I work for a software company in Seattle, and several times a year I go to Tokyo with colleagues who have never been to Japan. Before each trip I end up writing the same things on a legal pad on the airplane: how to say thank you, how to hand over a business card, what to do with your shoes. This page is the legal pad, typed up so I can stop rewriting it.

I was born and raised in Osaka and came to the United States for college. My Japanese is a little old-fashioned now, and my Osaka accent amuses people in Tokyo, but the fundamentals here are correct and they will serve you well. My American colleagues who have used this page report that the effort is noticed and appreciated far out of proportion to what it costs you. Nobody expects you to speak Japanese. Everybody is pleased when you try.

A note on the spelling: the phrases are written in romaji, our alphabet. A doubled vowel ("ou", "uu") is simply held a little longer. Every syllable is pronounced; "desu" sounds like "dess," and "shimasu" like "shimass." "R" is a light tap somewhere between an English r, l and d. Don't worry about it. Speak clearly and slowly and you will be understood.

If you learn only five, learn numbers 1, 6, 11, 14 and 16. If you learn only one, learn 14.

Numbers, since you'll need them: ichi (1), ni (2), san (3), yon (4), go (5), roku (6), nana (7), hachi (8), kyuu (9), juu (10). Eleven is juu-ichi, twenty is ni-juu, one hundred is hyaku, one thousand is sen, and ten thousand is man, which is where prices get confusing: 30,000 yen is "san-man en," three ten-thousands.

Bonus, from Osaka: Ookini means "thank you" in my home town. Say it in Tokyo and people will laugh, kindly, and ask if you have been to Osaka.

Bend from the waist, back straight, eyes down, arms at your sides (women often clasp their hands in front). Don't bob the head alone; that is a nod, not a bow. Don't bow and talk at the same time; say the phrase, then bow, or bow, then speak.

• About 15 degrees: a casual greeting, passing someone in the hall, thanking a shop clerk.
• About 30 degrees: the standard business bow. Meeting a client, beginning and ending a meeting, saying thank you for something real.
• About 45 degrees: deep respect or a serious apology. You will probably not need it. If you have to apologize for something serious, this is how.

Hold the bow a beat longer than feels natural; a quick bow reads as careless. The junior person bows first and lower. Japanese businesspeople who deal with Americans will often extend a hand; shake it, and if you also give a small bow at the same time nobody will mind. What you should not do is grab someone's hand and pump it while they are trying to bow to you. Follow the other person's lead, and when in doubt, bow.

The exchange of business cards is the most important thirty seconds of your first meeting. A card in Japan stands for the person. Treat it that way.

1. Bring a lot. A hundred is not too many for a week. Have them printed with English on one side and Japanese on the other; a printer in any large American city can do this, and your company's Japanese office certainly can. Keep them in a proper card case, not a wallet, not a shirt pocket.
2. Stand up. Cards are exchanged standing, at the beginning, after or with the bow. The junior person (or the visitor, which is you) offers first.
3. Offer with both hands, holding the card by the corners so the text faces the other person and they can read it as you hold it out. Say your company and name (phrase 23) and "yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
4. Receive with both hands. Say "choudai itashimasu" ("I humbly accept") or simply "arigatou gozaimasu." Read it. Actually read it. Look at the name and the title. If you can, say the name back with "-san." This is not for show; it's how you learn who outranks whom in the room.
5. Do not write on it, fold it, or put it in a back pocket. When you sit down, place the cards you have received on the table in front of you, arranged to match where each person is sitting, and leave them there for the whole meeting. When the meeting ends, put them carefully in your card case.
6. When two groups meet, it goes in rank order, senior to senior first. Watch your Japanese counterpart's body language and go where the traffic goes.

My colleagues tell me this feels stiff. It is stiff. It is also the single most-noticed thing an American visitor does or does not do right, and it costs nothing but attention.

Shoes come off at the door of any home, at traditional inns (ryokan), in temples, and in restaurants and rooms with tatami-mat floors. You will know because there is a step up from a small entryway (the genkan) and a row of slippers waiting. Step out of your shoes and up onto the raised floor without putting your stockinged feet down in the entryway; turn your shoes to face the door (or your host will do it for you, which is a small embarrassment). Wear the slippers in the hallway, and take even the slippers off before stepping onto tatami.

The restroom in a home or inn will have its own separate pair of slippers. Change into them going in and change back going out. Walking back to the dinner table in the toilet slippers is the classic visitor's mistake and it will be remembered fondly for years.

Practical consequences: wear shoes you can slip off standing up (loafers, not lace-up boots), and wear good socks with no holes. Your socks will be looked at. Office buildings and ordinary restaurants are shoes-on; you'll only hit this a few times a trip, but each time it matters.

Much of the real business happens at dinner, after the formal meeting. You will be invited. Go, and go with the flow.

Seating. The guest of honor sits farthest from the door; the host nearest it. Don't sit until you're shown where. If you're the senior visitor, expect the far seat.

The hot towel (oshibori) brought at the start is for your hands. Not your face, not your neck, however tempting on a humid night.

Drinking. Nobody drinks until the toast ("kanpai"). Pour for the people near you and let them pour for you; don't pour your own. When someone pours for you, lift your glass slightly with both hands. If you don't want more, leave your glass full; an empty glass is an invitation. Non-drinkers can simply say so with an apology; it is fine, and oolong tea will appear.

