Welcome to Japan

Do you find it impossible to squeeze in a vacation? Far too busy to skip out of the office for a few hours, let alone take some days off work for a real trip abroad? Roam the world with translate4me from the comfort of your living room, office or local cyber café. Who knows? It just might inspire you to make the break, and to get in touch with the wanderer within!

Japan – The Basics

The characters that make up Japan’s name mean “sun-origin”, which is why it is often referred to as “The Land of the Rising Sun”.

A major economic power, Japan has the world’s second largest economy by nominal GDP, and is the 4th largest exporter and the 6th largest importer.

Meet Our Translator

translate4me’s Japanese-English translator Nathaniel Guy studied abroad several years ago in Nagoya, Japan. During his stay in Nagoya, he enjoyed a week-long winter vacation to the city of Sapporo, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Located in Japan's snowy north, Sapporo is known not only for the delicious beer that bears its name, but also for its natural hot springs and all manner of hearty seafood soups.

A highlight of Nathaniel’s sight-seeing in Hokkaido saw him venture to Sapporo's annual Snow Festival, where he marveled at gigantic snow sculptures, giant ice slides, and an army of hundreds of miniature snowmen made by visiting children. Each year in the second week of February, this seven day celebration of winter turns the city of Sapporo into a snow museum enjoyed by a staggering 2 million visitors, including the regular influx of overseas tourists who have traveled far and wide to experience this frosty spectacle.

Nathaniel hopes to revisit the beautiful city of Sapporo this summer.

A chilly Nathaniel at the Sapporo Snow Festival. This snow sculpture depicts the popular Japanese children's show Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō.

Nathaniel has been working with translate4me since August 2006. He translates from Japanese to English and specializes in electronic gaming. The majority of his project work involves the translation of Japanese video game manuals into English.

His appreciation of the Japanese language and culture is deeply rooted in his boyhood years growing up in Lexington, Kentucky, where he spent much of his spare time playing computer games.

“I was originally attracted to the Japanese language and its writing system by the beauty and complexity of it, as well as by the video games I played as a child that were made in Japan,” explained Nathaniel.

The 24 year old found a way to combine his love of Japan and technology, leading him towards a Major in Japanese and Computer Science at Georgetown University. As a young enthusiastic College Graduate, Nathaniel accepted a short contract at Nintendo of America as a bilingual software engineer, where he honed his expertise in the field of electronic gaming. It is this specialist skill set that translate4me has found invaluable in its work with several high profile video/computer gaming clients.

“Nathaniel has worked on many Japanese to English electronic gaming projects with translate4me. His enthusiasm is infectious and his experience in this field is unrivalled.  He has translated over 100 games for companies such as Disney, Infogames, Capcom, Konami, Microsoft Game Studios, Namco, Sony Computer Entertainment & Square Enix.  We are very proud to have him onboard as one of our team,” says Heidi Fulford, President of translate4me.

Nathaniel cites a translation job he completed last summer for translate4me as his favorite work to date. He was contracted to translate the manual of Beautiful Katamari (for the Xbox 360), an extremely off-the-wall game from the Katamari series. As a huge fan of this series, he took great pride in translating it with the same sort of wacky, tongue-in-cheek humor that characterizes these games.
 
Away from his work as a translator, Nathaniel’s inquisitive mind never rests. He is fascinated with space studies and astronomy, and his long-term goal is to return to college to become a qualified astronautical engineer.

“While my future may not always be as a professional translator, I love my work right now, and I hope my respect and affection for the language, culture and people of Japan will always see me involved with the country in some way throughout my life,” added Nathaniel.

He currently resides in New York, USA.              

Modern Culture

Japan – What’s Hot in Japan?

Japan is considered by many as the most influential source of trends for Asia. What’s happening on the streets of Japan often has a way of seeping into the international psyche and becoming a much more widely accepted global shift in style, popular retail habits, new products and technology developments.

Japan’s markets change with lightening speed. New fashions and trends appear (and disappear) overnight and it’s often difficult to keep track of the country’s famously idiosyncratic and often fickle consumers.

 “Together” by Monkey Majik

Everyone is desperate for collagen, but Japanese women have been taking skin plumping to a whole new extreme. They believe that collagen-rich food items, including pigs’ trotters, and “Suppon” or soft-shell turtle meat and blood can plump the skin, smooth wrinkles, with one anti-aging recipe mixing the blood from the neck of a Suppon with Japanese Sake or plum wine. It makes the skin glow instantly.  Believe it…or not!

No, we’re not ‘barking mad’. Dog cafés really are springing up all over Japan, where the menus cater for canine customers and not their owners, and special hamburgers, snacks, treats and even birthday cakes are on offer for your pampered pooch.

Did You Know?

	The Japanese are fascinated with frogs. In Japan, green frogs are a symbol of good luck, and are often kept as pets. In animated movies and comic books, green frogs are usually depicted as heroes. Pictures or dolls of frogs are considered as charms, ensuring safety when traveling. The most famous and popular frog charms are made in Nagoya, called tobekaeru.
	Japanese farmers – Thinking outside the SQUARE. A round watermelon can take up too much space in a refrigerator, and often sits awkwardly on the shelf. Smart Japanese farmers have forced their watermelons to grow in a square shape by inserting their melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.
	Japanese artist creates replica Da Vinci out of breakfast. In 1983 a copy of the Mona Lisa was made entirely from toast. The artist was Tadahiko Ogawa, a known toast lover.

Speaking the Lingo

Having a few common phrases in your foreign language repertoire can make all the difference.

Take a few minutes to remember the following:

1) My name is - Watashi no namae ha ………desu. - わたしの名前は……です。

2) That’s great!- Soreha sugoi! - それはすごい！

3) I love you - Ai shite imasu. - 愛しています。

4) No way! - Zettai ni dame! -絶対に駄目！

5) A recently coined slang word: karahara (カラハラ). It's short for "karaoke harassment," and it refers to the act of forcing someone to sing a karaoke song, despite their insistence that they don't want to do so.

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