Translation of Mr. Takeshi Kaneshiro's diary -notes in English

w: It expresses laughter. "w" is a shortened form of the Japanese word "warai", which means laughter. It is said that it originated in network games.
clione: A kind of snail, but it has no shell. The one that Takeshi mentions must be the clione limacina, because it is the one well known in Japan. It is 1-3 cm long. Although he says it seems not to be at the South Pole, actually it seems to be there, too.
UO: Ultima Online, one of the network games.
osta: An abbreviation of ostard. A sort of animal seen in UO.
lol: Laughing out loud. It is a popular abbreviation in the English-speaking world, while seldom is it used in Japan.
general large-sized PET bottle: 1.5- or 2-littre-sized soft drinks bottle made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate).
zodiac: A small rubber motorboat for landing.
Fin Whale: Balaenoptera physalus.
―д―: One of emoticons. It signifies the uninterested look.
TT: One of emoticons. It signifies the tearful face.
T0T: One of emoticons. It signifies the crying face.
^^: One of emoticons. It signifies the smile.
urashima condition: A kind of mental condition that one feels as if one's hometown were strange to oneself because it is entirely transformed during one's short-term absence. This expression comes from the Japanese legend of Urashima.
enigma: It plays the same role as the words in comic dialogues that sublimate strange words into humour by a negative response. It seems to me that Takeshi uses it for withdrawing the conclusion and making us laugh after he felt that the sentence had a too heavy meaning, or after he was embarrassed at a high-flown expression.
o'oh: Takeshi's own expression of the ICQ default sound of incoming message:
burdock: It is a kind of vegetable for Japanese people. They eat the root of it.
treasure hunting: One sometimes gets a map for a treasure by defeating a monster in UO.
F: An abbreviation of Felucca. A world in UO where one can kill another player's character.
T: An abbreviation of Trammel. A world in UO where one cannot kill another player's character.
EI: Evaluating Intelligence; a kind of skill in UO to evaluate the intelligence of other players' characters and that of monsters.
tank mage: A kind of status composition of a character in UO that he/she has 100 of strength, 25 of dexterity and 100 of intelligence.
GM: Grand Master, which means that a skill value of a character in UO is 100. "6 GMs" means that six skill values are 100 each.
resisting spells: A kind of skill in UO.
Hokuto: One of the UO servers in Japan. It is said that there are comparatively many eccentric characters in Hokuto.
PK: Player Killer; one who kills other players' characters in UO.
faction: A system that was installed in each server of UO on December 6th, 2000. There are four factions opposing to each other. If a player belongs to one of them, he/she can participate in the war among them.
Nightmare: A kind of monster seen in UO. It is feedable and ridable.
real estate: The real estate in UO, of course.
monster: A kind of living thing in UO that attacks player's characters.
skill: There are 49 kinds of skill of character in UO. A skill has an integer value between 0 and 100. The sum of skill values of a character has the supremum, which is basically 700.
status: There are three kinds of status of character in UO: the strength, the dexterity and the intelligence. A status has an integer value between 0 and 100. The sum of status values of a character has the supremum, which is basically 225.
DOn't I: A gag of Charlie Hama, a comedian. You have to stress "A-" of the original Japanese phrase "ja A-rimasenka". This is different from the normal accent.
Dragon Quest: One of the video games.
ticket of holiday gift: A ticket to be exchange for a Christmas present, which was given to characters in UO on December 8th, 2000. A character could choose one of the followings: a holiday bell, a snow globe, snowballs and a holiday tree deed. The deadline was January 7th, 2001.
bell: Holiday bell, one of Christmas present for characters in UO. There are various kinds of it; a character receives one of the bells at random.
ZZzzz: A breathing sound in sleeping.
Amitabha: (, Buddha the infinite splendour) or (, Buddha the infinite life). Sakyamuni was practicing under the name of , and he became Amitabha when he was spiritually awakened.
Buddha: One who was spiritually awakened. It also means Sakyamuni.
48 great prayers: The prayers that Sakyamuni expressed when he was (the name of him under practice). When they were fulfilled, Sakyamuni became Amitabha. There are 48 prayers according to "the Larger Sutra on Amitayus" that was translated into Chinese by Samghavarman in A.D. 252, but 47 or 46 prayers according to Sanskrit texts. The Tibetan translation have 49 prayers. Some of the Chinese translations have 24 prayers.
