When you travel to Japan you will most likely stay at a hotel. Although most hotels nowadays have English language skills it might be useful to know a few phrases in Japanese – especially when traveling apart from the typical tourist locations.
Survival vocabulary
| English | Romaji | Furigana |
Kanji |
| air conditioner | eakon | エアコン | エアコン |
| bed | beddo | ベッド | ベッド |
| blanket | moufu | もうふ | 毛布 |
| body soap | bodii soopu | ボディーソープ | ボディーソープ |
| check-in | chekku in | チェックイン | チェックイン |
| check-out | chekku auto | チェックアウト | チェックアウト |
| double room | daburu | ダブル | ダブル |
| elevator | elebeeta | エレベータ | エレベータ |
| extra bed | tsuika beddo | ついかベッド | 追加ベッド |
| hair dryer | doraiyaa | ドライヤー | ドライヤー |
| hot spring bath | onsen | おんせん | 温泉 |
| hotel | hoteru | ホテル | ホテル |
| Japanese style room | washitsu | わしつ | 和室 |
| Japanese style hotel | ryokan | りょかん | 旅館 |
| key | kagi | かぎ | 鍵 |
| non smoker | kin-en | きんえん | 禁煙 |
| reception | furonto (front) | フロント | フロント |
| reservation | yoyaku | よやく | 予約 |
| room | heya | へや | 部屋 |
| room charge | shukuhakudai | しゅくはくだい | 宿泊代 |
| room number | heya bango | へやばんごう | 部屋番号 |
| safety deposit box | kinko | きんこ | 金庫 |
| shampoo | shanpuu | シャンプー | シャンプー |
| shaver | higesori | ひげそり | 髭剃り |
| shower | shawaa | シャワー | シャワー |
| single room | shinguru | シングル | シングル |
| smoker | kitsu-en | きつえん | 喫煙 |
| soap | sekken | せっけん | 石鹸 |
| tissues | tisshuu peepaa | ティッシュペーパー | ティッシュペーパー |
| toilet | toire | トイレ | トイレ |
| toilet paper | toiretto peepa | トイレットペーパー | トイレットペーパー |
| tooth brush | ha burashi | はブラシ | 歯ブラシ |
| tooth paste | hamigaki | はみがき | 歯磨き |
| towel | taoru | タオル | タオル |
| TV | terebi | テレビ | テレビ |
| twin room | tsuin ruumu | ツインルーム | ツインルーム |
| valuables | kichouhin | きちょうひん | 貴重品 |
Survival phrases
| Kanji | 朝食は含まれていますか？ |
| Furigana | ちょうしょくはふくまれていますか？ |
| Romaji | choushoku wa fukumarete imasu ka? |
| English | Is breakfast included. |
| Kanji | 部屋を変えて下さい。 |
| Furigana | へやをかえてください。 |
| Romaji | heya o kaete kudasai. |
| English | Please change the room. |
| Kanji | 部屋を変えて下さい。 |
| Furigana | へやをかえてください。 |
| Romaji | heya o kaete kudasai. |
| English | Please change the room. |
| Kanji | 朝食はどこですか？ |
| Furigana | ちょうしょくはどこですか？ |
| Romaji | choushoku wa doko desuka? |
| English | Where is breakfast? |
| Kanji | 朝食は何時ですか？ |
| Furigana | ちょうしょくはなんじですか？ |
| Romaji | choushoku wa nanji desuka? |
| English | What time is breakfast? |
| Kanji | カードでいいですか？ |
| Furigana | カードでいいですか？ |
| Romaji | kaado de ii desuka? |
| English | Can I use credit cards? |
| Kanji | 領収書下さい。 |
| Furigana | りょうしゅうしょください。 |
| Romaji | ryoushuusho kudasai. |
| English | Can I have a receipt? |
| Kanji | この荷物を預かって下さい。 |
| Furigana | このにもつをあずかってください。 |
| Romaji | kono nimotsu wo azukatte kudasai. |
| English | Can you please keep this luggage. |
| Kanji | 預けた荷物を返して下さい。 |
| Furigana | あずけたにもつをかえしてください。 |
| Romaji | azuketa nimotsu o kaeshite kudasai. |
| English | Please return my luggage. |
What experiences did you make with Japanese hotels? Do you have some funny stories you would like to share with us?
NIHONGO ICHIBAN 
smoker and non-smoker use the same word kin-en? How can I say if I want a non-smoker room?
Well observed. This was a mistake on my side, which I immediately corrected.
禁煙 – きんえん – kinen – non smoker
喫煙 – きつえん – kitsuen – smoker
Thanks for checking.
Very usefull and interesting!! Thank you very much!
This site is very instrumental for Japanese study!
but I found several strange things in the list above, so I’d like to inform.
1. ティツューペーパー →ティッシュペーパー
ツ and シ are very alike but absolutely different. Also ン and ソ are apparently same but completely different.
2. 歯ブラッシュ → 歯ブラシ
We call a brush “burashi”. But I think if you say ブラッシュ instead of ブラシ, it’ll work because there’s no big difference and we know ブラッシュ is a kind of ブラシ.
I think these katakana English are one of the most annoying part of studying Japanese for people outside Japan.
Hi Kazuhiro,
Thanks for the review and the hints. I immediately fixed it.
I fully agree to you that katakana English is one of the most difficult things for foreigners. You have to forget the original pronunciation and adjust it to Japanese pronunciation. This does not come natural to foreigners.
Thanks again for you review.
Hey
This is pretty interesting. Great work.
Help me with JLPT N3 preparation.
Thanks
Neeti
I think the katakana for toilet paper is not correct:
toilet paper toiretto peepa トイレットぺ the pa is missing … or is it just ommited?
otherwise great page — fun to learn
Thanks for checking. For some reason the katakana after ペ had disappeared. I fixed it and the word is complete now with トイレットペーパー.
Thank you very much again for pointing it out.
you have change the room repeated
これは本当に役に立ちますよ。来年の7月大阪に行くのよ予定があるんだから、これ使えますね。ありがとう。
ちょっと間違いがあったので正しく訂正しておきますね。
[ Can you please keep this luggage.]
このにもつをあすかってください。 wrong
↓
このにもつをあずかってください。 right
[ Is breakfast included.]
朝食は含めていますか？ wrong
choushoku wa fukumete imasu ka? wrong
↓
朝食は含まれていますか？ right
choushoku wa fukumarete imasu ka? right
@Tokyonian
Thank you so much. This was one of the early posts and quality checking was not yet so good (obviously). I corrected the spell mistakes and grammar.
Thanks again for pointing out the mistakes. ありがとうございます。とても感謝しています。
Is there a difference between 朝食 (choushoku) and 朝ご飯 (asagohan)? I haven’t learned the first one so I was wondering if it is a synonym or if you only say “朝ご飯” when refering to a breakfast in a familiar environment such as my family’s or friends’ place?
There is no major differences between these two words, 朝ご飯 is japanese word while 朝食 is the chinese pronunciation.
朝ご飯 is the more common though !