Dergonu

I have mainly been talking with younger people in Japan, and haven't been introduced to anyone's family or anything yet, so I haven't actually spoken much with older Japanese people at all, beyond just very short conversations in passing etc. I must admit, I'm more of a fan of the current generation in Japan, as they are more modern and open to western ideas, compared to the rather conservative older generation. As I haven't talked much with the elderly in Japan, I honestly can't give a good answer to this, I'm afraid. About keigo, you generally don't need more than teineigo in Japan to have normal conversations with people. Keigo is normally reserved for business talk, or when you're speaking with someone above you in rank, which won't always be all that relevant to a foreign person, as you're kind of... "outside" of Japanese social rankings. (Unless you work there.) Knowing keigo is a great way to impress older people though, I'm sure. But, if you're just planning on traveling and speaking casually with people, you'll be fine with teineigo. In fact, using overly formal Japanese with someone you're close with will just have the opposite effect, and can sound strange. Once you've befriended someone, you usually switch to more casual styles, either a casual form of teineigo, or just futsuutai altogether.

Yes, it's simply too hard for many of them to bother giving it any real attention. Japanese people do learn English from an early age in school, but because of the factors I mentioned above, they rarely actually learn much from these lessons. The people who are quite skilled at English probably learned most of it from the internet and self study. I think religion is more of a cultural thing than an actual sign of faith in Japan. I can only speak from personal experiences and from the information I know from my friends and what not, but it seems like most people go to shrines and temples more because it's a social and cultural "norm" instead of strong faith. That being said, it does seem to be important to them. At least from what I've seen, people act very respectful towards shrines and temples, and many do go there to pray fairly often. Though, once again, I think this type of prayer is more of a cultural thing than actual faith, but nonetheless, it's fairly important to Japanese people from my knowledge. As far was what the most common religions are, I believe shintoism, the native Japanese "religion", (which is more of a collective term than an actual singular religion,) and buddhism are the two most widespread religions in Japan. There are quite a lot of buddhist temples, and as well as shrines for shintoism around in Japan. Christian churches etc are far fewer in number, though there are some of those too. Most native Japanese people will go to either a local shrine or temple for holidays and what not.

I think he meant a digital version in general, not a translated one. Essence+ only exists in physical versions.

Haha, nice. I don't have a license, not to mention that Japanese people drive on the wrong side of the road. (*ﾉωﾉ) Cool cars, though. Well, uh, I have a couple of pictures of people in traditional clothing from Kyoto: I didn't really take any pictures of cars there, as ... well, it's not really something I'm intrested in, personally. But, I did find this on my phone: There's a front of a car, at least, lol. There's lots of pretty unique car types in Japan, most that look like this. They are pretty short and... square, lol.

Yeah. I'm trying to stay optimistic, though. Hopefully since this is a direct sequel, we'll see some more love for the original style that the first game had, and less of what they did to Spiral!

It's a pretty well known game in Japan. There's a reason why Navel has been milking the series with fandisks and expanded versions for so long. (Heck, their most recent game, Spiral! Is also set in the same universe.) Sure took them long enough to make the actual sequel, though. As for the votes from western fans goes, there's been many different releases of Shuffle in the west, none of them all that great, with the most recent one being both censored, and having a poor translation. The first MG release also had a rather shoddy translation, and their fixed version is no longer on sale, due to license issues. Not to mention, the west hasn't been able to play the "full" version of shuffle, "Essense+", which is by far the best way to experience the game, with tons of added routes and content, as well as an expanded scenario for the core game. Yes, he passed away in 2016. He is credited on the sequel's website as the series' "creator". It's possible he had some notes or something that the current writers can go off, who knows. But, the writing team will be different, ofc.

Navel just annoucned on twitter that they have started working on a direct sequel to Shuffle, "Shuffle, Episode 2." The game's website. (Very bare-bones atm.) As a big fan of Shuffle, I'm pretty hyped about this!

