Hanabatake

Practicing Japanse with Paradise Kiss

My (manga-centric) friends Shizuki and Satsuki were wondering why I haven’t read Paradise Kiss. They know I love manga and enjoyed Yazawa Ai’s Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai and Gokinjo Monogatari (both in the same universe as Paradise Kiss).

I wanted to, I really did! The thing is, it’s published in Zipper, a fashion magazine aimed towards young women. That’s lovely and all, but that means the Japanese kanji does not have furigana.

Furigana is like a small pronunciation key above or to the side of kanji (Chinese characters used in Japan). And while I have OK reading skills, I’m a kanji-phobe. I know a few of them and have forgotten twice more than that.

Most of the manga I read (even the YAOI and BL) have some sort of furigana. And that helps me read, since I’m much better at figuring it out after “hearing” it in my head. Also, it makes it TONS easier to look up in the dictionary. All around me from 3 weeks of not cleaning due to extreme holiday busyness™ with 3 Japanese dictionaries – one for kanji, one for kanji that has all the words that have that kanji in it, and a regular Japanese to English dictionary.

And instead of reading it, I’ve been skimming for the good parts.

I’m such a lazy translator. I’d like to claim that I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of kanji I have to look up. It’s not really true. I’m just a bit slow.

Anyway, my favorite dictionaries are:

The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary 
Contains a lot of words that have the kanji you are looking up in. Very helpful and helps you learn related words. Gives the reading of the words in romanji (English lettering). Handy radical key runs on the side of each page. Very helpful if you use radicals to look things up.

NTC’s New Japanese-English Character Dictionary 
Shows you stroke order, gives you examples words that use that kanji, and some usage.

Kodansha’s Furigana Japanese-English Dictionary 
If I know the reading, but not the word, this is usually helpful. If it is not in here, I usually can cross-reference with the Nelson’s to find the word.