Ramen counter, Osaka, 8pm
They ask you something. You freeze.
It happens to everyone, and it is almost always the same sentence. Hear it once right now, answer it out loud, and it stops being scary.
You are at the counter
Press play. This is a real waiter, at the speed they really say it. See if you can work out what they want.
What you will be able to do
I can greet people and say sorry in Japanese
すみません opens every interaction in Japan. These four phrases carry day one.
I can understand Japanese prices and times
Catch 千九百八十円 at the register and 三時半 in an announcement.
I can order food in Japanese
Order what you actually want, and understand what they ask back.
I can shop in Japanese
Handle a shop or konbini counter without switching to English.
I can ask for directions in Japanese
Find the station, the right exit, or the nearest toilet.
Each one is a real exchange, not a word list. You earn it by doing it, then doing it again a day later with nothing on screen to help.
How it works
Tell it when you fly
Your departure date and the situations you expect. That becomes a countdown, not a course with no end.
Five minutes a day
One short session that mixes what you are forgetting with a little new ground, and always makes you say something out loud.
Prove it cold
A day after you learn a scenario it comes back with the help removed. Passing that is the only thing that counts as knowing it.
Why it is not another flashcard app
Tapping the right answer out of four is not speaking, and recognising a word is not remembering it. Here the other person talks at normal speed with no subtitles, you answer with your voice, and the app checks it. Then it makes you do it again tomorrow.
Everything is built on the words that actually come up in spoken Japanese, in the order they come up. No writing, no kanji drills, nothing you will not use in a shop.
Honest limits
Three weeks of five minutes a day will not make you conversational. It will make you able to handle a counter, a ticket gate and a restaurant without switching to English, and understand enough of the reply to keep going. That is the whole promise.