In this lesson
This is your first scene lesson. Everything in it converges on one real place — the konbini (convenience store) — and one goal: a complete purchase, start to finish, with no dropped exchanges. That takes numbers, prices, a handful of shopping words, and something new: learning to recognize the fixed script that konbini staff will say to you at full speed.
By the end of this lesson you can:
- count, and catch prices by their size (hundreds? thousands?),
- ask what anything costs,
- say how many you want — without touching Japanese’s infamous counter system,
- handle the bag / heat-it-up / point-card questions without blinking,
- and pay like you’ve done it before (there’s a tray — use it).
As always: tap each sentence and listen first, repeat it aloud, then check yourself against the text and meaning that appear. Tap again to listen as often as you like.
Warm-up
Before anything else, clear your Anki reviews — the deck is the real warm-up; the remix below just gets you moving.
Remix
Pure Lessons 1–2, back in a shop. Listen cold first, then repeat.
Keep Lesson 1’s accept/decline pair (hai, onegaishimasu / iie, daijoubu desu) warm too — today it answers most of the konbini script.
Frame: (___ wa) ikura desu ka.
(___ wa) ikura desu ka.— “How much (is ___)?”
ikura — how much — drops into the question slot you already know from nan and dare. But to do anything with the answer, you need the numbers. Here’s the entire set — ten digits and four size words. Repeat each one; rhythm matters more than speed.
ichi ni san yon
yon is your only word for 4 in this course. (You may hear shi — recognize it, don’t copy it.)
go roku nana
nana is your only word for 7. (Its twin shichi appears exactly once in this course — as part of “7 o’clock,” much later.)
hachi kyuu
kyuu is your only word for 9. (Same deal: ku exists, but only inside “9 o’clock.”)
juu zero
Ten to nineteen is free: juu-ichi, juu-ni… Twenty, thirty…: digit + juu (ni-juu, san-juu). You already know more numbers than you think.
hyaku sen man
Japanese groups big numbers by ten thousands, not thousands — man is the unit your hotel bill comes in. For a traveler, the skill is sizing: hearing whether a price lives in the hundreds (hyaku), thousands (sen), or ten-thousands (man).
en
en — yen. Prices end in it.
Now, the frame in action:
Holding the thing up as you ask is a complete, polite sentence-plus-context. This works at every register, stall, and counter in Japan.
Kore wa ikura desu ka.
The full frame — point + kore when the thing isn’t in your hand.
Hyaku-en desu.
Answers come back as number + en + desu.
Gohyaku-en desu.
go + hyaku (5 + 100) — digits stack onto the size words.
Sen-en desu.
A real-world honesty note: compound prices mutate their sounds (300 is sanbyaku, 800 is happyaku, 8,000 is hassen). Don’t learn the mutations. Catch the leading digit and the size word for the ballpark — and remember every register in Japan displays the exact total. You never have to say a price; you only have to survive hearing one.
Ichiman-en desu.
man in the wild — the hotel-bill size word. Hear the man, know you’re in five figures; the register screen carries the exact digits.
Sen-en desu ka.
The Lesson 2 echo-check, now guarding your wallet: repeat the price back with ka and watch for the nod.
The move: counting by pointing
The hard Japanese idea (skipped): Japanese counts different shapes of things with different suffixes — flat things, long things, machines, floors… The MiniCore move: three memorized “things” words, and beyond that, your pointing finger plus a plain number — thing first, count after. Natives resolve it instantly.
Kore, hitotsu kudasai.
hitotsu — one (thing). Point, say how many, kudasai. Konbini snack counters run on this sentence.
Futatsu, onegaishimasu.
futatsu — two (things).
Mittsu desu.
mittsu — three (things). Hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu are memorized wholes, not a pattern — and they’re where the memorizing stops.
Kore, yon kudasai.
Beyond three: point + plain number, in that order — name the thing first, then the count, which is the same order real Japanese uses (kore o yottsu kudasai), so the clerk’s ear fixes your bare yon without noticing. Slightly blunt, perfectly understood, endlessly reusable.
Ikutsu desu ka.
ikutsu — how many (things). You’ll hear it asked of you at counters; answer with hitotsu / futatsu / mittsu, or a plain number (fingers up helps — palm out reads perfectly).
Kore dake, kudasai.
dake — only/just — snaps directly onto any noun or counting word, no grammar required. You’ve actually been saying it since Lesson 1, tucked inside the opener Nihongo wa chotto dake wakarimasu (“I understand only a little”).
