Nihongoban ha madadesu.

MIDI music "Castlevania X" by anonymous composer.

Back to G&T Soft International Div.

Last Updated: 25^th of September, 1997 (more photos added!!)

This is Takamichi. Here is my personal memoir on happened to me on last 24th of August, the day MSX Festa '97, Japanese biggest MSX-related convention was held.

I must apologize that due to my limited time supply (you want to read report on fairs as early as you can, don't you?) and my clumsiness to have made a dire error for not taking photos using digital cameras, I could no take any photos by myself. However, I could manage to get some with help of Wataru the Wondering Networker.

Proclamation: Now, ALL of Japanese MSX users are now conscious that we MUST learn Spanish (Catalan) by any means possible. Please read why, although anyone familiar to the name of Spaniard visitor mentioned here would be able to easily guess the cause ;)

Before commencement, one thing that happened on Saturday; I got the late (22:00 or so) phone call from SaveR of Club Mesxes, who managed to reach Japan on very day. I made the arrangement to pick him up and take him to the MSX Festa site.

After lack of any sleep since I was busy politically correct manuals for KAI products (yes, the introduction of Ninjin-kun 1&2 - LILO and No Name, of course). The papers only described those games which lacks any sensible senses only as "a world which had been influenced from Japanese games but is quite notable for their unique distinctively constructed game worlds". I purposefully deleted every comments on what's REALLY contained inside XDDDDD, except an one-line notice "fantastic visual scenes that would slit open your arteries in your brain and blow it up out of our skull" :P

Anyway, I left, with 17 sets of duplicated No Name disks, with neat labels adhered to all. Also some items for kosupure disguise (read later).

Mine Gal Hunter, newcomer in Gal's Quest 2.5

10:00

Arrived at Ootsuka station, and, found innocent-looking tall man with more German than Mediterranean face was standing next to a large bag. Got onto the train.

He told me that he cannot understand any English thing at all, and it didn't take me long time to learn that, not only he was unable to construct "this is a pen" kind of simple syntax, but, could not even pronounce the term "MSX" !! What I could recognize were the syllables "Me-??-??-ke-??s". (?? were the sounds that were beyond ability of my ears).

Well, speaking about his Japanese, I was surprised that he could SPEAK Japanese to the degree we can learn what he was saying. However, on the contrary, he almost could not HEAR anything we say. Well, I was careful enough to bring a Spanish dictionary, which was, to disappointment of SaveR, and eventually to Japanese masses, English ^^; <=> Spanish. Anyway, since I had a lot of experiment in conversing through modified Japanese for to let those unaccustomed to Japanese understand (that is, to cut out suffixes which contain "fickle of the word", and arrange the orders in Latin-like form), somehow I could manage to exchange some tales between us, referring to names both of us knows like Ramon, Capitan Moncho, Daniel Zorita and others. The fact SD Mesxes No. 10 did not catch up disappointed me, though, but it wasn't a much thing to repent.

10:30

Train reached Akihabara, well-known city famed for computer sales. After a short walk accompanied by conversations like "no more MSX shops here", "no, I still know some with remaining supply", we came upon MSX Festa site. Many of the visitors were already hanging around the door, since the entrance was limited to members of participating clubs until 11:00. Since I had to join with other members - Nameplatelord-the-chokan (in Japanese, Nafuda-no-ouja-choukan), Censurado (or nowadays also as Pa-ken [Pa and Censorship])and Taiga the programmer & printing editor- to prepare our stand, I talked with Aoi Daichi ("Blue earth" in kanjis), the chief organizer of the day, as a leader of MO SOFT. Since leaving SaveR alone outside did not seem like a fantastic idea, we managed to get in together.

Note: I forgot to buy pamphlet - about 100 pages - with club infos and a lot of vital infos about nowadays Japanese MSX infos, along with articles from Klaas de Wind (Nederland) and Lee (Korea) but none ^^; about anything going in Spain a little island just next to Spain - as my own. However, I later asked Aoi to send me one, and received about 10 days after. Every visitors other than me own one, however. Also, I had no time to take photo with my digital camera since I was too busy to work and also I was too busy to be photoed by others (read below to know why ;).

Maple Yard stand was just next to G&T's, so SaveR approached the author Tsuchiya who almost programmed and composed huge RPG Moon light Saga almost all alone, talked together a bit (and handed him Pol Roca's letter written in Japanese, I think). Tsuchiya seemed happy to know he had a real buyer outside Japan. I asked SaveR did he really complete MLS which relies heavily on complex message lines, he did not seem much positive ^^;, but bought several copies of MLS for Ramon and others anyway.

