Itami Profile (and translation issues)

Awhile back, I bought a photo book featuring the character Itami Kenichi from my favorite Japanese detective drama, Aibou. Among the various photos, interviews, and episode summaries was a character profile that was fairly brief, so I finally decided to sit down and try to translate it.

And well, I just realized how much my Japanese reading comprehension sucks, which is a bit depressing. Most of the page was taken up by a photo of Itami, so there were only several brief paragraphs of text, but it was still a struggle to translate with my self-taught Japanese and my kanji dictionary. At times, I could make out most of the words, but wasn't sure how to string them together properly. Fortunately, having a good knowledge of the show and character helped me to make educated guesses, but now I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready to tackle the lengthy interviews in the book. My old fan translations of Petshop of Horrors manga were a struggle too, but at least there I was aided by the furigana pronunciation guides. Ah well, I should keep practicing and try not to get too downhearted. It goes easier when I do it a paragraph or two at a time, and when I need to cheer myself up, sometimes I go and read the Japanese children's picture books at the library, which are written in hiragana and are a little more my speed! My favorite series features the "Otetsudai Neko" ("Helpful Cat") who tries to be helpful to the human family he lives with, but his efforts usually go awry, like the time that Mom sends him out to buy fish for dinner, and instead he comes home with taiyaki (fish-shaped waffles filled with sweet bean paste).

Anyway, on to the profile, plus a bit of rambling about Itami (my comments/observations are written in parentheses):


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