Japanese Travel Phrases, by Situation
Phrasebooks are organised the way a dictionary is: by topic, alphabetically, for someone sitting still. Travel does not work like that. You need the konbini script at the konbini counter, with three people behind you and a member of staff already halfway through a question you did not catch.
So these pages are organised by the moment you are in. Each one covers what actually happens, the handful of phrases worth having ready, and — the part nearly every phrasebook skips — what the other person is likely to say to you, so the reply does not arrive as noise. Everything is written in romaji as well as Japanese; you do not need to read kana to use any of it.
IC cards & local trains
Suica/ICOCA, topping up, tickets and finding the right platform.
Read the phrases →Allergies & diets
Allergies, "no ___", vegetarian and halal — how to actually be understood.
Read the phrases →Directions & help
Asking the way, the police box, lost property, and photo requests.
Read the phrases →Pharmacy & emergencies
The drugstore, describing symptoms, and 119 / 110 when it's serious.
Read the phrases →How to use these before a trip
You do not need to memorise all of it. Skim the page for the situations you know you will hit — almost everyone hits the konbini, a train and a restaurant on day one — and learn the three or four lines that matter there. Everything else you can read on your phone in the moment.
If you would rather practise saying them out loud against a clock than read them, that is what PlaneHopper is for. And if the trip has turned into an actual interest in the language, the learning guides and the free JLPT N5 course start from zero.