Dear travellers, Have a nice trip! (part 1)

There are so many English expressions with “have”, such as “Have a good day”, “Have a good weekend”, “Have fun” and so on. You can almost create as many as you want. On the contrary, Japanese has no such handy verb. (I also wrote about this in an old post.)

That’s why direct translation doesn’t work for “Have a nice trip” and “Have a nice flight”. But we do have Japanese expressions for travelers.

Have a nice trip.: ryokou o tanoshinde kite ne.

Have a nice/safe trip.: ki o tsukete itte kite ne.

An interesting point in Japanese is that “kite ne” is attached at the end of the sentences. This “kuru” indicates that a traveler will come back to the place where they are now.

ryokou o tanoshinde kite ne.: Enjoy your trip and make sure to come back.

ki o tsukete itte kite ne.: Take care and make sure to come back.

I just remembered what my teachers told students on school excursions. The teachers said to us every time, “An excursion doesn’t finish until you get home. Going to a destination is not the end of an excursion. Going back to school from the destination is not either. You should behave well until it’s over.”

Next, according to a dictionary, “flight” is “bin” in Japanese. But we don’t say “ii bin” (good flight), “anzen na bin” (safe flight) or “watashi no bin” (my flight). However, the following usages for “bin” are okay.

chokkou bin: direct flight

asa/hiru/yoru no bin: morning/ afternoon/ evening flight

iki no/ kaeri no bin: a flight to go/ to come back

My flight is late.: watashi no hikouki/flight wa okureteiru.