I tried to locate Yokoi, but he then had not arrived yet to his FRONTLINE stand. Imahi, legendary MSX fanatic in whole Japan was already in SYNTAX stand. I asked for "HomoV magazine" filled with homosexual naked men, but Golgo Hayakawa of Kyoto and Imahi's colleague told me Homo-V copies were all sold out for its quality; the amazing fact I learned, since HomoV, in fact, did not exist in any place other than my imagination and sketch book XDDDDD. SaveR somehow handed Pol's Japanese note to Imahi when I was not looking (and probably bought a NV or two).

Did I forget something? Yes, kosupure. I brought a straw hat, thick spectacles and a bug-catcher net for pole, along with white tanktop shirt and short pants to disguise as Gal Hunter,

who is starred in Gal's Quest series - nowadays famed RPG series. Upon seeing me, Akishimo Kamei ( granted me free a copy of "Gal's Quest 2.5 - Revenge of Galbat", newest release his club Tomorrows Soft ("Tomorrows" is a correct spelling, not Tomorrow's) since he knew I was a big fun that I once even had a WWW page dedicated for Gal's Quest 2 ;)

Let's get back. lined up every issues of "The Takao!!", MSX fanzine series containing crap illustrations, awesome queer and magazine "Monthly Macho", my article "Through Comparison between Gal's Quest and Ninjin-kun" and other worthless things. And GT, display, and my expensive speaker to show off No Name.

11:00

People, people, people flowed into MSX Festa site. Software, software, software!! Visitors and clubs from every part of Japan, the faces of famous developers, fanzine publishers, artists in NV magazines which you could only know their names until then.

Ushiko-chan, MOSOFT's official mascot

SaveR was happily wandering around recording everything which comes into his sight with huge camcorder. I, however, did not have time to check every stands since I was too busy doing my work at G&T Soft stand. However, remarkable eye-catching events were;

* Ninjin-kun 2 (Japanese title for No Name) goes Nation-Wide

I sat beside the display, firmly holding joypad, shouting "listen, everyone, this is the best action game in Japan!! This's real cool, especially since the author isn't even a Japanese although he's an addict to PC98 games! XDDDD Multi-layer dot-increment all-directional scroll, with no bugs, unlike Moon light Saga!!" to the sad remark which was visible upon Tsuchiya's face standing next to me ^^; While shouting like hell to the mass crowd which was formed around our MSX, I got rid of the dragon, then calling out "Now it's Best Shot of the Day!! Dear audiences, witness this something which a little resembles Japanese games but had span out to quite dissimilar way!" XDDD and proudly exhibited Ami doing xxxx, all accompanied by romaji Japanese messages I translated. With mesmerizing loud-speaker music played by MSX-AUDIO I borrowed from Yokoi of Frontline, many bought disks despite the price was 1500 yen per No Name, not exactly cheap in Japanese standard. As total, 24 copies were sold.

Buyers included Mukagura Yusui, Tomboy's chief editor (read elsewhere why I murmured "Someone hidden with mosaic is buying something which needs mosaic" for everyone's laughter) and surprisingly, a chica bonita 8-). About 14:00 o'clock, I found a girl approaching G&T stand, and directly stated "Give me Ninjin-kun 1 and 2, both!". After she had paid 1700 yen (Ninjin-kun 1 - Japanese for LILO - was 200 yen a piece; actual price for the disks, as my contract with KAI), I became really afraid if she had bought them without knowing what's really inside, and seriously warned her;

Me: "This is not a normal game but a really, really abnormal one. So, please, as soon as you catch the glimpse a shocking scene, keep pressing SPACE buttons to send them out of your sight, for your own sake!!"

The girl: "H, hey, what, do you mean something abnormal is contained inside these games?"

Me: "Yes, you know 'Gernica'? This game is exactly like it!!"

Girl: "W, what?! You tell me that not only normal products, but awful items like dead bodies and bloodshed are featured in these disks?"

Me: "No, that's not what I exactly mean,..."

Girl: "ISN'T THIS A NORMAL over-18 ADULT GAME??"

I walked away, since I learned definition of "normal" depends upon person and that she had clear knowledge about what KAI made^^;;;;;;;

* Tomboy Video

Genuine Network, who came from southernmost Kyuushuu district, made promotion video tape. With more than 30 spectators, the video, finely edited, displayed Yuusui blurred with Mosaic (he never appears without mosaic over him in Tomboy) while his 'uncensored' face was next to the display ;), and other members - Xi., Kyoichi, Sawada, Rakugaki (Scribbler) on their work. Nicely made. I forgot to acquire the video tape, though.

