Four questions at the conbini register, and the short answers that work

At a FamilyMart a few minutes from Shinjuku Station (新宿駅), a little after eleven at night, the cashier scans a salmon onigiri (おにぎり), a bottle of mugicha (麦茶, barley tea) and a tray of meat-sauce pasta. Before the total appears, four questions arrive, each a few syllables long, each spoken at the pace of someone who has been asking it since lunchtime. The customer ahead of you answered all four without looking up from a phone. None of them needs a full sentence in reply.

The questions come in a fixed order

The script barely changes between chains. At 7-Eleven, Lawson and FamilyMart, and at the NewDays counters inside JR East stations, it tends to run the same way: point card, bag, heating, cutlery. Knowing the order is more useful than catching the words, because the words blur.

Register staff speak in keigo (敬語), the formal service register, which wraps a simple question in extra syllables. The meaning sits in one noun near the front — pointo, fukuro, atatame, o-hashi. Listen for the noun and let the rest go past.

Point card, then the bag

First comes “Pointo kādo wa o-mochi desu ka” (ポイントカードはお持ちですか): do you have a point card. Each chain belongs to a loyalty scheme — Lawson to Ponta, 7-Eleven to nanaco — and a visitor on a ten-day trip rarely carries one. “Nai desu” (ないです, I don't have one) ends it, and the scanning continues.

Next is “Fukuro wa go-riyō desu ka” (袋はご利用ですか): will you use a bag. Plastic bags carry a small charge, posted on a card at the register and printed as its own line on the receipt. “Onegai shimasu” (お願いします) means yes, please.

The refusal is the phrase that trips people. “Daijōbu desu” (大丈夫です) translates as “it's fine”, which sounds like agreement, but at a register it means no, thank you. Say it with a small sideways wave of the hand and the items come back across the counter loose, for you to pack into your own tote.

Whether to heat it

“Atatamemasu ka” (温めますか) — shall I warm this — follows most bento, pasta and rice bowls, and sometimes a karē pan (カレーパン, curry bread). Yes is “hai, onegai shimasu”. No is “sono mama de” (そのままで), as it is.

Say yes and the order of events shifts. You pay first, then stand to one side while the microwave behind the counter runs and the next customer is served. The pasta comes back hot enough that the cashier holds it by the bag handles.

Buy something cold in the same basket and a further question may follow: “Fukuro o-wake shimasu ka” (袋お分けしますか), shall I separate the bags, so the pasta does not warm the mugicha. “Issho de” (一緒で) keeps everything together; “wakete kudasai” (分けてください) splits it, and the second bag is charged like the first.

The glass case beside the register works differently. Famichiki at FamilyMart, Karaage-kun at Lawson and the steamed nikuman (肉まん) that appear in the cold months are ordered at the counter, not carried to it. Point and say “kore hitotsu” (これ一つ), one of these.

Chopsticks, spoons and the eat-in counter

“O-hashi o-tsuke shimasu ka” (お箸お付けしますか) offers chopsticks. With pasta the word becomes fōku (フォーク); with pudding or curry, supūn (スプーン). Answer with a number — “hitotsu” for one, “futatsu” (二つ) for two — which matters when one bento is being shared on a platform bench.

Some branches have cut back on plastic cutlery, or moved it to a self-serve box near the coffee machine. If nothing is offered, ask: “O-hashi arimasu ka” (お箸ありますか).

Shops with an eat-in counter, signed イートイン (īto-in), add a wrinkle. Consumption tax on food is charged at a different rate for eating in than for taking away, so a notice at the register asks you to say so if you plan to sit down, and some cashiers ask aloud. “Mochikaeri” (持ち帰り) means takeaway; the receipt shows which rate was applied.

The screen that asks for you

Put a can of beer or a lemon chūhai (チューハイ) on the counter and the customer-facing screen lights up with a button marked 年齢確認 (nenrei kakunin, age confirmation). The cashier says “Gamen no tacchi o onegai shimasu” (画面のタッチをお願いします) and waits. Touching it is your declaration that you are of legal drinking age, which in Japan is twenty; staff may ask for identification, and a passport is what a visitor would show.

Payment is the last exchange. At many 7-Eleven registers you pick the method on that same screen; elsewhere you say it — “Suica de” (スイカで), “kādo de” (カードで), “genkin de” (現金で, cash). At newer registers the cashier scans and then gestures to a machine beside the counter, where you feed in notes and coins yourself.

Where to practise, and what to check

No journey is required; the question is which branch. A residential one in mid-afternoon — along the back streets of Yanaka (谷中) or Kōenji (高円寺), say — has no queue and a cashier with time to repeat the question. Noon in an office district such as Marunouchi (丸の内) is the opposite: one line runs past the drinks fridge and feeds several registers, and you wait on the floor marks until you hear “O-tsugi no kata, dōzo” (お次の方どうぞ), next customer, please.

Costs are visible before you reach the counter. Shelf tags carry a tax-included figure marked 税込 (zeikomi), and the bag charge is posted at the register. Accepted cards and payment apps appear as stickers on the door or the till and differ from branch to branch. Hours differ too: many shops trade through the night, but branches inside stations and office towers often close, so check the door or the chain's own store finder.

Most baskets need only one line of Japanese. It is the double refusal: no bag, thank you, and as it is, please.

袋は大丈夫です、そのままでお願いします。

The mistake to avoid is nodding through all four questions. A nod reads as yes, and you leave with a bag you paid for, a heated bento meant for a later train, and chopsticks for a sandwich. Slow down by one second at each noun and the whole exchange still takes less time than the microwave.