Volume 1: Entrance!
GeneralJapan's Education System - In Japan, grades 1-6 are elementary school, 7-9 are middle school, and 10-12 are high school. At 10 years old, Chiyo would normally be in 5th grade, so she has skipped five grades to start hr first year of high school. Each school year consists of three semesters. The school year begins in April, and the first semester goes to July. The second semester runs from September to December. The third semester covers Janurary to March.
The "-chan" Honorific - Adding this honorific generally makes a name sound cuter. It is used as an endearment towards close friends and people younger than yourself. It can also be used as an insult, somewhat like calling someone a baby. Unlike some other Japanese honorifics, this one has no real equivalent in English, so it has been left in.
Miss Yukari - Though the students call her "Miss Yukari", using her first name, this is as unusual in Japan as it is in America. Most teachers are addressed by their last names.
Episode 1: Miss Yukari
School Lunches - Not all schools provide lunches, but those that do serve it to all the students at the school. The cost of the lunch is covered by whatever tuition the students pay, so it is essentially free. Everyone is served the same thing on any given day from the school kitchen. Students assigned to lunch duty for the day will go to the school kitchen to get the class' portion and serve it to their classmates cafeteria style. By and large, these lunches are carefully planned around nutritional guidelines. This practice began after the war (WWII), when the American army provided dried skim milk for students at school because children where not getting the proper nutrition at home due to poverty.
Chiyo Makes Her Own Lunch! - Naturally, this is surprising because Chiyo is so young. However, it is doubly amazing because most students never pack their own lunch in their entire school career since their mothers do it for them.
The Double Bridge - Chiyo create the double bridge formation in a Japanese version of cat's cradle. This is the bridge before the entrance to the imperial palace.
Chiyo's Tongue Twister - Chiyo gets this toungue twister wrong for all three iterations. The phrase she is trying to repeat has been translated as, "Bus gas blast gust." The original Japanese is, "Basu gasu baku-hatsu", which literally translates to, "Bus gas explosion."
Day Duty - Students in the class will take turns on day duty. For that day, the person on day duty will be in charge of various miscellaneous chores, such as passing things out, collecting papers, and erasing the chalkboard at the end of the day.
Standing in the Hall With Buckets of Water - This is a fairly traditional form of punishment in school (the buckets of water being optional). However, punishments of this kind have become rarer in recent days because of biased and pushy parents. Claiming their children can do no wrong, they object to physical forms of punishment. (*snort*)
Bread for Lunch - When Tomo declares she's having bread for lunch, she doesn't literally mean just bread. In Japan, meals are broadly categorized into meals based on rice or bread. So, in this case, "bread" covers a lot of items, such as sandwiches, cream filled pasteries, flavored buns, etc.
Osaka Things - The Tsutenkaku is a tower and a famous landmark of Osaka. Octupus balls (or takoyaku) are dough stuffed with a piece of octupus and served with a savory sauce. Octopus balls are a favorite festival food, but Osaka is especially known for them and for its good food in general.
"You Profitin' There?" - The city of Osaka is known for being very business-oriented, to the point that it colors its citizens' every day speech. This phrase is a stereotypical equivalent of "How are you?"
Ayumu Kasuga's Accent - Being from Osaka, she does have an Osakan accent, but it is very soft. The sterotypical Osakan accent is harsher and interspersed with local vocabulary. This is what Miss Yukari and the students intially try to get her to speak. In the English dub, this has been equated to a Southern accent from around the Houston area, which shares the business-oriented attitude with Osaka as well as the country image that color both the Southern and Osakan accents.
Note: In the first manga, Osaka spoke with a "Brooklynese" accent. This was changed in the anime for character and dubbing purposes.
Standard Japanese - This is the Japanese spoken on national television and in newscasts. There are many dialects in Japan, but because local differences can make accented speech difficult to understand, people who normally speak in these dialects often choose to surpress their accents.
Japanese Pizza - Also knowwn as okonomiyaki, it is another food associated with Osaka. It is like an omelet in that usually contains various kinds of meats and vegetables, but instead of egg, a doughy flour and egg mixture encases the ingredients. The batter and toppings are fried together on a flat surface and served with some kind of sauce. it is strange to eat okonomiyaki with rice because okonomiyaki is a meal by itself. it would be like eating American pizza with a baked potato.
Kansai - This is the area southwest of Tokyo, which includes Osaka and Kyoto. The famous Kansai accent is actually comprised of a number of different dialects from that general region including those of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. The Osakan accent is a type of Kansai accent, however not all Kansai accents are Osakan.
Episode 2: Osaka's Day
Handkerchiefs - Most public Japanese bathrooms do not have paper towels or dryers, so carrying around a handerkief is a must.
School Cafeterias - This is different from schol lunches, which were mentioned in episode 1. These are actual cafeterias, much like those found in American schools, where you must pay for your food.
Tomo's Lunch - Japanese fried chicken is only coated in starch (not in batter). "Omelets" are actually just flavored egg with nothing else in it. In Japan, meatballs, if served by themselves, often refer to little balls of deep-fried hamburger meat, which are not covered in any kind of sauce.
Splitting Chopsticks - Cafeterias generally provide disposable chopsticks made of wood. These are made stuck together at the top, which the user must first split to use. When done carelessly, it's very easy to get uneven splits, especially with the cheap quality disposable chopsticks.
Croquettes - Though there are many varieties, croquettes are most commonly patties, made from a mixture of mashed potato and meat, which are then breaded and fried. Therefore, they generally look whitish on the inside, not red.