One of them: Maybe it is the 18th great prayer according to "the Larger Sutra on Amitayus" that was translated into Chinese by Samghavarman in A.D. 252:
"If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten quarters who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and call my Name, even ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. Excluded, however, are those who commit the five gravest offences and abuse the right Dharma." (Quoted from there that was translated from Chinese by Hisao Inagaki.)
But according to one of the Sanskrit texts (a manuscript of the 14th or 15th century), the Larger of "(, the formation of Amitabha's paradise)", it is the 19th:
"O Bhagavat, if those beings who in immeasurable and innumerable Buddha countries, after they have heard my name, when I shall have obtained Bodhi, should direct their thought to be born in that Buddha country of mine, and should for that purpose bring their stock of merit to maturity, if these should not be born in that Buddha country, even those who have only ten times repeated the thought of that Buddha country, barring always those beings who have committed the five deadly sins, and who have caused an obstruction and abuse of the good Law, then may I not obtain the highest perfect knowledge." (Quoted from there that was translated from the Sanskrit by F. Max Mueller.)
namo Amitabha: () or () in Sanskrit. It means glory to Amitabha.
The Sims: One of the PC games, which simulates one's life.
young warrior: When one completes Onimusha, one is rated according to five ranks: fleeing warrior - worthless warrior - young warrior - valiant warrior - the most valiant warrior.
Oni-spirits: In Onimusha, if one completes it after collecting 20 fluorites, one can play a small game called Oni-spirits. If one completes all of Oni-spirits, one can choose the strongest mode when one plays Onimusha again from the beginning.
Chinese dress: If one is rated among the most valiant warriors when one completes Onimusha, one can choose Kaede in a Chinese dress when one plays it again from the beginning.
panda: In Onimusha, if one completes it after collecting more than 10 fluorites, one can choose Samanosuke in a panda costume when one plays it again from the beginning. One can put on a panda's head by L2 button.
^^;: One of emoticons. It signifies the wry smile.
Yone: The name of the boy next to Takeshi may have been "Takeshi Yone-so-and-so".
A-ying: A gag of Ken Shimura, a comedian. He bends one of his elbows, turns the palm of the hand down, raises the forearm to the height of his neck, in keeping it horizontal, brings the back of the hand close to the lower law and sticks out the lower jaw simultaneously.
In the heart of a mountain in India, a snail rolls: A medley composed by children, which begins with "Go, Rainbowman!", the opening song of a television drama "Rainbowman, the soldier of love". There are many variations depending on the regions and the times. Takeshi's variation may be the one that a children's song "Snail" comes after "Go, Rainbowman!": listen
1, 2, 3 barashippo, a gorilla's son, greens, leaves, rotten tofu.: One of counting songs. The beginning of each word is the same as that of 1-10 in Japanese. The correct words are "1, 2, a caudal fin of saury...", but I think Takeshi the small boy heard like "3 barashippo". There are some variations depending on the regions. I found 14 samples in the internet: 11 samples of the Kansai district, 2 of Aichi Prefecture and 1 of Saitama Prefecture. It is possible that the melody varies a little with the dialect. I made 3 samples to listen anyhow.
Osaka in the Kansai district | Kyoto in the Kansai district | Tokyo in the Kanto district
The melody of Tokyo is only my imagination; it may not exist.
Dendereryuba, detekurubatten, denderarenken, detekonken, konkorarenken, korarerarenken, konkon.: "Denderaryuba", a folk song of Nagasaki. The meaning is "If I could come out, I will come out, but I cannot come out, so I will not come out. I cannot come, so it's impossible for me to come, so I will not come": listen
server: The server of UO. The world in one server has the same construction as another, but a character in one server cannot go to another.
TD: Third Dawn, a version of UO on sale on March 22nd, 2001. The 6th game server in Japan was set up as a memento of it, and a naming contest of the server preceded it.
kirin: A kind of animal in UO. Only male characters can tame and ride on it.
unicorn: A kind of animal in UO. Only female characters can tame and ride on it.
guild member: Guild member in UO. There are 2 kinds of guild: specialists' guilds set up initially and players' guilds set up by players inviting people to join. A player's guild can make war on another player's guild.
White Day: In 1958, Mary Chocolate Co., Ltd. put successfully a new custom in Japan that women give chocolate to men on February 14th. Some confectioners got an idea from it and began to advertise that men should give confectionery to women on March 14th. In June of 1978, the National Confectioners' Cooperative named March 14th "White Day". The presents of today are not always confectionery.
No, I will not~♪ I will not~~♪: A few words in the hit song "Hanjiro on the Hakone Road" by Kiyoshi HIKAWA.
