(Ms.) Tomo Kimura’s Translation/Tokyo Notes

Mitsuki’s Concert Venue

This hall looks like the old Shibuya Kokaido. There’s no way of confirming this now, because the hall has been renovated. However, I’ve seen live DVDs of concerts held here, and the interior looks similar enough.

Blood Type B

Personality analysis and general fortune-telling using your blood type is very popular here. (I’ve even had people “analyze” me during job interviews using my blood type!)

Some of the common Type-B traits often mentioned are: curiosity, moving to your own beat, and getting carried away once you start doing something. So there are dieting advices for Type-B such as “pick some method, stick with it while you can, and once you get tired of it, pick some other method and start over”.

Taisho’s Sign

一生一品 (”Isshou Ippin ” - “One item, One lifetime”) is a term used in the Japanese-style confectionery world. It means that although you make many kinds of confectionery, you can only make one item in your whole life that you’re truly satisfied with.

I attended a funeral this summer, so I’ll write a little about it. After the body was cremated, the staff gave us attendants these huge pairs of chopsticks. When the remains came out, the staff first picked out the “nodobotoke” (literally, “throat buddha”, called so because it looks like a person sitting; in English it’s the Adam’s apple) and put it aside. We were then told to pick bones from each part of the body, and place them in the urn. I think it was when the urn was almost full that the nodobotoke was put in. We then all grabbed the top part of the skull together, and put it in the urn, like a lid over the other bones. This urn then gets placed in the family grave.

Hokkaido Stew

Lots of dairy products are produced in Hokkaido. There is a cream stew mix called “Hokkaido Stew”. There’s a “Hokkaido chowder” mix available too.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

During the winter season, trucks go around neighborhoods, or stop near train stations roasting and selling them.

Is also out.

I started translating/adapting Full Moon October of 2004. Thus it took two years total for the translation to be done, and for all the volumes to be published. And I’ve entered my third year doing professional translating this month. Time flies…

Should be out.

When I took over the literal translation from this volume, I had to translate the entire volume in one week due to the schedule @_@;