HELP! Japanese Setting - I need pictures!

[thatdarncat]

bump

Anyone got any folklore/tradition links?

 

[Tsyr]

Re: Re: HELP! Japanese Setting - customs and traditions

Most things that drive home culture in a game are, IMHO, the little things. Mention things like the school uniforms, how teachers, not students, change classrooms every hour, high school entrance exams, etc. and that should be enough.

Wellllll... To be fair, that's not *unknown* outside of Japan... I had to past tests to get into my highschool, we had uniforms, and the teachers changed classrooms... But I didn't go to a public highschool, so...

 

[thatdarncat]

Re: Re: Re: HELP! Japanese Setting - customs and traditions

Wellllll... To be fair, that's not *unknown* outside of Japan... I had to past tests to get into my highschool, we had uniforms, and the teachers changed classrooms... But I didn't go to a public highschool, so...

Exactly

I'm going to be sending out an e-mail with info about being a Jr High student to the people who've expressed interest in playing. If anyone's interested, send me an e-mail at thatdarncat@psionics.net with [MAGE] in the subject and I'll send the e-mail to you as well. I don't know for sure how many players I have or will want, so if you're interested in playing, let me know as well.

 

[Syunsuke]

Being Japanese myself, I'm interested in how foregin people think about Japan.
I can't tell you many things because of English problem, but I introduce this web sites.

Good portal for many sites about Japan

I think I have a boolmark for a site which describes Japanese folklore / Budhism / Shintoism, but I can't find now...

 

[Darklance]

Re: HELP! Japanese Setting - customs and traditions

I'm looking for some help. I'm starting a game of Mage (well, modified Mage) that I'll be setting on an island in the Sea of Japan. I'm looking for some help on actually creating the culture and traditions, based on Japanese culture.

The characters are going to be students, aged 13-15 who attend a Jr High or High School in the main city on the island. I'm asking players to create a fairly detailed character history and personality but no character sheet - their characters have no clue about magic.

I want this game to be more focused on story than rules - I don't want a player saying "my character has Mind 2 and Corrispondance 2" I'd rather they said "I can tell what people are thinking, how best to approach and communicate with them, and I'm really good at finding what I want to find." We'll be playing online: Play by post, Play by e-mail, Play by IRC and Play by IM will all be possible - I am not going to require that people work as a group if they do not want to.

Oh have I ever got the link for you!

This is a website by a English teacher who went to Japan to teach for a few years. It's really informative from a shocked westerner perspective and actually pretty funny.

http://zigguratbuilder.nu/dowty/book/bookframe.shtml

 

[thatdarncat]

Being Japanese myself, I'm interested in how foregin people think about Japan.

I think I have a boolmark for a site which describes Japanese folklore / Budhism / Shintoism, but I can't find now...

There is maybe something you can help me with

-Chan -kun and such. When are they used and what's the ettiquite about using someone's family and given name? I know that names are given Last name First name, and I think using someone's first name implies friendship - you wouldn't use someone you'd just met's first name, you'd wait until they told you that you could?

Do I have that right? wrong? totally backwards?

edit: and if you do find that link, please post it!

 

[Xeriar]

Re: Re: HELP! Japanese Setting - customs and traditions

Oh have I ever got the link for you!

This is a website by a English teacher who went to Japan to teach for a few years. It's really informative from a shocked westerner perspective and actually pretty funny.

http://zigguratbuilder.nu/dowty/book/bookframe.shtml

Along a similar vein, read 'Learning to Bow' by Bruce Feiler. I had to read it for Japanese class and accidentally ended up reading the entire thing in one sitting.

It shows that Japan on the outside is not the Japan on the inside, and despite democracy, the class breakdown - Samurai to Hinin, is still very much alive.

 

[Xeriar]

There is maybe something you can help me with

-Chan -kun and such. When are they used and what's the ettiquite about using someone's family and given name? I know that names are given Last name First name, and I think using someone's first name implies friendship - you wouldn't use someone you'd just met's first name, you'd wait until they told you that you could?

Do I have that right? wrong? totally backwards?

edit: and if you do find that link, please post it!

People are addressed by their family name in formal settings, appended by rank. So, say you have Usagi Katsumi, a pretty little Japanese lady.

In a formal setting, she would be addressed
"Usagi-sama" by an inferior, or someone wishing to show her (great) respect.
"Usagi-san" by an equal
"Usagi-chan" while she was a child, or is acting like one (in Learning to Bow this insult gets used on one student by another for this reason)

Just plain Usagi is fine after awhile, in frequent speech, though never giving someone respect can be taken as an insult.

If there are more Usagi's present, they will use her full name.

In an informal setting, her family name is used while she is a 'stranger' until they know eachother better, then personal names may be used.

"-kun" is a diminuative suffix, no longer used in formal speech. I would imagine it to be rather insulting.
"-chan" is basically, calling someone a kid.

Calling people 'san' and 'sama' all the time in an informal setting is rather awkward, though there are rare types that do, according to my teacher, anyway.

 

[Xeriar]

Doh! Mix-up.

"-chan" is female, "-kun" is male, but sometimes when throwing insults this will get mixed up - "Usagi-chan" while a child, or younger or or of lesser status, or by family that doesn't want to associate themselves with her, etc.

"Usagi-kun" would be referring to her acting out of place, for example.

 

[Cyrik Skylark]

However, in Jr. High, if my (very limited) knowledge of Japanese is correct, -kun and -chan would be common among friends, though starting to be replaced by -san. -san to people you don't really know, -chan/-kun to closer friends.

Basically, -chan/-kun are mostly used towards children... at 13-15, you're on the verge of -chan/-san.

For the teachers, they would be -sensei.

Here's a site about suffixes

Of course, I could be completely wrong. =b