Lol. I've gotten mixed reactions when I say "Norway", but people seem to have heard of it, at least. They normally bring up either the beautiful nature, how cold it is, or ask if I'm rich, lol. No one has mentioned vikings yet ww

If you're traveling in big cities like Tokyo and Kyoto, people in service occupations will generally know enough English that you'll get by just fine as a tourist. But, the normal level of English among people outside service occupations is quite frankly atrocious. Their knowledge of the language is limited to being able to say their name, "sorry", "thank you" and hello. That's pretty much it. But, if you're worried about booking hotels and what not, you shouldn't be. At least major hotels in large cities have staff that speaks English quite well. Restaurants too, depending on where you're eating. And you can ofc just point at the menu when ordering, and making a reservation isn't that hard if you go in person. If you plan on living in Japan, though, not knowing any Japanese will definitely mean you'll have a hard time, as most people simply don't know much English. Tourists will generally manage, as they aren't staying for too long, and tend to stick with popular tourist attractions where people are used to foreigners, but... yeah, the general level is terrible. So, if you're going for something other than tourism, learn at least some basic Japanese. Trust me, you'll need it. Every Japanese friend I have says the same thing. "I want to get better at English, but..." It's very hard for them, for a number of reasons. To just list a few: bad teachers, an overall bad approach to learning the language from schools in general, and a lack of motivation due to the difficulty both from teachers and students. Reminds me of this one time I was having lunch with some friends at uni, and I asked them what they could say in English. One girl at the table thought hard about it for a good 5 seconds, then said "this is... a apple!"' それだけWW (That's it, lol) I did not have it in me to correct her "a" to "an", lol. She later also seemed to remember how to say "my name is Shiho", but yeah, you get the idea, lol.

I lived off a student loan last time, and found this to be more than enough to get by in Japan. I tried to avoid eating at super expensive places etc ofc, but overall didn't have any issues living on my student loan. Next time, I'll be living off my freelance work, and plan on sticking to VNs for the moment, as I have a rather good setup with a company that let's me do titles on a fairly frequent basis. I'm also saving up a decent chunk of money for the trip. Japan is way cheaper than Norway. Generally people can't afford to eat out in Norway except for special occasions. Eating out one time here will be the same price as eating out like six times in Japan, assuming you pick reasonable-ish options. Rent in Japan was about half of my rent in Norway. So yeah, for a Norwegian, Japan is extremely cheap. Of course, it's not like Japan is a super cheap country, I think it's more that Norway is a stupidly expensive one, lol.

My class at uni had been studying for about one year when we arrived, (a rather intense year at that,) and could communicate in Japanes well enough. We were still quite awkward though, and one of the reasons we studied abroad was to learn the language "properly." (Our 1 year at uni took us through both Genki books in their entirety.) I personally went from having rather awkward Japanese, to being able to converse with natives in Japanese without issues in those six months. So, I improved quite a lot. For food we ate out, every day, generally at family restaurants like Saizeriya and Denny's, ramen shops etc. These places are honestly cheaper than making food yourself, lol. (The kitchens in our apartments were also so small, cooking there was a nightmare.) We also bought bento boxes at convenience stores quite often, and supermarkets now and then. (The supermarket versions are more expensive, but much more healthy, as they are made fresh with natural ingredients daily, compared to the convenience stuff, which is mass produced. Still tastes good, though.) Also, if you are studying at a university, eat there! The cafeteria at our uni was not only cheap, but holy crap was the food good. Checking out what the daily specials were during lunch was one of the highlights of our day, lol. (Mainly because the days were so bloody long and tiring. 90 minute lessons, with only short 10 minute breaks in between except for lunch, lasting from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, bleh.) Do try to get to the cafeteria as fast as humanly possible, though. Thousands of students, one cafeteria, limited supply of specials. It's a war zone out there. Mmm, I did not try to hide that I "like anime and manga and stuff" and always told people that's how I got interested in Japan. No one seemed to look at that as weird. But, I did hide how much of an otaku I am, lol. I didn't go on rants about how much I love anime tiddies, for instance. (A friend of mine did, and needless to say, she got some weird looks.) Overall, I'd say you shouldn't be afraid of admitting to liking anime and such, though there's a middle ground between that and getting weird and creepy about it in a conversation. I mean, you see some weird shit in maid cafes, so I'm going to say yes. I know a guy. PM me and I'll hook you up.