Hitotsu dake, onegaishimasu.
dake also keeps your register modest — “just one” always sounds politely restrained, never curt.
The move: negation by antonym
The hard English idea: “It’s not expensive.” Japanese adjectives conjugate to negate — and this course never conjugates anything. The MiniCore move: say the opposite word instead. Meet your first two antonym pairs:
Takai desu.
takai — expensive. Adjective + desu — the frames you own already handle adjectives.
Yasui desu.
yasui — cheap. “Not expensive”? You just said it — yasui desu. That’s the whole move.
Takai desu ka.
ka works on adjectives too, of course.
Iie, yasui desu.
And there’s the antonym move answering a question: no -kunai, no grammar — just the other pole.
Futsuu desu.
futsuu — normal, average: the middle the pairs leave out. Takai desu ka. — Iie, futsuu desu. It joins dame (no good) and daijoubu (fine) as an all-purpose verdict word — with one etiquette edge: about food, said to the person who made it, futsuu is faint praise, so spend it on prices, weather, and hotels. (A bonus for later: on a train departure board, 普通 means “local train.”)
(A footnote for the precise: “not expensive” and “cheap” aren’t quite the same claim — the antonym says a little more than the negation did. For a traveler the difference never matters; that’s the price of the trick, and it’s a good trade.)
The move: comparison by enumeration
The hard English idea: “This one is cheaper.” No comparative forms in this course either. The MiniCore move: state both poles and let the listener connect them.
Kore, yasui desu. Are, takai desu.
Two plain sentences do the work of a comparison — and each one is a frame you already own.
Kore, ookii desu. Sore, chiisai desu. Sore o kudasai.
ookii — big — and chiisai — small: your second antonym pair. Enumerate, then choose. This three-beat pattern (compare, compare, buy) is a complete shopping strategy.
Frame: [verb]-masu (ka).
[verb]-masu (ka).— “I / you [verb]” — a verb on its own is a whole sentence; add ka to make it a yes/no question.
Haraimasu.
haraimasu — (I’ll) pay — your first verb. Notice the shape: it ends in -masu, the polite verb ending, and it’s a complete sentence alone (the subject drops, as always). Every verb in this course arrives pre-assembled in this shape, and on its own it already stands as a whole sentence — you’ll hang objects onto the verb in Lesson 4 and stack a whole journey onto it in Lesson 6, but it never needs them.
Flip it negative by swapping -masu for -masen: Haraimasen — “I won’t pay.” You’ve quietly owned a -masen form since Lesson 1 — wakarimasen (“I don’t understand”) is nothing but wakarimasu (“understand”) turned negative. And sumimasen? It ends the same way, and it even began as an old negative long ago — but treat it as one frozen piece; there’s no everyday verb sumimasu hiding inside it. Lesson 4 turns the negative into a system across every verb.
Haraimasu ka.
Add ka and that statement becomes a yes/no question — the whole question system, previewed here in one syllable. Because the subject drops, Haraimasu ka? leans on context: nod at the register and it’s “Do I pay here?”; glance at your companion and it’s “Are you paying?” One phrase, both jobs — that flex is the feature, not a bug.
Old frames, new words
This lesson’s shopping vocabulary, dropped into Lesson 2’s frames and Lesson 1’s polite chunks (douzo, onegaishimasu, doumo):
konbini — convenience store (you’ve been able to pronounce it since Lesson 0; now it’s yours).
Mise wa are desu.
mise — shop, any shop.
Okane, douzo.
okane — money — riding on Lesson 1’s douzo.
Fukuro, onegaishimasu.
fukuro — bag. For when you want one before being asked.
Genkin desu.
genkin — cash. The naming frame answers the payment question.
Kaado desu.
kaado — card. Same frame, other answer.
Otsuri, doumo.
otsuri — change. (Count it if you like — it will be exact. And never leave it behind: remember, no tipping.)
Ryougae, onegaishimasu.
ryougae — money exchange, riding on Lesson 1’s onegaishimasu — and the word covers both kinds of changing money: swapping currency and breaking a big bill into small ones. For currency, ordinary bank branches mostly don’t handle foreign cash — airport counters, city exchange kiosks, and the konbini ATM (usually the best deal) are the real options. For breaking a ¥10,000 note, a hotel front desk will oblige; shops expect a small purchase first — though registers and ticket machines take big bills without blinking, so the change often just arrives on its own. (For “can I pay by card?” you already have the set piece Kaado, ii desu ka. — no new sentence needed.)
