Questions tagged [direction]

8 questions
17
votes
2 answers

Ups and downs: かみ・しも vs うえ・した

So, we have the kanji 上・下 which can be read as either かみ・しも or うえ・した, and as I understand it, those two are antonym pairs. But what are the differences between the two? The thesaurus isn't very helpful. For instance, it says, for…
Zhen Lin
  • 4,830
  • 1
  • 26
  • 31
16
votes
2 answers

What are the differences between 帰る and 戻る?

Can you give an example of when 帰る should be used instead of 戻る, and vice versa? The reason I ask is that I sometimes get corrected when using the two, such as in: × そのとき私は日本から戻ってきて、大学に戻って入りました。 (ignore the other problems with this ☺) …
Louis Waweru
  • 5,225
  • 32
  • 55
7
votes
2 answers

How to write "eastern Tokyo" (or "northern Hokkaido")

While chatting with a friend about meeting up in eastern Tokyo, I typed in ひがしとうきょう and my Mac dutifully sent 東東京 out the wire. I quickly clarified with ひがし東京 just so she wouldn't think I had made a weird typo or something. But is 東東京 actually the…
Garrett Albright
  • 864
  • 6
  • 16
6
votes
1 answer

Saying northeast, northwest, north-north-east, etc

What would the correct way to write and say northeast, northwest, north-north-east, etc? In Chinese, we put east and west first and then put north or south at the end, for example, 東北 for northeast. Is this the same in Japanese? And would the…
小太郎
  • 4,292
  • 1
  • 36
  • 61
5
votes
2 answers

Is it acceptable to include both direction (へ) and destination (に) in a sentence?

The English sentence "I went east to Japan." is quite simple - a direction and a destination together in a sentence. But it seems this is rather tricky to translate into Japanese. I asked this Hinative question about how best to translate the…
Hikonyan
  • 1,754
  • 1
  • 10
  • 16
5
votes
1 answer

What do you say for "junction" or "fork" in a path in terms of direction?

For junction I know of 交差点 but is that only for traffic junctions or can it be used generally, say, in a mall when the path splits 3 ways or more in front of you.
shoryuu
  • 1,463
  • 1
  • 12
  • 22
2
votes
2 answers

Will you come or go to my location?

I'm in Tokyo. I want to ask my friend if he's coming to Tokyo. In English it is natural to say "Will you come to Tokyo?", not "Will you go to Tokyo", as I use my own location as the reference point. But how is this in Japanese? Do I…
matthiash
  • 123
  • 3
-3
votes
1 answer

Explaining directions to a Japanese tourist /useful phrases to know

Sorry if this might be too broad, I'm first time on this stackexchange. Setup: I'm walking around the town. I see a Japanese tourist looking at a city map and trying to find a landmark/restaurant/hotel on it and/or the landmark in this town. The…
jo1storm
  • 97
  • 3