「に」(1) Indicate a destination or direction of an action
「に」(1) Indicate a destination or direction of an action
To, toward
The next important particle is に, which has many functions in Japanese. One of its functions is to show the place towards which someone or something moves. In other words, it indicates the destination or direction of an action or goal. When used in this way に can be translated as to or toward.
学校に
to/toward school
昨日遊び場で会った女の子が今日学校に来る。
His friends will also come to school.
母と一緒に隣の町に行く。
Teacher/The Teacher will go to town.
Think of に as putting a target on something. This image will be handy for other uses of this particle as well, so try to keep it in mind.
When paired with a location, に places the target 
on the location, designating it as the goal of our movement.
Combining に with は to mark the topic
In Japanese, each element of a sentence can represent a case, which tells us the function an element has in the sentence. As we learned in this lesson, the ～に case can tell us the destination or direction of an action or goal.
私が店に行く。
I will go to the store
In this sentence our case 店に, tells us what the destination of our action 行く to go is. Each case like this in a Japanese sentence can be turned into the topic of the sentence using は. Depending on the particle the element uses, the change to は looks a bit different.
Below you can see an overview of the changes that happen when turning a case into our topic.
が | を | に | で | へ | と | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case | が | を | に | で | へ | と |
Topic | は | は | には | では | へは | とは |
Notice that when に is converted into our topic using は, they combine to form には. Let's now take our example from above and turn our ～に case into the topic.
店には、私が行く。
As for going to the store (as opposed to other places), (I) will go.
So, what is different from the first version of this sentence? The most likely interpretation is that は is simply used to add a sense of contrast: the speaker is going to the store, but not other places. This could come up in a situation where people are deciding who's going where, with the speaker declaring that they will go to the store (as opposed to other places being discussed).
Because が is used in this sentence there is also a nuance that the speaker is suggesting that they will be the person who goes to the store while the others will go elsewhere.
Without the は, the sentence is simply a matter-of-fact statement concerning the speaker's intention of going to a/the store (without the nuance of excluding other places).
Formation
サンフランシスコに
General Structure
サンフランシスコに行く。