Juice, Not Water? - Japanese schools generally don't have water fountains, though water facuets are made so they can be turned upwards to produce a fountain-like effect. Most students either buy from vending machines or bring thermoses with tea.
Hiccup Cures - Like in America, when Japanese people think of curing hiccups, the most common methods are drinking water or scaring them into stopping.
Giving Hiccups to Someone Else? - In Japan, a common suggestion to cure a cold is to "give it to someone else". This, however, does not work for hiccups.
Grains of Truth - In the original Japanese, Osaka says, "Mame-chishiku,", which means "useful trivia". However, literally broken down, mame means "bean" and chishiki means "knowledge". Osaka then goes on to say, "Edamame are a kind of soybean, ya know." And her punch line is, "I wanted you to say, that's not bean knowledge (mame-chishiku), that's knowledge about beans (mame no chishiki).
Episode 3: Nyamo
Delivery Truck - The delivery truck that pulls up to Nyamo's place is painted like a Kuroneko Yamata delivery truck. Kuroneko literally means "black cat". Their logo is an adult black cat carrying a black kitten in its mouth.
Hokkaido Foods - Crabs, sea urchines, and salmon stew are all specilaties of Hokkaido.
The "Right Way" to Hold Chopsticks - There are many serviceable ways to hold chopsticks, but there realy is only one right way to hold them. Directions on how to hold chopsticks correctly can usually be found printed on their paper wrapper.
Episode 4: Pool, Pool, Pool
The School Chime - In American schools, class periods are seperated by the bell. In Japan, the cime melody is used.
A Steak Dinner - In Japanese, Yukari actually says, "yakiniku". Yakiniku is where beef is sliced thinly and pan fried, often right at your table. However, this does not change the fact that they are betting an expensive steak dinner. (Note: In the manga, this is referred to as Korean barbeque.)
Kagura in P.E. - Though Kagura is not in class 3, she is in their swimming class in P.E. This is because when classes are split up along gender lines, students from more than one class will come together for certain classes, such as P.E. and sex ed.
What Floor is a Horror Story On? - In Japanese, kaidon means "horror stories", but it can also mean "stairs". In the original Japanese, Osaka asks, "How many steps does a 'horror story' have?" It is a fairly lame pun (as puns go), so in the translation, we have taken advantage of how a "story" can mean a "tale" or a "floor" to do an equally bad pun.
Episode 5: Summer Break
Homework During Summer Break?! - Because summer break falls between the first and second semesters, you have the same teacher, which enables them to give you homework to complete during the break. Generally, you will have homework in every subject. The assignments can vary from large projects to workbooks, which are meant to be done one page a day.
Buying Cake to Visit Chiyo - It is general etiquette to buy someone a gift when you visit them, even if you know them fairly well. This being their first visit makes it that much more special. But even if it wasn't, gifts are still common unless you are really close to someone. Gifts are most often food items, and if the occasion isn't too formal, often something that can be eaten during the visit.
In the Neighborhood - Because Japanese addresses are based on lot numbers on numbered blocks, unless you know the orientation of the particular block, finding a specific address in somewhat more difficult than in America, where the number and street name allow you to pinpoint the location fairly easily.
A Melon Instead of Cake? - Melons and other fruits are significantly more expensive than a couple pieces of cake. Melons in particular are often given as gifts and can go from around $50 and up (O_O!), while most cake shops sell cake for about $3-$5 a piece.
Chiyo's Mansion - Chiyo's house, not to mention the yard, is immense, luxurious, and very Western compared to most homes in Japan. This is definetly an upper class residence. Though the house is impressive, what is more telling is the large yard. Land in Japan is very expensive, especially in Tokyo. Someone with a house like this will likely be at least a millionaire.
Driving Cars - In Japan, you cannot get a driver's license until the age of 18, and even then, taking the classes and tests (much less buying a car) can be quite expensive.
The Big Deal About Hemorrhoids - In Japanese, "hemorrhoids" is "ji". When written in hiragana, the sound "ji" can be written in two ways, one is shi with diacrtical marks (which are the two dots placed at the top right of the hiragana) and one is chi with diacritical marks. Strictly speaking, there are grammatical rules determining when "ji" should be written which way. The first rule is: If a word has chi or shi right before the "ji"', the "ji" after it is written with diacritical marks using whichever hiragana preceded it. The second rule is that if a word is normally written with a shi or chi and is used in another context where it must be pronounced as a "ji", the "ji" is written in. In truth, the "ji" for hemorrhoids really should use shi and the chi version was incorrectly popularized, largely due to a commerical for hemorrhoid medicine.
Seals and Sea Leopards - In Japanese, the Chinese characters (or kanji) that define something are often put together to represent a word. In this case, the characters "sea" and "leopard" can be read as "seal" when they are put together as one word.
Why Are Puffer Fish Called "River Pigs"? - In Japan, when people think of puffer fish, people always think of the variety caught in the ocean. However, in China, there are species of puffer fish that live in rivers and this how they came to be called "river pigs" in Japan.
Being Good With Sparklers - Japanese sparklers are different than American ones, as they must be held still and perpendicular to the ground. A bead of burning material at the end puts our sporadic sparks and because it hangs percariously, it must be held steady, or it will fall off and end permaturely. It is not a particurarly difficult skill, but this is why Chiyo comments on Sakaki's handling of the sparkler.
