A horribly incomplete and bad guide to Japanese for the tourist who is interested in putting a nonzero amount of effort into learning the basics of the language before their visit

Writing system: there are three of them.
- ひらがな (hiragana): used for Japanese words. Swoopy and shit. One symbol == one unambiguous sound
- カタカナ (katakana): used for loan words and occasionally to stylize Japanese words. Harsher lines. One symbol == one unambiguous sound
- 漢字 (kanji): borrowed Chinese characters. Complicated and chinese looking. One symbol == fuck you

Typical Japanese sentence: 私はカレーを食べたい！ (I want to eat curry!)
    Hiragana: は、べたい
    Katakana: カレー
    Kanji: 私、食

Learn Hiragana and Katakana, right now. I'll wait. Done? The rest of the doc assumes you can read both, and will look up kanji you don't know.

Kinds of words:
- 熟語 (jukugo): compound words of multiple kanji, e.g. 学校 (がっこう, gakkou, school). Read using the 音読み (onyomi) reading of the kanji, which is (alledgedly) derived from the Chinese pronounciation
- 和語 (wago): words of Japanese origin, e.g. 食べる (to eat), written with one kanji and some hiragana trailers. Uses the 訓読み (kunyomi) reading of the kanji.
- 和語 but really common and therefore written in hiragana because japanese people are lazy, e.g. なるほど ("I see")
- Loanwords and onomonopias (the latter is more common in japanese than in english): written with katakana, e.g. パスコン (pasukon -> parsu(nal) con(puter) -> personal computer)

Basic sentence structure:
- Verb comes last and needless parts are omitted. Many Japanese sentences are just a verb and nothing else.
- "Particles" indicate the part of the sentence the preceeding word is for
- は and が indicate the subject/topic, their nuances are complicated but don't sweat it
- を indicates the object of the verb (appleをeat)
- に indicates a destination or target; literally (storeにgoing to) or metaphorically (japaneseはskilledにwant to become)
- で indicates a context or location (libraryでread)
- と means "and", more or less.
- から is "from" and まで is "to", as in "from here to there"
- の adjectives a noun, or adjectives some adjectives: . Also な sometimes (only used for adjectiving adjectives). Note that some adjectives adjective themselves.

Sentence endings:
- か indicates a question. There are other ways to make a question but this is always fine.
- ね is seeking agreement from the listener and is roughly equivalent to ending an english sentence with ", right?"
- よ is roughly equivalent to ending an english sentence with ", you know", e.g. もう食べたよ -> I already ate, you know. Note: generally more polite in japanese than "you know" sounds in english.

Notes:
- Japanese is very context sensitive, lots of information is left unsaid which might be explicitly spoken in english. It's not uncommon for an english speaker early in their japanese studies to sound overly verbose. 一緒にレストランに行きましょう: "let's go to the restaurant", said by a noob. 行きましょう, "let's go to the restaurant", said by an experienced speaker who knows their audience understands that "let's" and "restaurant" are implied
- Do not use romaji.
- Kanji is very important and not knowing it will make your life difficult. Consider learning at least these:
    一二三四五六七八九十口日月目明早自白百中千上下朝貝見元万左右刀可子了女好母兄小少大多夕外名肖光川水氷永土寺時火
    This list is too short but I can't be arsed to gather more
- Do not study the informal grammar if you only intend to dip your toes in. The formal grammar is sufficient for a tourist. If you fuck up and use the informal grammar in a situation where you shouldn't and you catch yourself fast enough, tack on と思ういます to the end and you'll get away with it.
- Foreigners with bad Japanese get a pass for making mistakes, though.
- But be prepared for the listener to give up and switch into equally broken English.

Resources:
https://jisho.org - Good Japanese/English dictionary
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/ - Good guide to the grammar

Important verbs:
    食べる: to eat. リンゴを食べる -> to eat an apple
    飲む: to drink. ジュースを飲む -> to drink juice
    行く: to go. 駅に行く -> to go to the train station
    来る: to come. アメリカから来た -> I came from America
    待って: to wait. ちょっと待ってください -> please wait a moment
    持つ: to hold or to have. こんなことが持っていますか？ -> do you have this sort of thing? (perhaps appropriate at a store)
    ある: to exist (of inanimate objects). 塩がありますか？ -> is there any salt?
    いる: to exist (of animate objects). 部屋で猫がいる？ -> is the cat in the room?
    見る: to look/see
    知る: to know

Important nouns:
    これ: this; それ: that (near); あれ: that (far)
    ホテル: hotel
    タックし: taxi (note: these are a rip off in Tokyo)
    駅: train station
    電車: train
    バース: bus
    水: water
    ビール: beer
    食べ物: food
    飲み物: (a) drink
    トイレ: toilet/bathroom
    出口: exit; 入り口: enterance
    店: store
    分: minute; 時間: hour; 日: day; 週: week; 年: year
    肉: meat; 野菜: vegitable

Important adjectives:
    こんな: this sort of thing; そんな: that sort of thing
    赤い: red; 青い: blue; 緑: green; 黒: black; 白い: white
    高い: tall; 短い: short
    長い: long
    大きい: large; 小さい: small

Greetings

    おはようございます: good morning
    こんにちは: good afternoon
    こんばんは: good evening

Farewells

    さようなら: famous but hardly ever used, it means "goodbye forever"
    待ったね: see you later
    また明日ね: see you tomorrow

Asking for things

    お願いします: can be used alone to mean "please" when the context is clear, like when you're pointing to something you want
    Xをください: please give me X
    VERBてください: please do X (note: must conjugate the verb into て form, e.g. 食べる becomes 食べて)
    すみません
        "Excuse me!" e.g. to a waiter - it's not impolite to shout this across a restaurant
        "Excuse me." e.g. to someone in your way
        "Sorry!" e.g. when you were in someone's way. Note: ごめんなさい: alternate "sorry"
    VERBたい: want to do X (note: requires complicated conjugation rules)
    もう一同？ please repeat yourself
    ゆっくりください: slowly, please
    ありがとうございます！ say this when you get what you want

Days of the week

    X曜日: X-day
    日曜日: Sunday
    月曜日
    火曜日
    水曜日
    木曜日
    金曜日
    土曜日: Saturday

Getting around

    Xはどこですか？ where is X?
    左: left
    右: right
    道: street
    街: town/city
    向かう: to turn
    こち（ら）来て: they're asking you to follow them

Counting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word
    Good luck

Other shit

    Xは何ですか？ What is X?
    日本語で、Xは何ですか？ What is X in Japanese?
    英語はいいですか？ Is English okay?
    今は何時ですか？ what time is it?
    次のバースは何時ですか？ What time is the next bus?
    When someone says "日本語上手！", they're lying, and saying "ありがとう、いっぱいことがまだ知りません" is the fastest way to get them to move on