Learning even a little Japanese before your trip is a worthwhile endeavor (although I must confess that without reinforcement, I have lost almost everything that I learned). At the very least you should make an effort to learn Hiragana and Katakana, the two most commonly used character sets. Katakana is especially useful because it is used exclusively for writing foreign words (usually English). Once you’ve memorized the Katakana characters reading is just a matter of sounding out the syllables and trying to figure out what English word is being interpreted. Needless to say, this ability can be extraordinarily useful in restaurants.

Knowing just the bare minimum of Japanese we were able to safely navigate the subway system, purchase food (big deal), and exchange pleasantries with the people we met. The following won’t make you fluent in Japanese, but you’ll be able to say “please,” “thank you”, and “I’m lost” with absolute confidence.

Even if your Japanese is less than perfect, you can make up for many deficiencies by using the English versions of the above phrases — frequently and with sincerity. The Japanese place a great store on politeness, in any language, and will respond to your efforts in kind.

Finally, if some words sound familiar, it’s because they are. Many English words have been adopted into the Japanese language. So if you hear the word jazu, rest assured that you’re in line for a jazz club…

Long vowels are generally indicated by a rule over the vowel or double vowels (ii).

Consonants are generally pronounced as in English; the differences are subtle, and not easily explained. The best way to learn these pronunciations is to listen carefully to a language tape or Power Japanese.

Finally, all letters in a word are pronounced. At first, it feel awkward (and you’ll notice that native speakers tend to omit final sounds), but soon the words will flow.