What’s this?

Here’s a couple of pictures. Can you guess what they’re for?

chant

oldentimes

Answer tomorrow.

How to Japanize your VLC Media Player Viewing Experience

One of the annoying things about VLC Media Player is that it assumes that you automatically want the default language (English) and if you’re playing an .mkv file, it will automatically turn the subtitles on, whether you like it or not. I am definitely one of the ‘or not’ types, so here’s how to keep the audio Japanese, keep the subtitles off, and keep your mind working hard at the 日本語:

Default to Japanese audio:

1) Go to Tools -> Preferences (or Ctrl-P).
2) Click Audio.
3) Under ‘Preferred audio language’, enter ‘jpn’. (I had ‘jp’ in there at first but that didn’t work.)
4) Save and done.

Turning the subtitles off is a little trickier since there’s no useful options under the Simple settings. I found the solution after a little digging:

1) Go to Tools -> Preferences (or Ctrl-P).
2) Where it says “show settings” at the bottom left, check ALL.
3) Click on the Input/Codecs tab.
4) Where it says “Subtitle Track” (under Audio Track, the 9th box down from the top)…set that number to 99. (This will get rid of .MKV embedded subtitles. Since VLC will be unable to find a track on stream 99, it will be disabled by default.)
5) Click on the Video tab, then drop it down and click Subtitles/OSD.
6) Under Subtitles, uncheck the box ‘Autodetect subtitle files’. (This will prevent external subtitle files like .srt from displaying.)
7) Save and done.

Tried it and it worked like a charm. Now I can watch Ranma get pissed at Genma…

ranma

…in Japanese, the way she should…er, he should…er…whatever. The way things should be.

Wires Crossed, part 1

Why am I learning Japanese? Well, it goes back to high school, when I guess a few wires got crossed…

I was 16 and it was Robotech. Man. There were two stations in the Atlanta area that played Robotech right when I got home, spaced consecutively so that I could see today’s episode and review yesterday’s, or see today’s and tomorrow’s…however you figure it, it was awesome. I was addicted. I even set them up to tape for some reason, even though I was going to be there. I had to be there.

It was Clay’s fault, really. No, not really, I’m just being funny. Clay was a new friend I met as a sophomore in high school who connected all the dots for me. He explained that Robotech was bastardized by an evil, evil man named Carl Macek from three different anime series, and that Macross was better.

Well, Macross was better, except it still had Lynn Minmay, which was really unfortunate because she was really annoying in any language. And Carl Macek wasn’t really evil–I do have to thank the man for reintroducing me to anime after Voltron and Transformers so many years before. He is, however, almost singlehandedly responsible for my utter abhorrence of dubbed anime. After watching a few minutes of the original Streamline Pictures dub of Akira, I was permanently turned off of dubbed anime forever. To this day I go to great lengths to avoid dubbed anime. Did I see Ponyo in theaters earlier this year? Nope, because it was dubbed. Hey, have you seen the latest Naruto episode on TV? Nope, because it was dubbed. I try to keep subtitles off these days as much as possible, too. But that’s just me.

I was hooked, and Clay was my anime buddy for our high school years. We joined a group of fellow otaku in Atlanta, probably the first of its kind, which would later call itself Anime-X. During the meetings, people would bring their VCRs, chain them all together, and record anime. They had a tape swapping system, wherein I first saw My Neighbor Totoro the way it was meant to be seen: widescreen. In Japanese. With good subtitles (actually early fansubs).

Oh. My. Gosh.

I was in love. Totoro is still my favorite film of all.

What else was there? Ranma 1/2. Urusei Yatsura. Ah! My Goddess. Devil Hunter Yohko. Bubblegum Crisis. Battle Angel Alita. Akira (duh). Even the original Macross episodes.

All on VHS.

I am seriously dating myself here.

Clay and I only went to a couple of Anime-X meetings. At the second meeting they were taking volunteers for and planning for what would become Anime Weekend Atlanta. I didn’t get to be part of that history-making event, though. :(

So I was into anime. For good. And definitely into Japanese culture.