Chopsticks. The rules that matter:

• Never stand them upright in a bowl of rice. That is how rice is offered to the dead.
• Never pass food from your chopsticks to someone else's chopsticks. That is how bones are handled at a cremation. Put the food on their plate instead.
• Don't point with them, wave them, spear food with them, or rub them together (that says you think they're cheap).
• Taking from a shared dish: use the serving chopsticks if there are any; if not, it's polite to turn your own around and use the clean ends.
• Rest them on the little rest (hashioki) or across the edge of your plate, not across your rice bowl.

Other table matters. It's proper to lift your rice bowl and soup bowl toward you. Slurping noodles is not rude; it's expected. Soup is drunk from the bowl. Sushi may be eaten with the fingers; dip the fish side, not the rice, and lightly. Don't pour soy sauce over your rice. Try everything once; you can leave something you can't manage, but a comment on how good it looks goes a long way. Say "itadakimasu" before and "gochisousama deshita" after.

Paying. Your host will pay and will not discuss it. Don't fight over the check; reciprocate when they visit Seattle.

The second party. After dinner there is very often a nijikai, a second stop, sometimes for karaoke. Go, at least once. You will be asked to sing. Have one song ready that you can get through; something everyone knows is better than something you sing well. Mine is "Take Me Home, Country Roads." It has never failed.

Tokyo runs on trains and so should you. Taxis are clean and honest and very expensive in traffic; the trains are clean, honest, on time to the minute, and cheap.

• From Narita Airport (which is a long way out of the city, about an hour or more): the Narita Express train goes to Tokyo Station and on to Shinjuku and other hubs; the Keisei Skyliner goes to Ueno; and the Airport Limousine buses go straight to the major hotels, which with luggage is the easiest choice. A taxi from Narita into the city costs more than your hotel night. Don't.
• The JR Yamanote Line is the green loop line that circles central Tokyo, connecting Tokyo Station, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Ueno. If you learn one line, learn this one. A full loop takes about an hour.
• The subways are two systems, the Eidan lines and the Toei lines, each line with its own color and letter. They connect to the JR lines at big stations. A transfer between JR and subway means a separate ticket unless you have a pass.
• Tickets: find your destination on the fare map above the machines (there is usually an English one somewhere near), put in coins or bills, press the fare, take the ticket. If you can't work out the fare, buy the cheapest ticket and use the fare adjustment machine by the exit gate at the other end; it tells you the difference and you pay it. Nobody will be upset. Keep your ticket; the exit gate eats it.
• Rush hour (roughly 7:30 to 9:30 in the morning) is everything you have heard. There are station staff whose job is to push. If your meeting is at nine, leave at seven-thirty or take a taxi and watch the meter climb.
• Last trains run around midnight and the first around five in the morning. If the nijikai runs late, that is why everyone suddenly leaves at 11:40.
• Manners: no talking on the phone, quiet conversation, no eating on commuter trains, line up on the platform markings, let people off first. Nobody cuts in line. Ever.
• To Osaka (should you be so lucky), the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo Station takes about two and a half hours on the fastest service. Buy a reserved seat. Buy an ekiben, a station box lunch, to eat on board.

There is no tipping in Japan. Not in restaurants, not in taxis, not to hotel staff, not to the barber. The price is the price. Good service is simply what the job is. Hotels and some better restaurants add a service charge to the bill; that is all there is.

If you leave coins on the table, one of two things will happen: the waiter will come running after you down the street to return the money you forgot, or the staff will be quietly puzzled. Neither is what you intended. If someone has truly gone out of their way, a small gift from home (see below) at the end of your stay is the thing.

• A dark suit, white shirts, conservative ties. Tokyo business dress is more formal than Seattle's; there is no casual Friday at your client's office.
• Business cards, at least a hundred, in a case. See above.
• Small gifts (omiyage) for the people you'll meet: something from home, modest and nicely wrapped. From Seattle I bring coffee and smoked salmon and nobody has ever been disappointed. Present a gift with both hands and a phrase like "tsumaranai mono desu ga" ("it's nothing much, but..."). Gifts are usually not opened in front of you; that isn't rudeness.
• Cash. Japan is a cash country. Many restaurants and small shops don't take credit cards, and you shouldn't count on finding a cash machine that accepts an American card. Change money at the airport bank counter or your hotel; the rates are fair. The yen has been a little over 100 to the dollar lately, so a 10,000-yen note is roughly a hundred dollars. It is perfectly safe to carry a good deal of cash; I have never felt otherwise anywhere in Japan.
• A handkerchief. Many public restrooms have no paper towels or hand dryers. Everyone carries a small towel or handkerchief for their hands. You'll see.
• Slip-on shoes and good socks. See Shoes.
• An umbrella, in any season. September is typhoon season; June and early July are the rainy season. Cheap clear umbrellas are sold at every convenience store when you forget.
• Your laptop will be fine. Japan is 100 volts (Tokyo is 50 cycles) with the same two flat-prong outlets as the U.S., and a laptop power brick that says 100-240V, which nearly all do, needs no adapter. A hair dryer from home will run a little weak. Modem: the phone jacks are the same as at home; ask the hotel about a dial-up number.
• Your passport: American citizens don't need a visa for a short business visit. Carry the passport with you; you are supposed to.
• Aspirin and anything you take regularly. Drugstores are everywhere but the labels are not in English.
• Leave room in the suitcase. You will be given gifts too, and you'll want to bring things home.

• Origami Every Day — Hana is fifteen and folds a model every day. If you want a small, impressive party trick for the nijikai, learn her crane before you go.
• Bonsai for the Patient — Ken and Sachiko's page. Patience, incidentally, is the other thing to pack.
• Sakura Asian Grocery — for practicing "kore o kudasai" before you leave.
• Eastside Judo Club — another place where the bow matters.