What is says on tokugawa's Lapels:

squeeze truck · January 19, 2002, 08:40

The kanji on Tokugawa's kimono reads "shin ku" which is Japanese for "vacuum" (like as in no air.)

Would someone from Firaxis please explain what this is supposed to mean??

Libertarian · January 19, 2002, 08:58

My guess is no.

Flight · January 19, 2002, 10:36

lol

Dwarf Lord · January 19, 2002, 10:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Flight
lol

indeed

Boracks · January 19, 2002, 13:57

My guess is they just picked some characters that looked graphically appealing. Not the first time North Americans have displayed some amusing messages by not knowing what they're saying.

Mind you, from my expiriences so far in the game, they're not that far off.

BanastreTa · January 19, 2002, 14:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Boracks
My guess is they just picked some characters that looked graphically appealing. Not the first time North Americans have displayed some amusing messages by not knowing what they're saying.

Mind you, from my expiriences so far in the game, they're not that far off.

Japanese and North Americans have the most hilarious linguistic relationship, don't they?

It's a popular fashion in Japan (esp. among youth) to wear T-Shirts with "english" on them, only the english is often ridiculous nonsensical phrases

In North America, Japanese characters are pretty much picked by how cool they look, not what they mean.

The results for both are often quite amusing.

Libertarian · January 19, 2002, 14:35

I hope there aren't many "nonsensical phrases" in the Civilopedia.

(edited for Usage Panel conformity)

Jezz · January 19, 2002, 16:38

Quote:

Originally posted by BanastreTa

Japanese and North Americans have the most hilarious linguistic relationship, don't they?

It's a popular fashion in Japan (esp. among youth) to wear T-Shirts with "english" on them, only the english is often ridiculous nonsensical phrases

In North America, Japanese characters are pretty much picked by how cool they look, not what they mean.

The results for both are often quite amusing.

I believe you are referring to the common practice of engrish...

www.engrish.com

BanastreTa · January 19, 2002, 17:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Jezz

I believe you are referring to the common practice of engrish...

www.engrish.com

\

Yes I am

.

I almost linked to that site in my last post. Funny stuff.

squeeze truck · January 20, 2002, 00:15

Quote:

Originally posted by BanastreTa

In North America, Japanese characters are pretty much picked by how cool they look, not what they mean.

The results for both are often quite amusing.

Yes. "Daikatana" is another good example of horrible Japanese.

Ghengis-Sean · January 20, 2002, 21:05

yeah
I saw this great t-shirt in the states a couple years ago, it was written in katakana and kanji; "watashi wa baka na Amerika-jin desu" or, "I am a stupid American" I was with my girlfriend when I saw and I just lost it. i bought it for her but didn't tell her what it meant.

But seriously though I have a question, what is up with the Japanese Leaders,, they seriously expect us to believe that the best they could come up with were Hirohito and Tojo? WWII leaders are a bit iffy. Hirohito was a puppet, and Tojo? Why not Hitler, Goering or Goebbels for the Germans? I mean where is Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hideyoshi or any of the other great military leaders of ancient Japan. Firaxis definitely didn't hurt themsleves when came to doing research. And the cities list? where is Kamakura? Aomori? Hiroshima? and also Edo and Tokyo? why not have New Amsterdam and New York ofr the American cities list? Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Peter Triggs · January 20, 2002, 21:54

They should have said "All your bases are belong to us."

The Mad Monk · January 20, 2002, 22:20

Edo and Tokyo have both made appearances in a game I played--perhaps the Japanese haven't expanded enough in your games?

Ghengis-Sean · January 20, 2002, 22:35

Edo and Tokyo

Sorry, I guess I should have made my point clearer. Edo and Tokyo are the Same place, just different names. Edo was the town from which the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled Japan. The Tokugawa were the last shogunate, they ruled from 1620-1866 (I think). In 1866 the Emperor was restored to power and Edo was renamed Tokyo meaning the Eastern Capital, in the same way Beijing means "North Capital" and Nanjing means "South Capital."

Anyway what I'm saying is that Firaxis didn't bother to do much research, or very detailed research. Tokyo and Edo are the same place, like New York and New Amsterdam, or Constantinople, Byzantium and Istanbul. Same place different name. It's odd that Firaxis choose to use two names for the same city but completely ignored a number of other important cities altogether, like Hiroshima, a major city but it isn't on the list. Or Aomori, which isn't important now but was very important culturally before it got clobbered in the war. Kobe and Kumamoto also aren't on the list.

