The Ask Josiah About Japan Thread

Post by **shauni** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:54 am

Josiah wrote:
Doodleshark wrote:Which side of the road do people drive on?
It's sort of a dumb question, and you don't have to answer, but I've always wondered...
The left side. Kinda odd considering that it's mostly just the UK and former British colonies that do that.

That is why Britain and Japan are so great *shot*
I’m kidding, but the UK and Japan do seem to have a lot in common, or at least more than I realised. We have a monarchy, they have an emperor, we have left hand driving, so do they…there are a lot of other things as well I’d mention, but you really need to be British to understand why soom of them are relevant ^_^’

Anyway, here is my question

Hi Josiah, I wanna us this as my new avie, but I’d like to know what the writing says before I use it. I don’t want to have a dirty word or anything

Post by **Shadowman** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:55 pm

Shans wrote:Australia drives like that too!

Josiah wrote:Kinda odd considering that it's mostly just the UK and former British colonies that do that.

Australia is a former british colony. The moar you know!

Post by **Josiah** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:33 am

Shans wrote:Australia drives like that too!

anyways, ur giant robot remark just reminded me of transformer da movie, "It's a robot... but like, u noe... i super advance robot... must be japanese... yeah, it's definately japanese" XD

anyways, seen the cherry blossoms yet?

Shadowman already said what I was gonna point out about Austrailia. More accurately, a former British prison colony.

Anyway, to answer your question, it's the wrong time of the year for cherry blossoms. I'll have to wait till spring for those.

Post by **Josiah** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:45 am

shauni wrote: Hi Josiah, I wanna us this as my new avie, but I’d like to know what the writing says before I use it. I don’t want to have a dirty word or anything

It says mahon (or maybe mahoon). Not entirely sure why there's a ~ in the middle though since those are hiragana letters and hiragana usually doesn't use lines to show long vowels (although in this case I think that's what it's for). Also, I'm not entirely sure why the last letter is there at all, unless what the angel is saying is part of a larger sentence. Anyway, I can't be totally sure about it but here's a couple possibilities.
1. Could have something to do with magic since mahoo is a rather generic word for magic.
2. It might be a cheer or battle cry that has no real meaning.

Post by **shauni** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:09 am

Excellent....pitty I just found out its to big

Post by **Josiah** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:44 am

shauni wrote:Excellent....pitty I just found out its to big

It'sgotta be pretty close. I'm sure you could shrink it slightly or trim the edges a little to get the size right.

Post by **Stevenson** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:21 pm

Shadowman wrote:
Shans wrote:Australia drives like that too!

Josiah wrote:Kinda odd considering that it's mostly just the UK and former British colonies that do that.
Australia is a former british colony. The moar you know!

Well, I guess technically yeah. Or maybe it's just the largest British prison ever.

Josiah-what's the frequency of "foreign" foods compared to the US? Like itallian, mexican, etc.

Post by **Josiah** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:10 am

Stevenson wrote:Josiah-what's the frequency of "foreign" foods compared to the US? Like itallian, mexican, etc.

As far as restaurants go, Japanese is the most popular by far. You definately see less foreign restaurants in Japan than in the US. Anyway, that aside Korean and Indian restaurants (often run by Koreans and Indians) are somewhat common. Italian food and American food are kinda popular too BUT most of the food in them isn't all that authentic (it's been, for lack of a better word, "Japanized"). Actually, if you count hamburger joints, American restaurants are fairly common although most of the burgers they have are things you'd rarely (if ever) see for sale in the states.
So Japanese, Korean, Indian, US, Italian... Some Chinese foods are pretty popular (or at least the Japanese take on them since things like ramen were originally Chinese) but you don't see a lot of dedicated Chinese restaurants around, except in certain areas. I think I saw a Thai restaurant once... Haven't seen any Mexican restaurants yet (although most people seem to know what tacos are).
In grocery stores you see mostly Japanese food with a smattering of Korean, Italian, and US and sometimes a tiny bit of Indian.

Post by **Blastotoise** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:32 pm

Does Kingdom hearts: final mix,final mix +, and all the other unfair release only in Japan have any real differences form the regular ones?

Post by **Josiah** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:43 am

Blastotoise wrote:Does Kingdom hearts: final mix,final mix +, and all the other unfair release only in Japan have any real differences form the regular ones?

That totally depends on the game. Some have very little added, others have a ton. Here's a quick break down of some of the special edition games I'm more familiar with. However, there's a bunch of others (ie. Star Ocean 3 Director's Cut, Rogue Galaxy Special Edition, FFXII Zodiac Jobs, etc) that I don't know enough about to comment on. Note: with the exception of FFX International (which let you choose Japanese or English), all the text in these games is in Japanese, even if the voice acting is in English.
Final Fantasy VII International: Minor bug fixes and some special effects that were in the US version but not the Japanese one.
Final Fantasy X International: Had the US voice actors plus some brand new optional bosses, skills, and a redesigned sphere grid. Also had a bonus movie that set up for FFX-2
Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission: Had the US voice actors, added a two new jobs, some new skills, a massive new sub-quest (which let you use monsters and other characters). Last Mission was a new dungeon that YRP team up again to explore a year after the end of FFX-2 so there was a bit of new story stuff there.
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix: Had the US voice actors and had Kurt Zusa, Ice Titan, and Sephiroth who were in the US version but not in the Japanese version. Also had some new items and abilities, new regular enemies, a few new cut scenes, new Anson reports, and a new secret ending movie that hinted at more stuff for KH2.
KH 2 Final Mix + Re: Chain of Memories Had the US voice actors, some new items and abilities, some new monsters, a new drive form for Sora, a bunch of new optional bosses, some new cut scenes, and a new secret ending movie that sets up more for KH3. Re: Chain of Memories is KH Chain of Memories completely redone in 3D for the PS2 with reaction commands and a few new cards.

So as you can see, it really really depends on the game. So some are no big deal, others are quite awesome.

Post by **Blastotoise** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:37 pm

I really only cared about the kingdom hearts ones but ok....

Post by **Giga-Gar** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:42 pm

how big is One Piece and Pokemon over there?

Post by **NabMaster** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:55 pm

How's Digimon and D. Gray-Man doing, as long as we're on the topic of anime?

Post by **Josiah** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:15 am

Blastotoise wrote:Does Kingdom hearts: final mix,final mix +, and all the other unfair release only in Japan have any real differences form the regular ones?

Note the bolded text above. Also, complaining because I answered your question with too much detail? If you're gonna do that I might not feel like answering any other questions you might ask.

Post by **Josiah** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:17 am

Gardialvoir wrote:how big is One Piece and Pokemon over there?

Both are quite popular. Pokémon is one of the things you see everywhere in Japan (toys, posters, etc, etc, etc). One Piece isn't on that level but it's still big. Naturally it helps that both have currently running anime, manga, and game series.