旅行
りょこう
ryokou
= travel / trip / journey
旅行 (ryokou) is the word Japanese speakers reach for whenever they talk about taking a trip — booking flights, planning itineraries, and heading somewhere new. It works as both a noun meaning “travel” or “a trip” and as a suru-verb, ryokou suru, meaning “to travel.”
As a noun, 旅行 refers to the act of travelling or a specific trip: ryokou wa tanoshii (旅行は楽しい) means “Travel is fun,” while kaigai ryokou (海外旅行) means “overseas travel.” As a suru-verb, you attach する to get ryokou suru — “to travel” or “to go on a trip” — making sentences like rainen Yōroppa wo ryokou suru tsumori desu (来年ヨーロッパを旅行するつもりです), “I plan to travel Europe next year.”
A key distinction is between 旅行 and 旅 (tabi). 旅行 is the practical, modern word for planned travel — the kind involving train reservations, hotel bookings, and sightseeing schedules. 旅 carries a more literary and emotional weight, evoking an open-ended journey or the feeling of being on the road. A business trip is shutchou ryokou (出張旅行); a wandering pilgrimage through old Japan is more naturally described as tabi.
The biggest pitfall for learners is choosing between 旅行 (ryokou) and 旅 (tabi). Use ryokou in almost all everyday and practical contexts: booking a package tour, describing a holiday, or saying you want to travel abroad. Reserve tabi for contexts with a poetic or reflective tone — song lyrics, novels, or when you want to convey the emotional weight of a journey. You will almost never go wrong defaulting to ryokou in conversation.
Also watch for common compound forms: kaigai ryokou (overseas trip), kokunaī ryokou (domestic trip), shūgaku ryokou (school excursion), and shinkon ryokou (honeymoon). These set phrases appear constantly in travel discussions and are worth memorising as chunks.
The compound 旅行 joins two kanji that together paint a clear picture. 旅 (たび) means “travel” or “journey” and depicts a person moving away from home — its radical suggests people under a flag, historically a traveling band. 行 (こう / い) means “to go” or “to travel” and appears in many movement-related words such as 銀行 (ginkou, bank) and 旅行者 (ryokousha, traveler). Combined, 旅行 literally reads as “journey-go,” capturing the idea of setting out and moving through the world.
Everyday use
来月、家族で北海道に旅行するんだ。
Raigetsu, kazoku de Hokkaidō ni ryokou suru n da.
We’re going on a trip to Hokkaido with the family next month.
Casual / Social Media
ひとり旅行、最高すぎた。絶対また行く。
Hitori ryokou, saikō sugita. Zettai mata iku.
Solo travel was absolutely the best. I’m definitely going back.
Formal / Cultural context
弊社では年に一度、社員旅行を実施しております。
Heisha de wa nen ni ichido, shain ryokou wo jisshi shite orimasu.
Our company holds an employee trip once a year.
Travel holds a deeply ingrained place in Japanese culture. The onsen ryokou (hot spring trip) is perhaps the most iconic domestic travel tradition — a weekend escape to a ryokan inn where guests soak in natural baths, wear yukata robes, and eat elaborate kaiseki meals. These trips are seen not just as vacations but as a way to restore the mind and body, and they are common gifts between companies and families alike.
Golden Week in late April and early May, and Obon in mid-August, are the two peak ryokou seasons in Japan, when trains and highways fill with families heading to hometowns or tourist destinations. Planning a trip during these windows requires booking months in advance, and the concept of kikoku rasshu (帰国ラッシュ) — the rush of people returning home — is a fixture of the evening news every year.
Shūgaku ryokou (修学旅行), the school excursion, is a rite of passage for Japanese students. Junior high students typically travel to Kyoto and Nara to visit temples and shrines, while high school trips often go further afield — to Okinawa or even abroad. For many students it is their first experience of overnight travel without their parents, and the memories formed tend to stay vivid for decades.