Like in our last travel lesson, we're looking at train times today.

Deep breaths, everyone. We can do this.

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First, a barrage of scary numbers... which we've seen before:

一時（いちじ // one o'clock）
二時（にじ // two o'clock）
三時（さんじ // three o'clock）
四時（よじ // four o'clock）
五時（ごじ // five o'clock）
六時（ろくじ // six o'clock）
七時（しちじ // seven o'clock）
八時（はちじ // eight o'clock）
九時（くじ // nine o'clock）
十時（じゅうじ // ten o'clock）
十一時（じゅういちじ // eleven o'clock）
十二時（じゅうにじ // twelve o'clock）

一分（いっぷん // one minute）
二分（にふん // two minutes）
三分（さんぷん // three minutes）
四分（よんぷん // four minutes）
五分（ごふん // five minutes）
六分（ろっぷん // six minutes）
七分（ななふん // seven minutes）
八分（はっぷん // eight minutes）
九分（きゅうふん // nine minutes）
十分（じゅっぷん // ten minutes）

十一分（じゅういっぷん // eleven minutes）
十二分（じゅうにふん // twelve minutes）
十三分（じゅうさんぷん // thirteen minutes）
十四分（じゅうよんぷん // fourteen minutes）
十五分（じゅうごふん // fifteen minutes）

二十分（にじゅっぷん // twenty minutes）
三十分（さんじゅっぷん // thirty minutes）
四十分（よんじゅっぷん // forty minutes）
五十分（ごじゅっぷん // fifty minutes）

五十六分（ごじゅうろっぷん // fifty-six minutes）
五十七分（ごじゅうななふん // fifty-seven minutes）
五十八分（ごじゅうはっぷん // fifty-eight minutes）
五十九分（ごじゅうきゅうふん // fifty-nine minutes）

一時半（いちじはん // half past one）
二時半（にじはん // half past two）
三時半（さんじはん // half past three）

Ugh.

Drilling numbers is just too dull for me. Let's look at some practical uses of numbers and times, instead.

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As you travel around Japan, you'll see a lot of signs like this at train stations

Let's zoom in a bit:

Some key words from this sign:

普通（ふつう // regular; ordinary [train service]）

各駅停車（かくえきていしゃ // local train; train that stops at every station）

１０番線（じゅうばんせん // Platform 10）

９番線（きゅうばんせん // Platform 9）

東海道（とうかいどう // Tōkaidō）

本線（ほんせん // main line）

発車時刻（はっしゃじこく // departure times; departure schedule）

東海道本線 (とうかいどうほんせん) is the Tōkaidō Main Line (Wikipedia).

I skipped アクティー because apparently it's the name of a specific train line... which I'd never heard of until just now.

Also, I have limited experience in most areas of Japan, since I spent most of my time in Tokyo. But I was under the impression that 普通（ふつう // regular; ordinary [train service]）and 各駅停車（かくえきていしゃ // local train; train that stops at every station）referred to the same thing.

You'll often hear both of these words on announcements on trains. For example, on this YouTube video, right around the 00:32 mark, you can hear the Japanese announcer say that the passengers are on a 各駅停車.

I like words like 各駅停車 because the kanji make a lot of sense:

各 every
駅 station
停 stop
車 vehicle

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POP Quiz, Hotshot!

You now know the words 普通 and 各駅停車 (scroll up to see the readings when you forget them; reading without kana crutches is good for building your sight vocabulary), but do you know some of the many words that they use for express trains in Japan?

Here's another sign:

(Photo taken from this YouTube video... which is a 1 minute and 16 second video of the sign. It's very exciting.)

Here are key words are:

急行（きゅうこう // express）

快速急行（かいそくきゅうこう // rapid express [lit. "high-speed express"]）

I might as well mention that they also have:

特急（とっきゅう // limited express）

...which is an abbreviation of:

特別急行（とくべつきゅうこう // limited express [lit. "special express"]）

...yeah... train classifications can get confusing pretty fast. I always forget which types of express trains are the fastest.

If I'm not mistaken, the speed of these would be ranked like this: 急行 < 快速急行 < 特急.

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OK. Numbers. This wasn't supposed to be a lesson about train types!!

First, test yourself and see if you can read these numbers out loud in Japanese:

8:00
8:03
8:06
8:09
8:12
8:18

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Answers:

八時
はちじ
8:00
Literally: “eight o’clock”

八時三分
はちじ　さんぷん
8:03
Literally: “eight o’clock + three minutes”

八時六分
はちじ　ろっぷん
8:06
Literally: “eight o’clock + six minutes”

八時九分
はちじ　きゅうふん
8:09
Literally: “eight o’clock + nine minutes”

八時十二分
はちじ　じゅうにふん
8:12
Literally: “eight o’clock + twelve minutes”

八時十八分
はちじ　じゅうはっぷん
8:18
Literally: “eight o’clock + eighteen minutes”

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Now for the tricky part.

How do you think most people would say the following time in Japanese?

16:29

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And the answer is:

四時二十九分
よじ　にじゅうきゅうふん
16:29
Literally: “four o’clock + twenty-nine minutes”

We also would have accepted:

四時半
よじはん
four thirty; half past four
Literally: “four o’clock + -half”

Although it's quite common to see military time used on clocks in Japan, most people don't use it when they're verbally stating the time. They may, however, say something like:

午後四時二十九分
ごご　よじ　にじゅうきゅうふん
16:29 P.M.
Literally: “afternoon / P.M. + four o’clock + twenty-nine minutes”
Note: The opposite of 午後 (ごご // afternoon; P.M.) is 午前 (ごぜん // morning; A.M.).

With that in mind, let's see how you fare with rest of these times:

16:31
16:41
16:59
17:01

Thinking...

Thinking...

Answer time!

四時三十一分
よじ　さんじゅういっぷん
16:31
Literally: “four o’clock + thirty-one minutes”

四時四十一分
よじ　よんじゅういっぷん
16:41
Literally: “four o’clock + forty-one minutes”

四時五十九分
よじ　ごじゅうきゅうふん
16:59
Literally: “four o’clock + fifty-nine minutes”

五時一分
ごじ　いっぷん
17:01
Literally: “five o’clock + one minute”

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So what have we learned from all of this?

Well, aside from learning that there are lots of types of trains, I think it's safe to say that being able to read the name of the place you're going is even more important than being able to state the time in Japanese.

For example, that first sign had 品川 (しながわ // Shinagawa) written on it. Shinagawa is one of Tokyo's biggest train stations. It's also one of the only places you can board a 新幹線 (しんかんせん // bullet train).

Don't get too excited, though―Shinagawa is boring. I wouldn't even leave the train station. If I were exploring stations on the Yamanote line (Tokyo's loop line), I'd probably stop in stations like Shibuya, Harajuku, Yoyogi, Shinjuku, Shin-Ōkubo, Ueno, Akihabara, and Shimbashi instead.

We can't really help you learn the Japanese names of all of the places you'll go, though, because Japan is a big place, and there are thousands of train stations, towns, prefectures, etc.

When you set out, just be sure that you have the name of your destination written in Japanese on your phone or something. You may need it when figuring out where you're supposed to go!

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Useful Japanese

急行は新宿に止まりますか？
きゅうこう　は　しんじゅく　に　とまります　か？
Does the express train stop in Shinjuku?
Literally: “express + は + Shinjuku + に + stop + か?”

次の電車は各駅停車ですか？
つぎ　の　でんしゃ　は　かくえきていしゃ　です　か？
Is the next train a local train? // Does the next train stop at every station?
Literally: “next + の + train + は + local train / train that stops at every station + です + か?”