Japan · 23 situations · free
Know what to say before you walk in.
Picture cards for Japan's confusing moments — the ramen machine, the izakaya seat charge, the yatai counter. Each one shows the exact Japanese to hold up, what they'll ask back, and the one thing not to do.
- ✓23 situations, written out in full — free, no email
- ✓All 23 cards free with one email — one download, yours forever
- ✓Works offline at the counter — images, not an app
A card. Show the top half across the counter; the bottom half is what they’ll ask back, and your answer.
The paid date has moved to September 15. The reason: the Japanese on these cards has not been through a native-speaker register check yet. Until it has, nothing here is for sale. Selling a card that is wrong in a way you cannot detect is the one failure this site cannot have. Everything stays free until September 15, and every correction lands in the changelog with a date.
One email gets all 23 cards in one download. If you download before September 15: you keep every card you took, and every correction to those cards, forever. That was the promise and it stands — nothing is taken back and nothing expires. Cards released after September 15 are part of the paid packs, for everyone.
How it works
One card, three moments
Save it to your phone
The pack lands in your camera roll as images. It works on the plane, in the subway, and with no signal at all.
Read it before you go in
Thirty seconds outside the door. You will know the order of operations, the two questions coming, and the one thing not to do.
Hold it up if you're stuck
The top half is written for the person behind the counter, in Japanese, large enough to read across a counter.
Free, no email
Twenty-three situations, written out in full
Each one is the complete answer with its card on the page at full size. Nothing is held back for the pack.
By category
Where you'll be standing
Packs
The Japan card packs — free right now
The same answers as images you can hold up at a counter with no signal, plus print sheets that fit a passport wallet. Free until September 15; then they go to their listed prices.
Every card on the site, one email, one download.
- All 23 cards at full resolution — the 13 core situations plus the 10 night cards
- The printable sheet and one-file ZIP
- Works offline — images, not an app
- Free until September 15 — what you take now stays free forever
Ten cards for the smallest rooms in Japan: yatai and yokocho.
- 10 cards for yatai stalls and yokocho bars: getting in, the cover charge, ordering, paying, leaving
- Decoder cards for yakitori, oden, Hakata ramen and the drinks menu
- One printable PDF sheet, grayscale, cut marks
- Free until September 15, then $4.99. Email for the link
All 22 situation cards, phone and print.
- 13 of 22 cards drawn today, at 1080 × 1620, for the camera roll
- Print sheets, 4-up with cut marks, US Letter and A4
- Works offline — they are images, not an app
- Corrections and updates free forever for early downloaders
Honesty
Who this is not for
If you speak Japanese, or you want a language course, or essays about culture — not this. These are procedures, in order, with prices, for the person outside the door with thirty seconds.