* Imahi with SYNTAX

Apparently down compared to last year's time. His furasura kosupure was worn (due to excess use in Hokkaido meetings he holds monthly), and, despite prior rumor, none of Hokkaido followers (like Koba and Kaasu Suenaga) came with him. The one who wore pink furasura suit last year - Satoh Moshimoshi the GFX artist girl - was not there this time. There were other "disguise" clothings like Zomly cap (black evil sphere with wings) however, and were worn by people like GUY, worker in SYNTAX Tochigi.

No special releases - just normal NV magazines (which we usually get subscription by postal mail) except Hitorigoto ("Murmurs to Oneself" picture collection disk by Koba). Disk Writer (MSX system to write software you like on the spot) was working, but not much being used. Imahi hanged down all the issues of NV disks along the wall was boasting "NV collection disk at 16000 yen - world No. 1 at 15 meters of length!!" XDDDDD

I talked with Imahi about X-TORY II CD-ROM, of which I noticed the file list on Power MSX Replay page the "SYNTAX magazines". He did not know much.

* GIGAMIX New (?) Release

New Funky Kobayashi of GIGAMIX continued his development to the noon of the day, and in afternoon he appeared with new version of Atacchatte 25% the quiz game, with renewed questions to catch up with today's circumstance (original was already 1.5 years old). Also on the display were graphics and demos of Magical Labyrinth Remix under development. He had gathered a lot of crowd.

* TPM. Co

TPM. Co, who had been a big name in MSX programming world ever since even before MSX-FAN began its publishing, was in his own stand. He, who leads Bokushu Doumei (named from ancient Chinese alliance of the nations) and very known for nonsense queer games with execution available on MSX1 (!) format, almost never appeared in MSX meetings, only in general PC fairs so far. While I could not clearly see what he was selling, everyone were quite shocked by his decision to appear on the MSX-only large fair alone.

Back to myself and SaveR, I noticed his figure was gone at 12:00 o'clock. 30 minutes later, he returned and showed me second-hand Dragon Slayer 6 and other games he bought. I learned where he bought from the label, and asked who told him. He pointed at Nigawara or Niga in short, who made utility to run several .ROM images on real MSX, modified ST, uploading kun-BASIC without revealing what it is;) When I asking dubiously why Niga, who lives in as far as Hokkaido knew well about Akihabara street, he explained he was actually living in Kanto district (where Tokyo belongs to) long time. This did not solve my biggest doubt on why the very idea to take out SaveR came up into Niga's mind at all, though ^^;;;;;;

Yokoi showed up soon, and meticulously began selling Frontline books, music disks, showing off MIDI chord practice utilities (read hereafter for details), talking with other clubs. SaveR handed him a hundred copies of Sonyc, which, perfectly resembled Sonic the Hedgehog. It was labeled as GT only, since only machines around Yokoi which could run Sonyc was GT. He also complained me, "next time you talk with Ramon Ribas, strictly tell him not to send the disks ON VERY DAY THE FAIR IS HELD, please!!". He was selling Eurolink #3 (world's first release :), but he found the disks crush on Sony MSX2+2. I know it for sure, because I asked one of the clubs to lend their Sony HB-F1XV to test, and miserably failed ^^;;;;; Yokoi also learned Ninjin-kun 2 does not work on any MSX with "internally" expanded RAM (external mapper RAM was OK, though). Yokoi was still puzzling about Unknown Reality from Ramon, since he had no idea about Ramon's notice "price: 1250 yen" nor how much payment he should send to whom.

I found Bush from Osaka, known as Hnostar Japonais. He should had been much more strange than he looked, because I found he was also distributor of Miri Soft of Italy, ever so (in)famous ero game publisher XDD. After SaveR greeted him, I looked at Pentaro Odyssey (which was selling well at 2000 disks a piece), and talked about various things. He said he was quite reluctant when Hnostar told him to distribute Pentaros, since I (Takamichi) was then, but Hnostar kept trying to persuade him to since two distributors are better than one. He began proper sales only when I declined yielding to Zorita. He was also caring that if I were feeling ill about the fact he sent photos to Hnostar which he received from one of GIGAMIX, the act which did not make the sender perfectly pleasant. I did not know any such facts, though, so he was assured. Also on his Hnostar Japan stands were Hnostar magazines at 1000 yen, Suplimento Disco at 200 yen, MSX2.20 cartridges, Future Disk #31, along with several others as far as I can remember.

