Monthly Archives: September 2017

Karesansui (枯山水): The art of Japanese rock gardens (in your own backyard?)

When we chose our latest place to live, we decided to give priority to inside the house and less concern for the backyard. Not only is our backyard small, but a large patio covers up a big portion of the grass, leaving an awkwardly-sized space that isn’t good for much of anything. I guess we… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “House Ephemera” by Hatasu Shikishima [Chapter 3]

This is the third chapter of a story I am translating titled “House Ephemera” (蜉蝣の家) by Hatasu Shikishima (識島果). Thanks to Sherayuki for helping proofread this chapter. You can read the full Japanese text of this chapter here. See this page which contains a brief synopsis and links to other chapters (as they are posted).… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “Cube City” (立方体都市) by Ikkai Inubousaki (犬吠埼一介): Chapter 1, Part 2

This is the second half of the first chapter of the novel titled “Cube City” (立方体都市), which was originally written in Japanese by Ikkai Inubousaki (犬吠埼一介). I’ve gotten the author’s permission to translate it into English and put it on my blog. You can see the original Japanese text for Chapter 1 here. You can see my translation… Read More »

Babelcube review: taking books global (Japanese to English)

I’ve spent some time doing translation work at Gengo as a side job, and while lately I’ve reduced my time there, I still think they provide an excellent service with a well-optimized workflow and great customer support. One of the reasons I’ve gravitated away from Gengo is because they don’t focus on content that requires… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “House Ephemera” by Hatasu Shikishima [Chapter 2]

This is the second chapter of a story I am translating titled “House Ephemera” (蜉蝣の家) by Hatasu Shikishima (識島果). Thanks to Sherayuki for helping proofread this chapter. You can see the full Japanese text of this chapter here. See this page which contains a brief synopsis and links to other chapters (as they are posted).… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “The Rainlands” by Haruka Asahi [Translator’s Afterward]

While I have translated many chapters from a variety of works, its pretty rare that I translate a series to the end. This can be due to its length, a lack of reader interest, or I may have just intended to do a single chapter as an experiment. The fantasy story  “The Rainlands” (雨の国) by… Read More »

Japanese vocabulary list: language, reading, writing, and translation

In this vocabulary list I’d like to give some words related to language, reading, writing, and translation. A majority of these are words I have seen and/or used myself. I purposefully left out technical grammatical terms (like 述語), but I may make another list for them someday. Note: as usual, many of the verbs in… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “The Rainlands” by Haruka Asahi [Chapter 10]

This is the 10th and final chapter of the fantasy novel “The Rainlands” (雨の国) by Haruka Asahi (朝陽遥) which I am translating from Japanese with the author’s permission. It is about a man’s journey to a mysterious land where he has a ideological conflict with the indigenous customs there. You can see a synopsis and table… Read More »

How to ask an author (in Japanese) for translation permission

These days I’ve been pretty active translating a variety of Japanese novels (in part or in full) to English and posting them on my blog. Whether the original work is published online somewhere or with paper media, I highly recommend getting the author and (if applicable) publisher’s permission before you post anything translated online, even… Read More »