No Need to Know Japanese! Use Payke and Shop Like a Local!

※This article was created with the cooperation of Payke.

 

(Two Taiwanese girls, K and Y, decided to go shopping in Shibuya!)

K: There sure are a lot of shops around here!

Y: Let's just enter a random store! What about this one? It looks cheaper than the others.

K: Looks good! Let's go in!

When You're Not Sure of the Product's Components...

(The two girls ended up in the food corner of a random shop at Shibuya.)

Y: This curry I ate yesterday at a restaurant tasted a little different from Taiwanese curry, but it was so good! I want to try eating it at home, too!

K: They all look great! But I wonder what flavors they are...?

Y: Right? I can't read a thing. All the packages are in Japanese!

K: Ah! I downloaded this app before coming here. It said that all you have to do is scan the barcode and a Chinese translation of the product's info will pop out!

Y: That sounds interesting! Give it a try!

Y: Woah, it finished in an instant! That was easy.

K: Wait, there's beef in this! Didn't you say that you couldn't eat beef...?

Y: Seriously? Ugh, better give up on that then.

K: Guess so. Aren't you glad I downloaded Payke before we came to Japan? If we bought it because we didn't know any better... yikes!

When There's So Many Things, You Can't Choose...

(The two girls arrived at a drug store.)

K: I just remembered that we're almost out of toothpaste! Let's go buy some more?

Y: Sure! But there's a lot of different types... Which one would be good?

Y: Which one out of these two would you pick? They both look good.

K: Try scanning them first! We can find out how they're different.

K: Look, the one on the left has mint in it. I'm not really a fan of mint. Is apple flavor okay?

Y: Yeah, sure! Payke's really amazing, huh? It goes into such detail!

When You Don't Know What the Product Is...

K: Ah, also, there's something I've always been curious about. A lot of Japanese girls buy this, but what exactly is it? Is it popular?

Y: Just use Payke and we'll find out!

Y: Ohh, I see! It's an eyelash treatment! No wonder so many women bought it.

K: Don't you think it sounds pretty cool? I'll buy one, too!

Payke Also Has Product Rankings

Y: I just realized that we ended up buying a lot of stuff! Feels kind of heavy. Anything else you want to buy?

K: Mm, let's see. While using Payke, I saw that it had product rankings. I kind of want to look at the products in the rankings.

Y: Here! I think it's this one! Let's quickly scan it.

K: Oh, so this really is Chocola BB Royal T! I'll buy it!

Y: After reading the product description, I want to buy it too. Get another one for me, please!

Y: Thanks for downloading Payke!

K: It's great, isn't it? It's free and you don't need to have an account with them. It's really useful!

Y: I'll go download it too!

What is Payke?

There's no need to create an account. Just scan the barcode to read the description of the product you're interested in!

How to Use Payke

When you first open the app, you'll have to answer a few quick and easy questions. After that, you can get started!

All you have to do is fit the barcode inside the white frame, and the product description will soon pop out! You can also take a look at the product's reviews, too.

There's a "Ranking" button at the bottom right of the screen that will let you view the most recent popular product rankings. There are 12 different rankings: All, Food, Diet/Health, Cosmetics/Perfumes, Computer/Gadgets, AV Equipment/Camera, Home Appliances, General Goods/Sundries, Games/Toys, Baby Products, Souvenirs, and Medicine. It's really easy to navigate around them!

If you look at the rankings and read the reviews, you won't ever have to be worried about buying another useless product again! This app is filled with a ton of useful functions.

How to Use Payke: The Movie

While the video shows Payke's interface and translated product details in Traditional Chinese, please rest assured that you can navigate the application and read the product information in a variety of languages, including English, Thai, etc. The navigation process works the exact same way!

Thoughts After Using Payke

K: I have a lot of friends around me that buy stuff they have no idea about just because everyone around them is buying the same thing. But what often happens is that when the package turns out to be all in Japanese, they have no idea how to use what they purchased. I think Payke is really useful for people like them. Even when buying souvenirs, you can use the app to find out what they're made out of. That way, you can properly enjoy all the souvenirs you brought from Japan!

Y: I didn't have Payke on my smartphone at first, but after visiting some stores in Japan, I realized how many products there were that I couldn't read the descriptions of, and therefore couldn't understand. I usually pester my friends who know Japanese to tell me the product information, but ever since I got Payke, I've been doing that less, which is great for all of us. Scanning everything and shopping has become so fun, I can't stop! I really want to recommend the app to all my friends!

Summary

Payke is an awesome smartphone app that will translate product descriptions for you with just a single scan. You don't need to create an account to use it. With this app around, there's no need to open up a dictionary for every little thing! They offer translations in many languages other than Traditional Chinese, such as Simplified Chinese, English, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese. Even if you don't know Japanese, as long as you download this app before your trip, you can fully enjoy shopping in Japan!

【Payke】

Google Play

iOS

※Some products have not been registered onto Payke yet, and therefore will not appear when scanned.