Video Games

Video Games

You probably took one look at the title of this next blog post and thought to yourself, "What is Danielle going on about now? She's just rambling now, this has nothing to do with Japanese culture..."

Well, here it is. I hereby dedicate this blog post to my favorite pass time: video games. And three cool things I didn’t know about traditional Japanese culture until I played Fatal Frame in Japan.

Let me tell you a story (and I'll try to redeem myself in the process).

So shortly after coming to Japan, I bought me the Japanese version of one of my all-time favorite horror video games, Fatal Frame III (or Zero Shisei no Koe in Japanese). Found a copy for about 2500en at a Bookoff in Akihabara.

I soon learned that buying a Japanese PS2 would be a lot less accommodating on my wallet. Unlike the States, where you can find a cheap PS2 for about $20 or less at a pawn shop, the older the console, the more rare – and thus, expensive - it seems to become here in Japan. Which is a bugger.

Cultural Fact Learned in Japanese Fatal Frame #1: HIIRAGI

There's a festival that passed in February called Setsubun. On the 3^rd of February, there is a decoration that some people use called hiiragi iwashi (holly leaves and sardine heads) on their doorways, so that bad spirits won't enter. The bad spirits are said to dislike the smell of sardines, and also fear getting their eyes poked by the sharp points of the holly leaves. Essentially, holly in Japan is like a good luck charm and means protection.

On one important room in this game, there are three special holly patterns on the doorframe that could mean that they don't want bad luck in (or in this game's case, they didn't want any unwanted people to enter).

Cultural Fact Learned in Japanese Fatal Frame #2: IRORI

The entire map you travel around in this game is traditional Japanese-esque (tatami rooms, shouji, futon rooms, and that sort of thing), but in one room in particular, we have the hearth room (irori).

As we all know, the hearth has many uses, such as cooking, heating water, lighting and heating the room, drying clothes, etc. But the traditional Japanese irori always has a hollow bamboo pole hanging from the ceiling that has a metal rod or chain with a hook at the end, as well as a lever that lets you regulate the height of the hook and how close your pot is to the fire.

Interesting thing about the lever, though, is that it's almost always in the form of a fish. Why is that? The fish, a water creature, means protection against fire, accidents, or house fires. Fish also have no eyelids and are thought to never sleep, thus giving you around-the-clock protection. (In Fatal Frame, though, the around-the-clock protection didn't help to stop one particular victim's fate they met in that room.)

Cultural Fact Learned in Japanese Fatal Frame #3: KOBUN - OLD (OBSOLETE) JAPANESE TEXT

Occasionally, during your travels, your character can find notes or journals from times long ago. And those journals are all written in old-time Japanese (which obviously you don't see in the English version of the game).

For instance,

This: 起こしてしまふ is read like this: 起こしてしまう

This: 見てゐると is read like this: 見ていると

This: 帰つてこない is read like this: 帰ってこない
And this: 伝はつてゐる is read like this: 伝わっている

I'm told that Japanese grade schoolers, high schoolers, and even some college students don't know how to read these correctly. I've watched some Japanese gamers pass up the text sometimes, saying they can't read it. Even the kanji varied back then.　I can't imagine being a translator. ;__; Japanese is so hard.

Well, that was quite a cultural adventure, wasn't it? :D

...Or maybe I really was just rambling. Sorry about that.

At least you got to see some neat pictures.