Thursday, May 31, 2007

Let's Learn Japanese: Hamatta

Hamatta. (Hooked.)

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, it's a Let's Learn Japanese post for the first time since December! And, as if that weren't exciting enough, this is my 300th post on Chorus, Isolate, Confirm. Seems like just yesterday I was taking photos of myself with a PS2 controller cable wrapped around my neck.

Today's lesson is about the past tense of the Japanese verb hamaru, which literally means "to be trapped" (or, often, "to be hooked on something"). After fussing and complaining about Square Enix's unsatisfactory PSP port of Final Fantasy Tactics, I found myself fondly remembering the hopeless addiction to Monster Hunter Portable I experienced last spring. So the next natural course of action was to buy the sequel, known in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd. Now, after importing my fully-pumped-up MHP character data into MHP2, I am very much hamatta.

My childhood love of dinosaurs bears a large amount of the responsibilty for my adulthood love of this game franchise. When I was in second grade I used the word Parasaurolophus in a conversation with my friend. When my teacher overheard me, she jokingly threatened to give me a failing grade if I couldn't spell Parasaurolophus.

Who's laughing now, Mrs. Hansen?

Technorati: Monster Hunter / Parasaurolophus

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Patrick Bateman for Isetan

The Shinjuku branch of department store Isetan (not pronounced "I, Satan") is running a menswear campaign. The man in the ads appearing on Tokyo trains as well as the Isetan website looks a lot like Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000).

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tactics Addendum

Continuing my ROUND! THE! CLOCK! coverage of the PSP adaptation of Final Fantasy Tactics:

The English localization of the game will feature recorded dialog in its animated cutscenes, a feature that was not added to the Japanese version. It has also undergone an English name change from Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War to Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of Lions. Don't ask me why.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Anti-Productivity Suite

Finally, a web browser-based toy that takes the shape of its container:

Liquid Webtoy

And if you like Liquid Webtoy, try:

Powder Game