Japanese Archive

Sand is Tasty

I’m sorting through Mato’s massive folders full of pictures and scan again. One of the grossest false friends to me is how “sandwich” is called “sand” in Japanese. As long as you know what’s up, it’s not a problem, but what if you took it literally!

Hidden Map in a 1992 Magazine

Mato was searching for something in our vast stack of Japanese gaming magazines today. He found a map, probably drawn by a kid back in 1992, stuffed inside one of them:

I wonder what other secrets our magazines might be hiding!

Sumo Where’s Waldo

Mato & I have been watching the New Year Basho (Sumo Tournament) for the past few weeks. It’s our first time really paying attention to the sport, and we’ve learned so much. I’m officially a sumo fan, heck yeah, I wanna see some matches in person!

Sumo is considered a dying sport, so the audience at the Basho was mostly elderly Japanese people. Every once in a while, Mato & I would spot an anomaly in the crowd, and we ended up making at Where’s Waldo game of sorts. Next time you watch a sumo match, keep an eye on the audience as give yourself points if you see:

  • A foreigner
  • A millennial
  • Geisha (we really saw this)
  • Someone holding up a sign
  • A hamburger (still haven’t seen this one)
  • An old person with an old flip phone
  • An excited kid
  • Someone wearing a shirt with English on it
  • Someone knitting

The New Year Basho ended yesterday and the Spring Basho starts on March 11. If you have access to Japanese TV get yourself ready! Maybe if we see more anomalies we can turn it into a bingo game.

UNDERTALE Getting an Official Japanese Localization!

Whoaaaaa UNDERTALE is officially headed to Japan! It’s been professionally translated and localized by 8-4, and the announcement was tucked in the middle of the UNDERTALE on PS4 and Vita trailer at E3 last night:

Toby Fox did a short interview about the release on the PlayStation blog here.

Fun fact: I’m Mettaton’s hands/arms in that trailer. We filmed my hand gestures backwards to give it a weird, ethereal quality.

I’m really looking forward to playing UNDERTALE in Japanese with Mato. I can’t wait to see the localization decisions 8-4 made!