There was a store near the mall called Seaport Japan that Clay and I used to go to. It was a very small Japanese grocery store that had a respectably-sized section of books, manga, and magazines. In our senior year of high school, now that we were finally licensed to drive, we had a running battle to see who would get the copy of Newtype and Shonen Jump magazines. The store owner only ordered 2-3 of them a month, and if you didn’t get it the same day, you were out of luck. One time Clay and an evil fiend another friend of his got both copies. Another time I picked up the last copy and Clay was out in the cold. I had a whole stack of Shonen Jump. Couldn’t read a word of it, but I was really proud of that collection.

Then…well, there was life. I had a new girlfriend, same for Clay, we were graduating soon and going to schools in different parts of the state…well, sayonara, buddy. (I did find Clay on Facebook last year, but he never responded to my friend invite. :P) I gave him my Newtype and Shonen Jump magazines as a parting present, for some strange reason. I don’t know why.

And then? Well, life got in the way. I’ll explain later.

CandySwap, 2日本, networking, candy, games, more candy, and more games.

Taking a page from SakeSwap, I would like to do the same with candy, to make friends with folks in Japan. Ideally, I would like to send unique American candy (particularly Halloween and other holiday candy we have over here) and receive unique Japanese candy in return. If anyone is interested, please leave a comment or drop me a line.

I was sad to hear of my friend and colleague Robert Sanzalone leaving Japan next month. Earlier this year I was invited to Japan to help a Christian missionary with a film project, but was forced to cancel because very little sponsorship money came forth. I’d been planning to meet him and several other folks I know in Japan, but it didn’t work out. At the moment, I have a passport, but still no money to travel, so I’m joining every contest I can and networking with other people in the Atlanta area in hopes that somehow I can do a short trip before next month. If not, ideally, I would like to go myself at least once before the end of the year. Right now I have only the wishes, but I can at least cast my nets.

In the meantime, I mentioned networking. This month I will visit at least one JASG event and that of another similar group. Hopefully I’ll hit it off well with the folks at both.

I forgot that I had more candy pictures from my last candy run that was after this one. My wife and oldest daughter love the Glico caramel candy as much as I do, and my wife asks that I get her some Poifull jelly beans (from the Meiji mini-candy assortment) every time I go. Next time I will make a run for some authentic Japanese ramen and probably try some more different types of candy. Perhaps I can get a membership card and rent some Doraemon cartoons for my daughters to see how much 日本語 I have picked up so far.

One of my best friends bought Go! More Than a Game at Books Japan on our run last weekend. We’re planning to learn Go together. I’ve always wanted to play the game, but never had anyone to play against (in real life) until now. I also want to learn mah jong (the 4-player game) so I can play all of those mah jong games I’ve found. I think the original NES alone had over a dozen of them.

Do I talk about candy a lot? It’s because I have no shame about it any more, after reading Candyfreak last month. This has nothing to do with anything Japanese, but it is an entertaining read.

To anyone interested in rare Japanese video games, I have several Underground Gamer invites left, if anyone wants them. It’s a private invite-only game tracker that specializes in abandonware games from the 70’s up to the 90’s. The ratio rules are pretty strict, but I can help you get started if you like.

OK, it’s time to go and do other things with my Sunday. My friend and I are going to play Go this afternoon. I’ll let you know who wins.

COME ON!

斉藤和義 (Kazuyoshi Saito) is one of my favorite artists.

I had almost forgotten about him until the other day, when I discovered that he came out with a new album last month. I love Saito-san’s music and hope I can get some of his CDs soon.

Speaking of CDs, the guy from Flutterscape put together a ‘care package’ of sorts for me with Sakanaction’s latest CD, plus Monobright one and a grab bag of Japanese candy. He scoured several used CD stores for me to find these, so I’ll be saving a fortune off of what they’d cost off Amazon. Do please check out the Flutterscape web site or talk to him on Twitter and he can get you prices for just about anything under the sun.

Sakanaction:

The Japanese language is so beautiful to me, sometimes it takes my breath away. The kanji are awesome. The way the language just rolls and flows…I don’t know. I just love it. Maybe I’m obsessed a bit…but I think sometimes obsession can be good.