Set pieces
Three fixed utterances to memorize whole — near-daily use, zero analysis.
Old friend from Lesson 2, new context — the konbini. Ask kore wa ikura desu ka first, hear the price, then this seals the purchase: a complete, price-checked buy.
Kaado, ii desu ka.
Ask before the register dance. Memorize it whole — the little ii (“good/okay”) gets its own machinery in Lesson 5, and this exact pattern becomes a full frame in Lesson 7.
Miru dake desu.
The standard polite deflection when staff hover. That dake is “only/just” — the same little word from kore dake, kudasai — here making “just looking.” Deploy with a smile; they’ll leave you to browse. The question it answers — Nanika o-sagashi desu ka, “looking for something?” — is one to catch by ear.
Dialog
The full konbini run. One warm snack, no bag, no point card, cash in the tray. The clerk’s lines marked with the script below come at you fast — that’s realistic, and after the next section, expected. Listen to the whole dialog cold first.
Irasshaimase! Sumimasen. Kore wa ikura desu ka. Nihyaku-en desu. Kore o kudasai. Atatamemasu ka. Hai, onegaishimasu. Fukuro wa go-riyou desu ka. Iie, daijoubu desu. Pointo kaado wa omochi desu ka. Daijoubu desu. Nihyaku-en desu. Hai, douzo. Otsuri desu. Doumo. Arigatou gozaimasu.Count the traveler’s side: seven short utterances, every one from Lessons 1–3. The scene is long; your part never is.
What they’ll say to you
The konbini script — what staff actually say, at real speed. Don’t parse these word-by-word. Each one is a fixed formula with exactly one decision inside it; your job is to catch which question this is and answer from your small set. Play each line until the decision point jumps out at you before the sentence ends.
Irasshaimase! Nanika o-sagashi desu ka. Fukuro wa go-riyou desu ka. Atatamemasu ka. O-shiharai wa dou saremasu ka. Pointo kaado wa omochi desu ka. Kochira de omeshiagari desu ka. Genkin nomi ni narimasu. Otsugi no kata douzo.Two of those answers are new — memorize them whole:
mochikaeri de — takeout. The answer to the for-here-or-to-go question. (The register genuinely needs your answer: Japan taxes the two differently — currently 8% for takeout, 10% for eating in — so the same onigiri is a few yen cheaper to go. The clerk isn’t prying; the till is waiting.) Bare Mochikaeri de. is exactly what natives say at the register — the trailing de politely implies the rest of the sentence. Add onegaishimasu after it if you want extra warmth; both are fine, neither is rude.
Koko de onegaishimasu.
Its partner — eating in. (koko means “here”; its whole word-family arrives in Lesson 4. Until then this is a memorized chunk.)
Everything else the script needs, you’ve had since Lesson 1: hai, onegaishimasu — iie, daijoubu desu — daijoubu desu.
Repair drill
The total comes at you as one long compound number. You are not expected to parse it. But you don’t need to — get it in writing (or on the register screen).
Sumimasen. Ikura desu ka. Zenbu de happyaku-nanajuu-en ni narimasu. Sumimasen. Kaite kudasai. Hai, douzo.Did you catch happyaku in the blur? Even half-caught, it told you “hundreds, not thousands” — that’s the sizing skill doing its job while the screen handles the exact digits. (Lesson 6 will teach you one better: hand a caught fragment straight back as a question, and they’ll confirm it for you.)
How to behave: the register
- Use the cash tray. Nearly every register has a small tray — put your money there, not into the clerk’s hand. Change comes back via the tray or offered with both hands. It’s not coldness; it’s the standard choreography, and using it marks you as someone who knows it.
irasshaimasegets no reply. It’s a welcome sung to the whole shop, not a greeting to you. Don’t say konnichiwa back to it — silence or a small nod is exactly right.- Konbini keigo varies; the decision words don’t. Chains word the wrapping differently, and the bag now costs a few yen (the question may arrive with a price attached) — but fukuro? atatame? pointo kaado? shiharai? survive every rewording. Spot the decision word and the script decodes itself, at any speed. (Self-checkout screens ask the same questions with buttons — even less language; most hide a Language/言語 button in a corner of the first screen, worth one glance before tapping through in Japanese.)
- Carry cash — Japan still runs on it. Plenty of small shops, temples, markets, and countryside spots are cash-only, and a foreign card gets refused more often than you’d expect. Convenience-store ATMs (7-Eleven, Lawson, FamilyMart) are the most reliable way to draw yen on a foreign card — usually a better bet than a bank branch. So when the register says genkin nomi (cash only), the fix is three minutes away.