MO SOFT, with quite many staffs, was selling Logos Man, a short foolish adventure at 300 yen, MSX Train (as usual), original mouse pads, books, and graphics collection disks by Fuji Katsupiko at 1000 yen each and - yes - another "for 18 years and over" ;). I bought Logos Man from Kuniharu, the avant-garde artist, who minimized the original graphics for the game. I told him his graphics are only cute when they are small, and when it's big, his creations like Tokiokun (alarm clock man with bushy hair and large eyes) are simply horrifying, he simply passed me a minute color drawing of Tokiokun.

I visited Yuusui's stand again and bought two most latest issues of Tomboy. I apologized - again^^; about me getting late about translating Pierre Gielen's HITECH-C manual into Japanese.

Makuta of Nagoya, famous maintainer of Baboo! Linking list of Japanese MSX WWW pages, was present. He knew my face, and my pages (which include my photos). He did not hide his shock upon browsing my Red Pepper Summer Feast page. XDDD

I had one of Heartful Disk issues from , featuring tako ("octopus"; Genjin is obsessed with octopus just as KAI is obsessed with carrots ;) and quite heart-warming. Also there was demonstration of videotape work he made (Genjin is a full-time video editor). On the desk was a notebook for scribbling. After seeing many stupid or outrageous notes, I decided to leave "I am gay. Still no boobs attached" message as a pun from Japanese novel. Shortly after, the girl who bought Ninjin-kun 2 came up and added "but XXX still remains with me" ;) below mine.

Excerpt from Heartful Disk #2

Uirohi and Kimiyo, an adultery pair (Kimiyo has a husband and children ^^;) were walking about together. Nameplatelord-the-chokan really was really on his nerves, since they repeatedly insulted our The Takao!! magazines at the stand. Too bad Shisho ("Librarian". She calls herself so since is a real high-school librarian) was now their friend. More too bad was, Shisho had grown considerably crazy ^^; since last time.

My show-off mate;) Kusakabe Naruto of MO SOFT who lives in Kansai district, walking around with fake chonmage-like topnotch hair this time (2 years ago his hairs were in mohican 8-), recalled about the time when he hung down his topnotch attachment down his hip. Shisho simply quoted "oh, you've grown your ASS HAIR". ^^;;;;;;

At some hour, someone found out what was on back of SaveR's T-shirt; "Itsumo MSX" written vertically. This really caused sensation; I really wanted to get one;)

Others I bought included SDI, clone of the arcade of same name which you destroy killer missiles and satellites, outlandish magazine Inuzori Sorekkiri No.5 from Dogsleigh Vendor (notorious editor-in-chief Shirokami was wandering elsewhere so I bought from his deputy, my friend Andy. D). Also Ra-dan (Gang called Ra) book, a good collection of mangas and illustrations at as cheap as 200 yen.

Tsujikawa was happily wandering everywhere (Taro, another strong hand in Ese-Artists' factory was taking care of their stand) but refused to give definite reply to my query "is it true that, you once went off into lavatory, holding an electric board and toilet paper in hands, and after some minutes, showed up with rough breath but contented face?" XDDDDDDDDDDD hee hee, MEGA-SCSI is a product of a REAL (?) obsessed psycho! Even Yokoi knew that.

Best occasion I could remember was, when Hereve, a 30-year old suspicious Frenchman who had been in Japan for three years and can read kanji but speaks inadequately, conversed SaveR, through Japanese (you might know better that you cannot talk with foreigner simply because he is from the nation over nearest border). Hereve, rumored to be from Power MSX (makers of MIF utility), is a really suspicious-looking guy who appears in various MSX fairs, even once made his place into MSX-FAN. According to Nameplatelord-the-chokan, he showed up with no knowledge about KAI, easily completed first stage of No Name but immediately wiped out by dragon, quoted "Omoshiroine" (this is fun) but walked away without buying ;)

At 14:30, Ninjin disks had grown scarce, so I took out my laptop PC to duplicate more ninjins. I recalled the rule; wear fundoshi loincloth when duplicating LILO. So I moved close to Imahi (for no obvious reason) and threw away clothes, sat down and quietly began typing down commands, occasionally suggesting to nearby crowds "I'm not an outstanding sight, isn't I?" ;) After copying some disks, I stuck them between my physical body and fundoshi string, and defiantly walked back to G&T Soft stand, defiantly, ignoring Aoi who happily approached me galloping and comment "oh, you're naked already!"

14:45

Aoi Daichi called out for packing up, and announced that meeting would take place in 4th floor of the same building with MSX Festa. Kazuyuki Suzuki of Hanaechan Soft (who once released ero soft FLOWERS from Takeru) told me to do "M" "S" and "X" (see below) and I found good time to be center of photo flash lights 8-P

We packed up anyway, and gradually began going upstairs. A single room, like one year before. Imahi and Nameplatelord-the-chokan set up their stands.

