Hey,

I've recently been playing (and enjoying) Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. However, I saw a Japanese commercial for this game and I will swear that the announcer said "Fire Emblem: Souen no Kiseki". I had to look up souen, but according to a number of different dictionaries, it means 'mulberry patch'. Could this be right? Is the subtitle of the game in Japan really Miracle of Mulberry Patch? Does this have some colloquial meaning that the dictionaries don't know about?

Thanks,

Nathan

Sensei

It's interesting that you'd ask about Souen. That word came up in a question to me a few months ago from a fellow staffer. Off the top of my head, I couldn't remember what it meant, but I knew where I'd heard it. I went to my Japanese IME and typed it in, and I recognized the kanji. I ran it through my dictionary to confirm it, and it says 'manor'. That's kinda close, but it's more like a kind of garden in usage. The 'en' part denotes garden. I couldn't find a meaning for 'sou' by itself. If you've played Wild Arms in either form, the Pleasing Garden is known as the Illusionary Mansion in Japanese.

Thanks for writing in, and hope that helps!

Jordan,

Howslife? Okay, so here's the letter one day earlier. I actually have no idea what you mean what you mean with Monday night, but I guess I'm already late now as it is already Monday night here in Europe. I'm sorry if I press you and make it inconvenient, I'll try to send next e-mail in the weekend. Or maybe after I read your column, that would be even better!

Thanks for the pancake tips. This guy wrote in the comments that maple syrup is common. While we do have syrup here in Holland, I guess the syrup is quite different, as it is just concentrated sugar (well, it's made from sugar). The only maple-thing I've tasted is in Ben & Jerry ice cream!When I make my own pancakes I use butter and oil, but from a package I use 50% soda, instead of normal water so it'll rise. I wasn't thinking of oil... Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, I heard about the school system. It's quite too ad, it's like that, childhood should actually be worry-free. So is there a lot of discrimination between the classes? I saw a Singaporean movie once, about this elementary school. They have a class system there and it seemed that both children and parents look down and up each other, depending on which (their children) classes go to. You know where certain people only hang out with people their "own class" - if you know what I mean.

How are those cram schools actually. I once saw that in Love Hina, but I had no idea what time span it is. I mean, is it one whole year, or just for the summer (or any other vacation). And when are those test for schools/universities given - only once a year?

So how is the level of the schools/university actually. I know that the good ones are good (or they must be good), but if you can't get in, how are the other schools/universities. Are they bad, or are even the lowest/cheapest quite good (as they must keep up with certain standards? Here they do)? And are the good ones as good as they say or is it just because they have a status/history?

Sorry, I have no idea about how school's there (so that's why I ask)!

So, next week will be you last? Will you do anything special the last week? Or do you have to work until the end of your stay (that would suck)

. And oh, except for usual games/comics/poster/toys/souvenir-thingies, are there other stuff you're taking with you from Japan? Like ubercool swords or something! What are you going to do with your furniture BTW.?

Well, I guess that it. Thanks for answering my questions again! I've gotta go to sleep... Have a nice week!

Douggie

PS. So, are you going to take a lot of pancake-mixes with you? PS2. Okay, so now I know what you do... I'm sorry if it sounded like I underrated your job...

"We all know that birds fly, but now can
you tell me where they are actually flying to??"

Sensei

Sadly I had no room for pancake mix. I was hoping to bring some home, but one of my students gave me this awesome tea set as a going away present. Don't get me wrong, I DO love the tea set, but who gives big, heavy, fragile presents to people moving to the other side of the planet? At any rate, I'm looking into trying to import some. If not, I'll just go to epicurious and get some pancake recipes and start making my own from scratch. I think I can take a recipe and work with it enough to make my own pancakes that taste as good as Morinaga, if not better.

As for the cram schools, they are known as Juku in Japan, and yeah, I think it is kind of sad. Like I said before, these schools exist only to help students pass entrance exams for various schools. In that way, they are something akin to Princeton Review or Kaplan. But the difference is that while many people buy the books, few people in America pay the 1000 or so bucks to take the class. In Japan, this is not the case. Almost EVERY student is enrolled in a Juku, and they go all year. Most students have something every day. My students came to GEOS on Wednesday and juku on Tuesday and Thursday. On Monday and Friday they had various other lessons like piano or sports or a Japanese art like calligraphy. Pretty much, Japanese kids are booked tight from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. It looks like the most stressful place I've ever been. As much as I loved Japan, I'd take my American childhood over theirs 10000 to one. Maybe they learn more, but I had a lot of fun being a kid. In fact, I still am a kid in many of the ways that count.

