Most people know that the Japanese put the ending -san on the end of names for politeness. There are quite a lot of similar name ending suffixes, including -kun (usually used for males who you’re friends with, or all male children), or -sensei (used for teachers, doctors or anyone else you want to show respect for, including politicians). One of the more common name endings is -chan, an extremely cute suffix that gets added to girls’ names, especially children or females you have a close relationship with, or sometimes boy children who are especially young and cute. But linguistic rules were made to be broken, and it’s common for this suffix to be used in some of the most likely places, such as Shuwa-chan, the universal nickname for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Japan.
If you ever visit Japan, it’s good manners to bring a gift, called “omiyage” (oh-mee-YAH-gay) to Japanese you will be visiting or who you might encounter. Some items, like boxes of chocolates, beef jerky, and macadamia nuts from Hawaii are so famous that they’re almost cliched, but will still be appreciated by anyone who receives them from you. Yasu recommends you bring some items that Americans take for granted but which Japanese might find quite unique, like A-1 Steak Sauce, candy like jellybeans or gummy bears, tortilla chips and salsa, or “that Tabasco sauce that isn’t Tabasco” (we’re pretty sure he means Cholula pepper sauce, which isn’t sold in Japan and is thus very exotic). I think anything from your part of the world would make a good gift, and if your city or state is famous for something, a gift along those lines is a good idea. If the people you’ll be visiting like coffee, you might consider a large bag of Starbucks beans, since it’s quite expensive to buy here. Finally, most people don’t consider cigarettes as good for gift-giving, but Yasu says that Japanese who smoke would love a carton of Newport, which aren’t sold in Japan. One word of warning: giving gifts can expose you to a “gift war” in which you end up getting many more gifts than you can need, as Japanese are very serious about o-kaeshi, or giving a return gift when they receive one. The best advice is to position your own present as a return gift for something others have done for you, which will avoid a return gift on the return gift.
Friday is the “iDay,” when Apple’s iPhone is finally released, so I thought I’d talk about some differences between cell phones in the U.S. an Japan. Japan’s cellular industry is dominated by NTT’s behemoth Docomo, followed closely by “au by KDDI” and Softbank, the company owned by Yahoo Japan mogul Masayoshi Son, formerly the failed Vodafone. As the various cell phone companies jockey to bring the best products and services to their customers, they experiment with different phone concepts, but never sell a phone that any other company sells, thus each phone model is always “exclusive” to that provider. 3G is the rule in Japan, and speedy internet access through your phone is a great boon — I like to connect to the net on my MacBook while speeding through the countryside on a bullet train, just because I can. Somehow Japan managed to build a competitive cell phone industry that never thought of requiring two year contracts, and these almost never exist (although changing your phone model within one year can cost you slightly more than if you do it less often). Also, receiving a call doesn’t cost you minutes as it does in the U.S., which translates to lower costs for the user.
Well, we’re here in Long Beach, all set up to start day one of Anime Expo. The show is looking to be a great festival of all things related to anime and Japanese pop culture, and we hope you’ll be there to say hello. We’re in booths 852, 854 and 856, near the back of the dealers’ room — come and visit us! Also, we’ve got a panel on the future of English bishoujo games Friday night at 7:30. Drop by for a free gift! Just in case you’re not able to make it to the show, we’ve go a gift for you: free shipping on all bishoujo games this weekend only. This makes it a great time to pick up a great PC dating-sim game or four.
