The Japanese import many words from other languages for use in their daily lives. Usually the words are from English, but every once in a while words from other languages sneak in, like randoseru (school backpack, from the German raenzel), ankeeto (questionnaire, from the French enquete), and pan (bread, from the Portuguese). This doesn’t stop the Japanese from assuming that every word written in the katakana syllabary is English and trying to use the terms with English speakers. A source of confusion for Yanks is that the Japanese have imported many British words, such as bonnet (hood of a car), water closet (bathroom), dust bin (trash can) and pants (which refers to underwear everywhere but the U.S.). Some traditions the Japanese have embraced, such as the penchant for eating Christmas Cake around 25th December, also seemed odd to me at first, but of course, Christmas Cake is a concept the Japanese picked up from the British. Living in Japan can help you learn a lot about the world!
The largest group of foreigners in Japan aren’t American or Australians or Brits. They’re Koreans, an interesting group because many of them were born and raised right here, and often don’t even speak Korean unless they attended one of the Korean-only schools that pepper the country. To an American like me, it’s odd that these people would not be considered Japanese, as all children born in the U.S. get to be American citizens automatically. But the relationship of Korea and Japan is a very complex one, somewhat akin to that of Britain and Ireland, and more or less by mutual agreement of both sides Koreans often live for generations inside Japan, never allowing themselves to become culturally assimilated. Or is it the Japanese who keep the Korean population from truly becoming part of their society? I couldn’t possibly say for sure. On the one hand, it’s not difficult for anyone (even white-boy gaijin me) to get Japanese citizenship as long as he meets certain reasonable requirements. Japan is always very sensitive to possible accusations of racism, so there are no groups that aren’t “allowed” to become Japanese citizens. Many Koreans object to the Japanese requirement that all persons wanting to become naturalized must take a Japanese name, e.g. Taro Yamada, as well as requiring that many jobs, including teaching at public schools, be done only by persons with full Japanese citizenship. Koreans living in Japan make sure they only hang out with other similar-minded Koreans (e.g., South with South, North with North), lest questions arise about their loyalties. There is, unfortunately, a lot of organized crime related to North Koreans, everything from making North Koreans born in Japan pay protection money to “support” relatives back home to mass-production of high-grade cocaine. Gunma, the prefecture we live in, has many companies that make pachinko machines, and for some reason, pachinko, North Korea and crime always seem to go hand-in-hand around here.
We’re extremely happy to announce that Little My Maid has gone “golden master” and is on its way to the CD-ROM duplicators now. This is an amazing game, one of the most popular interactive dating-sims ever released in Japan. You are a Japanese youth who is depressed about failing your college entrance exams and the subsequent loss of your girlfriend, Yukari. You meet a strangely-dressed maid on a beach, and the next thing you know, you’ve been invited to a mysterious mansion where beautiful maids serve you every whim. Can they heal your pain and allow you to find eternal happiness? A fantastic game that features full facial animation, 100% mosaic-free graphics and a game story of unsurpassed depth, we hope everyone will preorder the game for free shipping when it’s ready. (You also get cool Little My Maid cards, keychains and other stuff with every preordered copy.)
Whenever we get new candy toy items, so-called because you usually get some kind of candy inside with the toy, we think to ourselves how cool it’d be if the Japanese would make miniature toys based on the Battlestar Galactica series, one of my own favorites as a boy. Well, the Konami toy company has heard our pleas, and an amazing series of miniature toys based on the original series is coming in March 2005. Preorder this incredible set now!
We’ll be moving our mailing lists to a new mail server that will have lots of new features. If Friday’s mail fails to reach you for some reason, or if you notice any other problems with our update emails, please contact us and let us know about the problem. Thanks in advance!
Are you interested in finding a Japanese girlfriend? If so then we’ve got just the right item for you, our best-selling “Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend” T-shirt, one of our most popular products in our history. Featuring a bold message in easy-to-read kanji and “rising sun of Japan” circle, it’s available in a hooded sweatshirt, too, as well as a cool “flowing calligraphy” alternate version. We also have shirts for females looking for males of the Japanese persuasion, too.