I'm sure Japan isn't the only Civ that Firaxis short changed due to their lack of research. Anyone notice that the Greek leaders (Pyrrhus excepted) are all mythical? You would think they would be able to put in some rea figures like Lysander of the Spartans, Pericles, Solon, even Belisarius, though it could be argued he was Roman. The point is Firaxis dropped the ball on this and alot of other little issues, hopefully they'll fix things in the future, but I have my doubts.

jyaa ne!

yin26 · January 20, 2002, 22:51

Brian Reynolds took his encyclopedias with him when he left.

yin26 · January 20, 2002, 23:00

By the way, it looks like the sleeve reads: "Sid Biscuits." Must be some Firaxis humor.

Unregistered · January 21, 2002, 00:01

Quote:

Originally posted by yin26
Brian Reynolds took his encyclopedias with him when he left.

squeeze truck · January 21, 2002, 02:00

Quote:

Originally posted by yin26
By the way, it looks like the sleeve reads: "Sid Biscuits." Must be some Firaxis humor.

"Sid Biscuits"? If that's a joke, I don't get it.

It reads: "^‹ó" (switch your browser's encoding to shift-JIS)

Shin-Ku or "truly empty" == "Vacuum" in Japanese

yin26 · January 21, 2002, 02:17

Well, Brittany Spears was wearing a shirt with the character for goat on it. ('yang' in Korean) Explain that one!

Capt Dizle · January 21, 2002, 04:13

There was a guy running around hereabouts with a tattoo in Japanese on his back. Thought it was his name he did. It wasn't. Said something pretty close to "an invitation for intimate carnal contact".

I don't think he liked it much when he finally found out about it.

squeeze truck · January 21, 2002, 05:06

Quote:

Originally posted by jimmytrick
There was a guy running around hereabouts with a tattoo in Japanese on his back. Thought it was his name he did. It wasn't. Said something pretty close to "an invitation for intimate carnal contact".

I don't think he liked it much when he finally found out about it.

Oh, please tell me what it said!!

Hurry · January 21, 2002, 07:01

Firaxis was busy making the aniimated leader heads, so they had no time to do any research.

There are a few mods which change the city and leader names in the files forum, so I´ll suggest you check those out.

Daveraver · January 21, 2002, 15:11

Quote:

Originally posted by squeeze truck

Shin-Ku or "truly empty" == "Vacuum" in Japanese

I'm surprised that no one has made any connection between "truly empty" and the vapid, annoying gameplay. Perhaps a vacuum of rational thought?

Someone? Anyone?

Libertarian · January 21, 2002, 15:15

Maybe you can change it with the editor.

The Eliminator · January 21, 2002, 16:43

Lib, your posts have become a pleasure to read. Keep up the acid wit! LOL

Libertarian · January 21, 2002, 17:26

And they ask why I bother.

The Emperor Fabulous · January 21, 2002, 20:10

Inscribed in Abe Lincoln's beard is "All your base are belong to us."

Nealpolitan · January 22, 2002, 10:39

Ghengis-Sean

Perhaps Firaxis left out Hiroshima and Nagasaki (I haven't seen the latter as a city name either) as Japanese city names because of a fear of getting hammered by the PC police. I'm sure someone would've thrown a hissy if they found out there was a game where you could nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki, without taking into consideration the fact that they're major Japanese cities and including them would've been in line with what they've done with the rest of the game. I'm sure the same goes for why none of the rabid Nazis' names were included as German leaders.

Which highlights the fact that the automatic city and leader naming is simply a convenience. I don't think that Firaxis put too much thought and/or research into it. Whatever thought they did put into it was probably just to try and make it as transparent as possible.

Well that's my 15 cents...

siredgar · January 22, 2002, 12:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Ghengis-Sean
yeah
I saw this great t-shirt in the states a couple years ago, it was written in katakana and kanji; "watashi wa baka na Amerika-jin desu" or, "I am a stupid American" I was with my girlfriend when I saw and I just lost it. i bought it for her but didn't tell her what it meant.

But seriously though I have a question, what is up with the Japanese Leaders,, they seriously expect us to believe that the best they could come up with were Hirohito and Tojo? WWII leaders are a bit iffy. Hirohito was a puppet, and Tojo? Why not Hitler, Goering or Goebbels for the Germans? I mean where is Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hideyoshi or any of the other great military leaders of ancient Japan. Firaxis definitely didn't hurt themsleves when came to doing research. And the cities list? where is Kamakura? Aomori? Hiroshima? and also Edo and Tokyo? why not have New Amsterdam and New York ofr the American cities list? Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Go download Sevorak's city names file, which has all the major Japanese cities. It also has more leaders, such as Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.

Miznia · January 22, 2002, 15:00

I saw a (white) clerk at Taco Bell with a tattoo on his arm that was supposed to say "hannin," for criminal (I think that's the pronunciation; "han" is crime and "nin" of course is person), except that he had separated the two components of "han," i.e. he had kemonohen as a character all by itself, for a total of three supposed characters. It was written vertically. I debated whether to tell him about it, but I decided I had better not!

Sad, eh?

Miznia