Hi there! I'm not sure if there is any sort of demand for this kind of post, but I thought since there's so many people interested in Japanese media on this forum, maybe some of you would be interested in knowing what it's like living in Japan as a foreigner. So, that's what this thread is for. If you have any questions about the topic, ask away! For those of you who don't know, my name is Andreas, I've been studying Japanese for about four years or so now, and I'm a freelance translator. I spent about half a year in Japan studying the language at a Japanese university, (Josai International University in Togane,) which was honestly one of the most fun experiences of my life. I am going back to Japan again soon to live there for a year this time, (starting August this year,) and I just came back from a short vacation in Japan around a week ago. Needless to say, I like it there. I haven't decided quite yet, but I think me moving there permanently down the line is a very likely scenario. Anyways, I'm not sure what, if anything, people would be interested in hearing about the topic, so I picked one thing my foreign friends have asked me quite a lot. So yeah, do ask if you want to know something else! Are Japanese people generally cold and distant towards westerners? Short answer, they might seem that way at first, but honestly, no! The thing is, Japanese people are generally just very quiet and closed off in public spaces, as they do not want to bother strangers in public. Get a Japanese person a couple of drinks at an izakaya or a karaoke bar, and you won't be able to shut them up, haha. While there might be some Japanese people who are "racist," / cold towards westerners, most people aren't like that at all, and will open up to you quite easily once you get to know them a little bit! Of course, you have to actually get to know them a bit at first for this, and sure, as a foreigner, it might be a little bit harder to get through that first stage. But, it's honestly not that hard, especially if you have some kind of icebreaker/ meet the person in some setting where it would be natural to start up a conversation, like a university, at your job, or out in a club/ bar etc. Of course, not knowing any Japanese will make this a little harder, as Japanese people generally do not speak English very well. (International universities are gold mines if you're looking for Japanese people interested in foreigners, heh. We had trouble eating at times during lunch, as we were swarmed by groups of Japanese students wanting to talk to us, lol.) One tip I'd give western people trying to get to know Japanese people in Japan, try to not be too loud and "pushy". Like I said, Japanese people are often a bit guarded towards strangers, and first impressions are quite important. If you come off as "scary" and loud, it might be harder to get someone to open up to you. Remember, westerners are pretty scary to Japanese people, haha. We're generally a lot taller, they won't know if we speak a word Japanese or not just by looking at us, (and they probably won't know much English,) and we tend to just act quite differently compared to Japanese people in general. The unknown can be pretty scary! So, all these factors can make us quite intimidating. Therefore, try to dial it down a bit, and you'll have a much easier time getting a Japanese person to open up to you. Anyways, that's what I could think of, so hit me with some questions if you want to know more!

No, this much is fine. Just read over the rules and make sure you don't cross any lines. One relevant excerpt: I second the imouto paradise recommendation, if you're looking for something translated. If you can read Japanese, Tanuki Soft makes great loli themed games, like Rama mentioned. Shoujo Ramune is pretty nice. Pretty much all nukige, though. If you're looking for something more story based, Kimisora has a great imouto route, and is just a great game overall. Kowaku no Toki has a great loli route, but fair warning, the game is quite dark, with horror and dark H content being a rather central focus. Might want to avoid this one if you have a weak stomach, heh. On that note, Tinkerbell has some great loli characters, especially in Hanamaru, which also happens to be one of the few pure vanilla games they have made, so if you prefer vanilla content, Hanamaru is the go to game from Tinkerbell.

HarmonEy is about a married couple and their daily life. Both of them are adults, dealing with... adult problems, some of which are in the workplace. It’s a really wholesome and cute game. There’s also a new one by the same company in the same style.

What? Like, my whole point is that this route is a part of the main game. There should have been no "delays" as it would have just been one translstion of all the text, like there should be. I personally would not have bought the game no matter what, as it’s from Moenovel. But, if they did sell the whole thing, they probably should have upped the price, sure. Akari’s route took me like, 3-4 hours to read in Japanese. That’s a decent amount of text to translate. (Assuming they even used a real translator this time around. You never know with Moenovel.)

