Category Archives: Japanese Study: Moderate

Japanese novel review: “Shoplifters” (万引き家族) by Hirokazu Kore-eda (是枝裕和)

I can’t think of too many Japanese movies that become popular enough in the U.S. to the extent that they come up in casual conversation. “Shoplifters”––written, directed, and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda (是枝裕和)––is one exception. In fact, it has grossed over $2 million dollars in the U.S., making it one of the most popular foreign… Read More »

Japanese translation sample: “Poverty Lessons” (ビンボー魂) by Toru Kazama (風間トオル）

Recently I posted a review of the book “Poverty Lessons” by Toru Kazama, which is biography of the actor’s life, focusing on his difficult times in poverty and what he learned as a result of that. As a translation exercise and to give a little exposure of this great book to English-speaking audiences, I’ve decided to translate… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “Welcome to the Raindance Cafe” Chapter 3: Lonesome Pop Star (Part 1)

This is Chapter 3 of the novel “Welcome to the Raindance Cafe” by Yama Yamasaki (山崎山). I’ve talked to the author and gotten his permission to translate and put it on my blog. The story’s original table of contents and summary can be seen in Japanese here. You can see the original Chapter 3 in Japanese here. As… Read More »

Japanese novel translation: “Welcome to the Raindance Cafe” Chapter 2: Waging War (Part 2)

This is Chapter 2 of the novel “Welcome to the Raindance Cafe” by Yama Yamasaki (山崎山). I’ve talked to the author and gotten his permission to translate and put it on my blog. The story’s original table of contents and summary can be seen in Japanese here. You can see the original Chapter 2 in Japanese here. As… Read More »

Japanese online novel translation: “Japan: A New Age” by Tasogarenin (黄昏人) [Chapter 1]

My last translation project involved a classic story which was several decades old, but this time I decided to try and tackle something a little more modern from one of my favorite genres. It’s a science fiction novel I found published on the site syosetu.com. I haven’t read the entire thing yet, but from what I’ve seen it’s much more… Read More »

Japanese short novel translation: ”Sluggish Symbol, Inane Illusion” (緩慢な表象と虚ろな幻想): Chapter 6: ‘Memories Traced by a Corpse’

”Sluggish Symbol, Inane Illusion” is a short novel written by Yuki Fujimira that is published on syosetsu.com, which I enjoyed so much I decided to translate into English. This story takes place in a unique society, where each citizen is legally obligated to write a single book during their lifetime. You can see more information about this novel including a… Read More »

Japanese short novel translation “Memoirs of a Traveller” (ある旅人の手記): Ch.4 “Festival Girl”

This is the fourth chapter of the story “Memoirs of a Traveller” which I am translating from Japanese to English. As you might guess from the name, this is a fictional tale about someone’s travels throughout various places. You can see my review of this story here, and the translation of the prologue here, chapter 1 here, 2 here, and 3 here. I highly… Read More »

Another use of the simple non-past tense in Japanese: admonishing children

One of the convenient things about Japanese is that there are less verb tenses than in English, where you have things like “will run” and “would have run” (though there is still a few in Japanese). However, the tradeoff is that there are a bunch of other ways to use the smaller set of tenses to… Read More »

Japanese short novel translation “Memoirs of a Traveller” (ある旅人の手記): Ch.3 “The City of Cats”

This is the third chapter of the story “Memoirs of a Traveller” which I am translating from Japanese to English. As you might guess from the name, this is a fictional tale about someone’s travels throughout various cities and places. You can see my review of this story here, and the translation of the prologue here, chapter 1 here, and chapter 2 here.… Read More »