- According to the local's directions, how many buildings does the tourist pass on the LEFT side before reaching the hospital after making the right turn?
Answer: The tourist passes ONE building on the left before reaching the hospital, which is the second building on the left after turning right.
When navigating directions in Japanese, pay close attention to ordinal expressions like 「二つ目」(the second one). These tell you the count of something you reach, not how many you pass before it.
The local says 「左側の二つ目の建物」— "the second building on the left side." This means the hospital is building #2 on the left after the tourist turns right. To reach the second building, the tourist must first pass one building (building #1) before arriving at the hospital (building #2). That confirms C is correct: one building is passed on the left before reaching the hospital.
A is wrong because it interprets 「二つ目」as 「一つ目」— the first building. If the hospital were the first building on the left, the directions would say 「左側の一つ目の建物」. Confusing these ordinal counters is one of the most common traps in Japanese directions questions.
B incorrectly treats 「二つ目」as if it means the tourist passes two buildings before the hospital, making the hospital the third. But 「二つ目」means the second item in the sequence, not the one after two passed items.
D is a creative but baseless misreading. 「左側」clearly refers to the left side of the street after turning, not the direction of the turn itself. No crossing is implied.
Your study tip: whenever you see 「〜つ目」in a directions question, visualize a numbered list — the hospital being 「二つ目」simply means it holds position #2 on that side.
- Which of the following responses to the examiner's follow-up question is most linguistically accurate and logically consistent with the adjusted starting point?
Answer: 「反対側の出口から出て、左に曲がって、まっすぐ行くと、駅は右側にあります。」
When giving directions in Japanese, you need to think spatially — not just linguistically. This question tests whether you can mentally rotate your perspective when the starting point changes, then express that adjusted route accurately in Japanese.
Here's the key insight: if you exit from the opposite side of the building, your entire orientation is flipped 180 degrees. In the original route, you turned 右 (right), walked straight, and the station appeared on your 左 (left). Exiting from the opposite side means you're now facing the opposite direction. A right turn from the original exit becomes a left turn (左に曲がって) from the reversed exit. And because you're now approaching the station from the opposite angle, the station — which was on your left before — will now appear on your right side (右側). That makes D the correct answer: 「反対側の出口から出て、左に曲がって、まっすぐ行くと、駅は右側にあります。」
Choice A is wrong because it keeps "まっすぐ" before the turn, which is illogical sequencing — you turn before going straight, not after. Choice B keeps the original right turn, ignoring that the flipped exit reverses your facing direction entirely. Choice C correctly switches to a left turn but fails to update the station's side — it still says 左側, which contradicts the reversed approach angle.
A useful strategy: whenever a Japanese directions question changes the starting orientation, mentally draw a simple map. Flip your arrow 180° and re-trace each step. Spatial reasoning and grammar accuracy must work together in these questions.
- Which of the following sets of directions is both accurate AND uses the most natural Japanese phrasing for giving basic directions to the bookstore?
Answer: 「駅からまっすぐ三ブロック行ってください。本屋は薬局の隣で、右側にあります。」
When giving directions in Japanese, you need to evaluate two things simultaneously: factual accuracy (do the directions match the actual location?) and natural phrasing (does it sound like something a native speaker would say?). The destination is straight ahead three blocks, on the right, next to a pharmacy.
Choice A correctly states to go straight three blocks from the station, then identifies the bookstore as being on the right side next to the pharmacy — all facts match. The phrasing 「まっすぐ三ブロック行ってください」is natural and idiomatic, and 「右側にあります」clearly communicates position. This is both accurate and well-phrased, making A the correct answer.
Choice B is factually wrong from the start — it says to turn right (「右に曲がって」), but the directions require going straight. No matter how natural the remaining phrasing is, incorrect directions disqualify an answer immediately.
