Am I coming or going? 戻ってくる vs 戻っていく


A little while ago I was in a shop, and about 5 minutes after I left, they
phoned me to tell me I had left my USB stick there. I said I would head back
and pick it up.

I used `戻{もど}って行{い}く` to mean "I'll go back", but I wonder if `戻{もど}ってくる`
would have been better, as in "I'll come back".

Japanese has always tripped me up a bit in terms of which point of view one
refers to when describing direction. Am I coming to where they are, or going
from where I am? Or are both okay?

Now that I think about it, English can be flexible on this as well, so perhaps
there aren't strict rules. Maybe I'm over thinking it...?

In any case, does anyone have any pointers which can help determine when one
comes to where the other person is, or when one goes from where the speaker
is?




_I'm not really answering my own question as much as I am relaying what I
believe is the correct answer after polling a few Japanese people on this._

A simple `戻{もど}ります` or `戻{もど}る` would be the usual way to go.

`戻{もど}って行{い}く` is definitely wrong. However, `戻{もど}ってきます` isn't totally wrong,
and I was told there are some people who would use it. Specifically they said
`「言{い}う人{ひと}もいるよ」`.

However, possibly the best to say would have been:

> 取{と}りに戻{もど}る

Which is something like, "[I'll] head back to pick [my USB thingy] up".




Neither seems really appropriate to me. In that case the best thing to say
might be 戻ります _modorimasu_.

You can never really say 戻って行く _modotteiku_ about yourself. You can say
彼は戻って行く when somebody else is leaving to return to where he came from. You can
say 戻ってくる _modottekuru_ when you're going somewhere but are going to _return
here_ (e.g. 「戻ってくるね、待ってて」). 戻る _modoru_ already has the meaning of "going
there" and doesn't need an 行く or くる for other cases.

