Translation/fic resource (for 11/28)

LJ wouldn't let me post anything last night, so this was actually supposed to be 11/28's entry for National Blog Posting Month. (I did post over on IJ, so it's not like I missed it completely.) Will try to get another entry up later tonight for today's "real" post. Anyway...

If any of you out there are learning to read and write Japanese, The Learner's Kanji Dictionary by Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky is a great resource. I've been using it ever since I decided to teach myself Japanese so that I could translate the Petshop of Horrors manga (before Tokyopop licensed it). It's great for people just learning to read kanji because it has a romanized index, which is a real lifesaver! It also has the added bonus of several appendices that have come in really handy when I need to come up with a name for a Japanese OC, mostly in my Haru fics.

( Read more... )

Tabloid Tokyo (and Haru ramblings)

Yay, my computer is back from the doctor repair shop! My sister's computer was okay, but it's really nice to have my own baby back! ^_^

Today's topic is Tabloid Tokyo: 101 Tales of Sex, Crime and the Bizarre from Japan's Wild Weeklies, a book I found at the library that contains a sampling of articles from various Japanese weekly tabloid magazines. The stories range from sex scandals ("Ex First Lady in Sex Scandal?") to crime stories ("Cops Look on While Yakuza Kill") to odd and/or cute stories about animals ("Spa Treatment for Stressed Out Pets"). Some of the stories are funny, some are sordid, some are horrifying and/or tragic (like the one mentioned above where the police allegedly stood by and did nothing while some yakuza beat a young man to death), and others are simply bizarre. Not really all that different from US tabloids, I suppose.

Two of the stories in the book reminded me a bit of Youka Nitta manga:

( Read more... )