Well, I’m not a fan of this approach. But, I’d never buy anything from Moenovel anyways, so it’s not like it changes anything for me. /Shrug

Actually, that’s where you are wrong. This version that is localized IS Cruise Sign. But they called it Flight Diary, for some reason. The all-ages assets they have are unique to the Cruise Sign game, and so is the Akari route. The only game called Flight Diary is the 18+ one. All all-ages builds, which is what this one is, have the Akari route built in. I can see the confusion from the name, though. Yes, and that version is what they used, and it is just generally shorter, due to the lacking H. Only the side routes have added all-ages content, not the main route, and even the added scenes are short and fewer in number compared to the H.

Well, I think it’s really stupid. The Akari route was never a separate entity, and they made it one just to sell it for extra on the side of the main game’s cost. To me that shows how much they want to milk fans for money. The base game being cheap is, once again, probably linked to like half the game not being present. Text wise, Cruise Sign, (Flight Diary, but no H,) is not super long. There’s a LOT of H in Flight Diary, with it being a fandisk. The fact that it’s cut out by itself means that they had to go out of their way to cut it out and program it into its own thing. It has never existed by itself before. I can’t see that as anything but a cash grab.

It is a part of this game. They were working with the Cruise Sign files, which is the build with Akari’s route. That’s different from Flight Diary, which is the 18+ PC version. They just used the Cruise Sign files, took out the route and sold it by itself. In my opinion, that’s a scummy money grab. But, to each their own

Yes, because they are meant to pay for the route. It’s a part of the game, just like the rest. What, are you saying we should start selling visual novels route by route from now on? And of course the base game is cheap, they have cut out 50% of he content in the H. That’s a hell of a lot less text to translate and edit. (Assuming they even do editing, but that’s beyond the point.)

I think it's fucking hilarious that they are legit charging you extra for this, as if it's some kind of DLC. They were clearly working off the PS3 port assets, and the Akari route is a part of that build. The fact that they took it out just to sell it as "DLC" is really money hungry and scummy, tbh. Their translation quality is all over the place, but at least there's no porn for them to censor in this particular route, so I guess it's a safer buy than everything else Moenovel does. Still wouldn't recommend supporting them though, as scummy companies like these don't deserve your money.

Had a giant huntsman spider sit right outside the door to my apartment in Japan one day. I... did not sleep well that night. Sure, the bugger was outside, but I was terrified of opening my door, scared he’d come inside (The thing was as big as my hand... ugh, I hate spiders...) Uh, right, happy easter. (Fuck spiders)

That engine is annoying enough to be called a virus, lol. As long as you bought the game legit you should have nothing to worry about.

Thank you! Thanks <3 <3 Thank you! I uh... I don’t feel it, but yay! Thanks. Damn straight. Thank you!

I have to say I agree. While you can probably pick up on certain things that sound obviously awkward or strange in a language you don't speak, or the emotion in someone's voice etc, not knowing how stuff is supposed to sound like in that language certainly makes it hard to gauge whether or not a VA is good or bad. I personally love the sound of Korean, for instance, but don't speak a word, so I wouldn't feel comfortable gauging the skill of a Korean VA. For all I know, they aren't even pronouncing the words right! Or maybe they are doing it wrong or different on purpose to make a joke that went over my head. It's just really hard to know these things without knowing the language. This reminds me of something that happened a few months ago. Studio FOW, (a western indie H animation studio,) made a set of animated H movies with Japanese VAs, who I thought did a fantastic job. Really good stuff. But, a lot of the western fans I spoke to who watched it complained a lot about one thing: the voice acting. They said it sounded weird and off. Makes sense I guess, since they have no idea what is being said, (and a lot of it is choked halfway between moans, due to it being H, lol.) But, as someone who speaks the language I have to say, that voice acting was just objectively good. I found it kind of interesting how what I liked the most in the movies is what others liked the least. And, if those people were asked about the quality of the voice acting, they most likely would say it was bad. (Even though it wasn't!)