Don't blossom: It's a pun because the pronunciation of "cherry tree (sakura)" is similar to that of "don't blossom (sakuna)" in Japanese. But in general, everyone calls it "a pun of old men" and avoids using it because it is not very sophisticated.
Guanzizai: The Chinese translation of a Sanskrit word () by Xuanzang (600?-664年). It means a person who observes all the things in the universe and can relieve all the living things from their pain at will. It is also called "Guanshiyin" or "Guanyin" according to the translation before Xuanzang. I think that the expression "Guanzizai mode" means his peaceful state of mind in devoting himself to Buddhism.
mizuho: The sixth Japanese server of UO opened on April 30th, 2001. There is still much room of undeveloped land on a new server, therefore a rush to build houses occurs.
Mother's Day: The second Sunday of May is Mother's Day in Japan.
Father's Day: The third Sunday of June is Father's Day in Japan.
Children: May 5th is Children's Day in Japan.
Black-Face: A makeup method of making the face black, which was the fashion among Japanese teenagers in the second half of the 1990s.
503I series: A series of cellular phones that NTT Docomo began to sell in January, 2001. It is the strong point that users can download i-applis from servers and run it on the cellular phone client.
i-appli: Java application for cellular phones of NTT Docomo.
green mask: Green mask of orcish kin, one of the items added on UO in May of 2001. One can get it occasionally by defeating an orc mage. While a player's character wears this mask, no orc attacks him/her, his/her karma value falls, and he/she can perform neither curing poison nor healing on another player's character. If he/she attacks an orc, the mask will explode and damage him/her.
orc: A kind of monster seen in UO. The body looks like a human being, and the head looks like a pig.
orc mage: An orc who can practice magic in UO.
karma: An index of good and bad of a character in UO. The value will rise if the character does a deed regarded as socially good, and it will fall if he/she does a deed regarded as socially bad.
Urara Urara: A part of lyrics of "Sniping", a hit song by Linda Yamamoto. A website where you can listen partially: can-d.com
32KB: It's not clear what has 32KB. Did his laptop computer have only 32KB RAM? But it's too outdated for the year 2001. Is it mistaken for 32MB? Or, is it a VRAM capacity? It seems not to satisfy the conditions of working of UO anyway.
Director: Takashi Yamazaki, the director of the film "Returner".
Anne: Anne Suzuki, an actress who co-starred with Takeshi in the film "Returner".
Luna Hiki: A boy born on February 11th, 1990, who appeared in the TV program "NHK Special —The Miracle Poet" televised on April 28th, 2002. The content of the program is as follows: "Luna Hiki conquered a brain disorder, wrote down compositions by pointing at a card of characters with his mother's assistance and published them." But it was criticised as "Luna's mother seems simply manipulate him in ignoring his will", and it became a topic in the Internet, the mass-media, the Diet etc. On the other hand, various conjectures were made upon Takeshi's diary:

It may be a criticism of the program because it contains expression of joking like "hee-hee".
He may abandon the website in protest against the program.
My opinion about this subject is here.
TV drama: "Golden Bowl", a TV drama shown from April to June 2002.
m(_ _)m: One of emoticons. The 2 'm's means hands, and the '(_ _)' means a bowed head. The whole means a bowing person sitting properly in Japanese style.
though by Roman alphabet input: There are 2 ways of Japanese input: the input with kana and that with alphabet. A kana and an alphabet are printed on each key of the Japanese keyboard. The kana input is the way that one types according to the kanas on the keyboard. The alphabet input is the way that one types according to the alphabets on the keyboard, and kanas appear on the screen according to the combination of alphabets. If one inputs Japanese sentences with kana, one will need less typing than the alphabet input, but if the sentences include numbers or alphabets, the alphabet input will be simpler. Takeshi wrote "though"; I think it explains his self-confidence.
I found some good skins (for the website, of course),...I hope you look on my website in the future.: This part is not registered to the Internet Archive, but according to Dolphin dated June 25th of 2005, these sentences existed at the first time on December 5th of 2000, and they were deleted before long.
I'll upload photos. It's for nothing, but...upload photos of landscape!! (From someone who doesn't want to see my face.): This part is not registered to the Internet Archive, but according to Dolphin dated July 14th of 2005, these sentences with the photos of self-portrait existed at the first time on December 8th of 2000, and they were deleted afterwards, as he wrote in his diary dated December 22nd of 2000.

English | 繁體 | 简体 | français | 原文

table of contents | 目次（繁體） | 目次（简体） | table des matières | 目次（原文）