Is は used when asking if something already discussed exists?


If I've talked about a thing before, and want to ask whether or not it exists
in another place (or time), would I use "は"?

For example, if I said "In Sydney, I saw a ryokan. Are there ryokans in
Melbourne?", would I say "は" or "が" in

> シドニーで、旅館を見ました。
>
> メルボルンに旅館（は／が?）ありますか？

By contrast, if I hadn't talked about it before, would I use "が"?

> 私はメルボルンに行きます。
>
> メルボルンに旅館がありますか？

(The reason I'm asking about this is that I probably got the wrong idea about
when to use "が" and "は" because I misinterpreted the grammar section of
"Japanese For Busy People I" Unit 4 (page 68 in the kana edition))




In both cases, the natural particle choice would be 「は」. The speaker simply
does not have enough reason to use「が」 in either of the two. You need a good
reason to use 「が」 but J-learners tend to over-use it.

> "In Sydney, I saw a ryokan. Are there ryokans in Melbourne?"

In this situation, the speaker does not know whether or not there are ryokan
in Melbourne. To ask about that, you would use 「は」. The first sentence about
Sydney has no effect on the particle choice after the 「[旅館]{りょかん}」 in the
second sentence, but you must let it have effect on the particle after the
「メルボルン」. You would need 「には」 instead of 「に」 for the comparison between the two
cities.

> 「メルボルン **には** 旅館 **は** ありますか。」 would be a very natural-sounding sentence.

The second situation is no different in the sense that the speaker does not
know whether or not there are ryokan in Melbourne.

> 「メルボルンに旅館 **は** ありますか。」

You could change the 「メルボルンに」 to 「メルボルンには」, but unlike in the first situation,
it is optional. If you used 「には」 here, it would be for emphasis whereas it was
for comparison in the first situation.

