Imagine you are going on a business trip to Japan and are staying at a hotel.
Usually your business partner will have made reservations for you at a western style hotel where personnel speaks English to some extent.
Communication at the Hotel
Irasshaimase!いらっしゃいませ！(Welcome!) is what you will be greeted with by the bell-boy and the receptionist.
Even at a western style hotel it will do no harm to use those japanese expressions to introduce yourself:
Konbanwa, Rubittsu to môshimasu ga…こんばんは、ルビッツと申しますが、(Good evening, my name is Lubitz…)
Maybe you would prefer a smoking room? In that case you can ask: Sumimasen ga, kitsuenshitsu o-negai shimasu. すみませんが、喫煙室を願いします。(Excuse me, but I would like a smoking room.) Or you would rather sleep in a non-smoking room? Sumimasen ga, kin’enshitsu o-negai shimasu.
すみませんが、禁煙室を願いします。(Excuse me, but I would like a non-smoking room.)
You will probably have to order breakfast chôshoku 朝食 separately at check-in and will receive the vouchers to hand to the waiter. They will have your room-number written on them. so that you will not be asked by the waiter. In in some of the hotels you will have a choice between a japanese style breakfast washoku 和食 und a western style (mostly american) yôshoku 洋食.
Do you need access to Wifi? you can ask for it with: Wifi (same as in English) ga arimasu ka. Wifiがありますか。If there is Wifi, you will receive a piece of paper with an anshôbangô 暗証番号(password).
The rooms and especially the bathrooms are small compared with Europe and the U.S. but most of you can manage quite well, as long as you are not one of those bears of a man that could step into a sumo-ring. In your room you will most likely also find slippers and a night-gown called nemaki 寝巻き which originallystood model for our bath-robe.
If key cards are not in use at your hotel you can ask for your key like this: Ichi-maru-go gô-shitsu o-negai shimasu. 一O五号室お願いします(Room No. 105, please).
Here are the numbers from zero to 9 which only need to be lined up as necessary as well as the names of the floors:
maru 0 0
ichi 1 一 ikkai 一階 1st floor (ground floor)
ni 2 二 nikai 二階 2nd floor
san 3 三 sangai 三階 3rd floor
yon 4 四 yonkai 四階 4th floor
go 5 五 gokai 五階 5th floor
roku 6 六 rokkai 六階 6th floor
nana 7 七 nanakai 七階 7th floor
hachi 8 八 hachikai 八階 8th floor
kyû 9 九 kyûkai 九回 9th floor
You will then take the erebêtâ エレベーター(engl. elevator) to the floor on which your room is to be found. As the counting of floors follows the U.S. american pattern, there should be no problems there. Sometimes you will find restaurants in the basement chika ikkai 地下一階 (first floor under ground) or even in chika nikai地下二階 (second floor under ground).
Well, I wish you a good trip and…
Mata jikai また次回- See you next time!
