Holidays
Pack your bags. Learn the Japanese words for holidays, travel and the places you go, each with its kana reading, its kanji, romaji to help you say it, and the English meaning.
Revise this, the fun way
Play it interactively, earn XP and build a streak, free.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
Holidays 🏖️
Holidays are one of the topics you will be asked to talk and write about: **where you go, how you get there, and what you do**. Every word below is shown four ways: the **kana** reading first, then the **kanji** where the word has one, then the **romaji** in brackets to help you say it, and the **English** meaning. Learn the kana reading, because that is the form the exam board puts first.
Key words (1) 🗂️
Start with four holiday words:
Match each word to its meaning
- やすみ / 休み (yasumi)
- りょこう / 旅行 (ryokou)
- うみ / 海 (umi)
- なつ / 夏 (natsu)
- holiday, time off
- a trip, travel
- the sea
- summer
What does it mean?
What does the Japanese word うみ / 海 (umi) mean?
- the sea
- summer
- a trip, travel
- holiday, time off
Key words (2) 🚄
Now four more words you need for a holiday:
Match each word to its meaning
- でんしゃ / 電車 (densha)
- ひこうき / 飛行機 (hikouki)
- にもつ / 荷物 (nimotsu)
- やま / 山 (yama)
- train
- aeroplane
- luggage
- mountain
Getting there
Select the TWO Japanese words that are ways of travelling.
- でんしゃ / 電車 (densha)
- ひこうき / 飛行機 (hikouki)
- にもつ / 荷物 (nimotsu)
- やま / 山 (yama)
Choose the Japanese word
In Japanese, the word for 'the sea' is _____, and the word for 'summer' is _____.
Words from other languages 💡
Japanese writes **words borrowed from other languages in katakana**, the more angular of the two kana sets. Holiday vocabulary is full of them: • **ホテル (hoteru)** hotel • **バス (basu)** bus So katakana is a fast clue: an angular word that sounds close to English is usually a borrowed one. One warning from the exam board itself: work written in **romaji is not credited**. The romaji in brackets is a pronunciation aid, nothing more.
Which script?
On a Japanese menu you see the word ケーキ. What does the script it is written in tell you?
- It is katakana, so the word is borrowed from another language
- It is hiragana, so the word is a grammar ending
- It is kanji, so the word came from Chinese characters
- It is romaji, so it can be used in your written answers
Places and transport 🗺️
Holiday words fall into two groups. Sorting them this way makes them easier to recall, and adds one more place: **しま / 島 (shima)**, an island.
Planning a holiday 🧭
An interactive activity.
One more
The Japanese word for 'a trip' is _____, the word for 'a mountain' is _____, and the word for 'an island' is _____.
Your turn ✍️
An interactive activity.