Choice C compounds errors: it instructs you to turn left (「左に曲がってください」), which contradicts the premise of going straight. It also places the pharmacy on the right before reaching the bookstore, which misrepresents the layout entirely.
Choice D goes straight correctly but then says the bookstore is on the left side (「左側に本屋があります」) — the opposite of the actual right side. This is a classic distractor that gets the route right but flips the final detail.
A useful habit: always verify every factual claim in each answer choice against the passage before judging naturalness. A perfectly phrased sentence that sends you the wrong direction is useless — accuracy comes first, then fluency.
- The second person the traveler asks says the city hall is actually to the RIGHT at the third traffic light, not the left. Assuming Kenji made a single directional error, which element of Kenji's original directions was most likely incorrect?
Answer: Kenji said 「左に曲がって」 when he should have said 「右に曲がって」, meaning the turn direction was reversed while the number of traffic lights and the landmark relationship were correct.
When answering Japanese directions questions, focus on what the problem explicitly tells you changed versus what remained consistent. The scenario gives you one clear clue: the second person confirms the city hall is at the third traffic light but turning right, not left. This means the number of signals (三つ目) was correct, and only the turn direction was wrong.
This points directly to A as the correct answer. Kenji said 「左に曲がってください」("please turn left") when he should have said 「右に曲がってください」("please turn right"). The landmark detail — city hall being to the right of the park (公園の右隣) — is actually consistent with a rightward turn, which further supports that only the direction word was swapped. A single substitution of 左 → 右 fixes everything.
B is incorrect because it changes both the signal number (三つ目 → 二つ目) and the turn direction, which contradicts the premise that Kenji made only a single error. The second person confirmed the third light was correct.
C is a trap — it targets the landmark relationship (公園の右隣 vs. 左隣), but the problem says the error was in reaching city hall, not in identifying where it sits relative to the park. The landmark description is secondary and wasn't contradicted.
D introduces an entirely new phrase (少し左に行って) that wasn't part of the original directions at all, making it an unsupported fabrication rather than a logical correction.
Your study tip: in Japanese directions, memorize the contrast pairs 左 (ひだり, left) and 右 (みぎ, right) cold — exam questions frequently test whether you can catch a single swapped direction word in an otherwise correct sentence.
- Based on the rubric, which criterion does the student's response FAIL to meet, and why?
Answer: Criterion 2 is not met because the student does not include any turn with a direction word — 「まっすぐ」 indicates going straight, which is not a turn, so no left or right turn direction is specified.
When evaluating directions in Japanese against a rubric, your job is to carefully map each phrase in the student's response to each criterion — don't assume a criterion is met just because the directions sound reasonable overall.
Look at what the student actually said: 「駅を出て、まっすぐ行くと、ホテルは右側にあります。コンビニの隣です。」The key word is 「まっすぐ」, which means "straight ahead." Criterion 2 explicitly requires a turn with a direction word — meaning the student must instruct the listener to turn left (左に曲がる) or right (右に曲がる). Going straight is the absence of a turn, not a turn itself. Since the student never instructs any turning movement, Criterion 2 is not met. That makes B the correct answer.
Choice A is tempting but wrong. 「駅を出て」("exit the station") is a perfectly acceptable starting reference point — rubrics for beginner-level tasks typically accept a named location like a station as sufficient. The criterion does not demand pinpoint precision within the station. Choice D is a clever distractor because it's partially reasonable — 「まっすぐ行くと」 truly lacks a specific distance. However, 「コンビニの隣」does function as a landmark indicator showing where to stop, which satisfies the spirit of Criterion 3. The criterion is met, even imperfectly. Choice C is wrong because Criterion 4 asks for the destination's location relative to a nearby landmark, and 「コンビニの隣」("next to the convenience store") does exactly that — adjacency is a valid relative position.
Your takeaway: when a rubric says "a turn," it means an actual change of direction (左/右に曲がる) — never confuse 「まっすぐ」 with directional turning vocabulary.