As far as kids and parents looking down on each other, I didn't really get that impression in Niihama, but that's a relatively rural area. It is pretty well known that schools are competitive, and in order to get good jobs, you have to have a good education. It's kind of the domino theory. If you get into the right grade school, the next step just falls right into place, and you end up in the right job. Then you'll work overtime for that job while you smoke 1000 cigarettes a day until it's time for retirement. While I do exaggerate a bit, it's kind of true in a way. Japan really is a kind of stressful place.

In one lesson we had, we had to compare nations to other things. America was compared to football. When we need to, we come together in a huddle to solve a problem, then we scatter and do each of our specific jobs. I compared Japan to a bee hive. With their group mentality, they work as pieces of a whole to keep everyone afloat. They also labor tirelessly without putting themselves ahead of the others. The other students agreed that I had a pretty good metaphor for Japan in that.

And since I had to rush to get home, my plans for a final picture finale kind of got shot. In fact, I had to work the day before I flew home. I logged in almost a full day on my normal day off. It kind of sucked to have to do paperwork, but I wanted to do it. When I moved in, I had NOTHING to help me. The last teacher didn't do a thing to help me transition, so I wanted the next teacher to have it better than I did. Maybe a bit of the mentality rubbed off on me, but mainly it's just that I care about those students. I want this next teacher to be able to take care of them in my stead. They were and are valued friends.

Thanks for the letter. Since I'm back in this half of the world, my update schedule might change. I recommend you send your letter in early so as not to miss a week. Keep 'em coming!

Hey again, J Sensei! Still trucking, right? The column's still going, isn't it? Personally, I could not be more excited as a Nippon Ichi fan right now. We Nippon Ichi fans are getting Disgaea 2, Atelier Iris 2, and Generation of Chaos! All this year even! Not to mention the exciting news that the amazing looking Disgaea anime is going to cross over. That should be enough to tie any Nippon Ichi fan over for a while.

Anyways, thinking back to Disgaea, they got through translation amazingly in tact. I mean, most games aren't butchered or anything, but Disgaea managed to produce many Americanized jokes which were by no means the sort of lame cheap shots on video games you might see in other games. Anyways, I imagine you know something about Japanese dialogue in video games, so I was wondering: what are the Japanese jokes like? I know that they include things outside of American culture (ramen, sake.... ramen), but what I'm wondering is, do they actually serve the same kind of purposes as American ones? Are they more mature humor? Do entire scenes of dialogue get changed in translation?

Mehe, that's a whole lot of questions, but I guess anything you have to say on the subject of Japanese to English translation is good. I've got to learn to get to the point faster with these e-mails.

-AimManEXE

Sensei

Don't worry about Japandemonium going anywhere anytime soon. As long as I can manage it on this side of the world, it should be pretty regular. I know some of the other columns have taken a bit of a hiatus, but I'm not going to let that happen to me. God willing, I'll have a new column every week for you all to read.

As for Nippon Ichi, they do a really good job of translating things, but a lot of things do have to get changed. Some jokes are cultural, and they just wouldn't make sense. To make an example, if I made a joke that was specifically about Morinaga pancake mix, no one but Japanese people would understand it. Another example would be language puns. Consider this one.

I know that has you all rolling in laughter, but that comes from 'ogre' being 'oni', and 'riceball' being 'onigiri'. In instances where the joke just cannot be translated without prior knowledge of the language or reference material, the localization team has to make a new joke in the same vein as the original. As long as it's done in the same spirit as the Japanese joke and as little is changed as possible, I believe it's ok. Nippon Ichi does a WONDEFUL job, and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the Monty Python parody from Makai Kingdom didn't exist in Japan. They simply wouldn't get it, but I giggled for hours on end. What joke did they use? I couldn't tell you, but I can only hope it was as good as ours.

As far as other Nippon Ichi stuff goes, it should be a good year. I am VERY excited about Disgaea 2 and the anime. I cannot wait for either of them. It'll be a very fun Netherworldly 2006, I think.

Thanks for writing!