure etc. Even Hiragana would be better than the Kanji at this level!! Keep up the good work. I am so much enjoying learning Japanese with you guys!

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Tess says:

In the Grammar Questions, the multiple choice answer to the 9 O’clock question seems to say that ku-ju is correct! Surely not!

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Naomi says:

Tess-san

????? I think we say 9:00, Ku-ji…

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Tess says:

Naomi-san, Apologies … perhaps I should have read the Hiragana which says くじ whereas the Romaji says “ku-ju”!!!!! Tess

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Mayumi says:

Tess-san,

Thank you for your feedback! :dogeza:

We have kana and romaji version of sample sentences at “vocabulary expansion” in the learning center. But, you are right that it should be better to have kana or romaji version in the pdf, too. We’ll check with the technical team what we can do.

http://www.japanesepod101.com/learningcenter/lessons/Beginner_Lesson_S4_26/vocabulary_expansion

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Naomi says:

Tess-san

Now I found the mistake you pointed put!!! Sorry, I wasn’t reading the romaji section so couldn’t find the mistake!! Thank you again for the feedback :dogeza:

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Archernar says:

はい、日本のどこでもにたくさん日本人の観光客をみましたよ。面白いですね。いつも、自分で観光します。

あの。。『日本のどこでもに。。』違いますか?If I want to say that I see them everywhere in Japan.

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Naomi says:

Archernar-san
You don’t need particle “Ni” after “Dokodemo” :wink:
It would be more natural to say “いろいろな場所で [iroirona basho de] - at various places or at many places”. :grin:

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