- Carrying an IC transit card? Then the payment question answers itself: say Suica de (any brand’s name works) and tap when the reader lights up. The card — and the city it runs — lives in the Subway & City Transit booster.
- There are almost no public trash cans — and no walking-while-eating. Japan’s streets are spotless because everyone carries their trash home: pocket the wrapper, or use the konbini’s own bin before you leave (it’s for things bought there, and it’s the last bin you’ll see for a while). Eat the warm snack at the eat-in counter — that’s what answering koko de onegaishimasu gets you — or standing near the door; strolling down the street eating reads as sloppy.
Checkpoint
Your exit exam, out loud. Each line below sets a scene from this lesson — say the Japanese before you tap; the tap plays the answer. Check yourself, repeat after the audio matching its pronunciation, rhythm, and speed, and if one won’t come, replay its section. These are this deck’s speaking cards — in Anki they queue up after the listening cards, so you’ll always have heard a line before you’re asked to produce it.
Still on the checklist — ears and behavior, with no card to grade you:
- the konbini script: the bag / heat-it-up / point-card / to-go questions caught at full speed, answered without translating? (the script section — loop it if not)
- the register done right: money on the tray, exact change back?
Vocabulary reference
Production items first. The digits live in the frame section above as a drilled set (ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyuu, juu, zero) — play them there.
| # | Romaji | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hyaku | hundred | size word — catch it in prices |
| 2 | sen | thousand | size word |
| 3 | man | ten thousand | hotel-bill unit |
| 4 | en | yen | prices end in it |
| 5 | ikura | how much | ___ wa ikura desu ka. |
| 6 | ikutsu | how many | answer with the counting chunks |
| 7 | hitotsu | one (thing) | memorized whole |
| 8 | futatsu | two (things) | memorized whole |
| 9 | mittsu | three (things) | beyond three: point + number |
| 10 | dake | only / just | snaps after any noun or counting word |
| 11 | haraimasu | (I’ll) pay | your first verb — the polite -masu shape |
| 12 | takai | expensive | antonym: yasui |
| 13 | yasui | cheap | antonym: takai |
| 14 | ookii | big | antonym: chiisai |
| 15 | chiisai | small | antonym: ookii |
| 16 | okane | money | |
| 17 | mise | shop | |
| 18 | konbini | convenience store | your rhythm word from Lesson 0 |
| 19 | fukuro | bag | |
| 20 | kaado | card | |
| 21 | genkin | cash | |
| 22 | otsuri | change | always exact; never leave it |
| 23 | ryougae | money exchange (currency / breaking a bill) | Ryougae, onegaishimasu. |
| 24 | Miru dake desu. | Just looking. | the polite browse shield |
| 25 | Mochikaeri de. | To go. | answer to the to-go question |
| 26 | Koko de onegaishimasu. | For here. | chunk for now; koko unpacks in L4 |
| 27 | Kaado, ii desu ka. | Is card okay? | chunk for now; becomes a frame in L7 |
| 28 | futsuu | normal, average | Futsuu desu. — the middle between the antonym poles |
Recognize only — never say these. The konbini script, for your ears exclusively — tap to replay each at native speed:
| Script line | It means | You answer |
|---|---|---|
| Irasshaimase! | welcome! | nothing — nod at most |
| Nanika o-sagashi desu ka. | looking for something? | Answer miru dake desu — or name what you want with X wa arimasu ka |
| Fukuro wa go-riyou desu ka. | want a bag? | Answer hai, onegaishimasu / iie, daijoubu desu |
| Atatamemasu ka. | heat it up? | Answer hai, onegaishimasu / daijoubu desu |
| O-shiharai wa dou saremasu ka. | how will you pay? | Answer genkin desu / kaado desu. At the newer screen-registers it’s buttons instead — cash is the one marked 現金, the cashless buttons are katakana and logos. |
| Pointo kaado wa omochi desu ka. | have a point card? | Answer daijoubu desu |
| Kochira de omeshiagari desu ka. | for here or to go? | Answer koko de onegaishimasu / mochikaeri de |
| Genkin nomi ni narimasu. | cash only | pay with genkin, or pick up your card and nod |
| Otsugi no kata douzo. | next, please | step forward |
Anki deck
Drill this lesson’s audio anywhere: download the Lesson 3 Anki deck. Sentence cards are the course; vocab cards are backup — suspend them unless a word won’t stick.