Ahem, many people tried to converse SaveR. But, only language they could think up as an alternative to Japanese was INGLESE, and obviously they got the same result compared to the trial to try talking to SaveR in Russian. And, worse, his knowledge about pronunciation of even well-known terms like "BASIC" and "GOTO" were beyond his mouth and our ears. I tried to convince SaveR in "modified Japanese", but soon found out that method was far out of necessary coverage of everyday Japanese. Even Shiroi Katsuo (bonito) denied the rumor that he could speak Caribbean Spanish. I finally recognized what I should do; TALK SPANISH.

I have never tried to pronounce Spanish and could not let SaveR understand, so I chose to write down. You know, my knowledge in Spanish so far was almost limited to KAI and SD Mesxes. However, in another words, I DID have experiment, unlike everyone (except one) who never had formal training in Spanish (like me XDDD). So I wrote down notes like "Tocarez codigo, y MSX salrars simultania como a fichero" (play the chord, and MSX saves simultaneously into a file), "Por esos no tocares buenos en ritmos correcios, esta utilizad poder quantize por correcion" (for those who cannot play rhythmically well, this utility can perfrom correction through quantize), "Si vosotros practicos tantes, 'codigos-ciegos' este facile." (if you practice enough, easy chord is achievable) along with many others for SaveR's sake.

Tomboy subscribers - Hoshino (ink-artist girl known for twisted mangas), Go Yasuda (drawing artist who participated in Moon light Saga), Hiroaki Kamata (music composer) and Fi-lly (my longtime BBS friend from Nagoya) asked me for interpreting after their obviously error with their wrong ;) tries with their English. Since my dictionary was far out of practical use for them who had few skills with English, SaveR took out Catalan (yes, not Castellano) <=> Japanese dictionary but Hoshino and her friends could not make much effort. Next to come was Newsea, the editor of NGD (Networker's Gift Disks <= I had to translate even this to SaveR! ^^;) series, collections of public domain soft contributed by BBS members. SaveR, after listening, went to Imahi's to buy issues #1 and #4. Newsea also asked SaveR if MCCM 90 was already published, but SaveR did not know that and promised to find out when he gets back to Mallorca. However, as far as I knew it wasn't out yet, so I replied to Newsea so.

My obese ;) recent friend Yu Koide showed me an issue of old underground (Nintendo once sued the publisher XDDD for releasing NES ero games without permission) PC magazine "Hacker" dated 1988. It included several important articles on MSX which would prove useful nowadays. SaveR was pleased at PC magazine evaluation charts with "Rango que hacker" (Hacker rating), "Rango que mediapa edad" (middle-aged rating) and "que roeritorio". :) Later, Yu offered me to send his old ero books for certain users' convenience. 8-)

Yokoi was showing off MIDI chord practice tool which could produce a chord, and was inviting everyone to have a try, with karaoke lyric book. After my experiment, I recommended SaveR to have a go. The simple program required Roland module and produced annoying ;) BEEP sounds as metronome. When I frowned to Takeo of Frontline about BEEP, he simply answered "that's the only sound source which do not slow down MIDI." SaveR said he doesn't use MIDI, then Yokoi supported his software that it supports FM music.

I took SaveR along to tell what my friends were doing. The fact Censurado "bailablars tontos" (dances silly) made SaveR laugh but annoyed Censurado (the incident which did not make me sorry for him at all ;). Six people were hot on Magic-the-Gathering card trading. I asked them why that addicts them all, one replied "Magic-the-gathering este un diversion porque lo proceso mis dineros disminuir estes susceptible por mi" (Magic-the-gathering is fun because the procedure where your money keeps decreasing is fun), which made SaveR laugh. One of the competitors, Ossan (Grand Tio - or Big Uncle) is referred so since he looked middle-aged despite his age.

I asked SaveR to draw some pictures, but he rejected, saying he cannot draw as fast as we do, while glimpsing at the drawings Tomorrows Soft members were drawing nearby (they gave me one of it :). Nameplatelord-the-chokan persuaded SaveR to calligraph his "Itsumo MSX" logo; it will appear in next The Takao!!. We're sorry we could not provide him with our real graphic.

NOTA: We noticed he is in fact able to pronounce terms like Falcom and MSX properly if the terms were used in Japanese context, as Farukomu and Emuesuekkusu. We don't know why.

Aoi Daichi began his lecture about his relation with MSX, since the time he was a member of Family Soft, how he crushed with MSX2+ abilty, and what outlandish tales he could recount ;) Nearly everyone was carefully listening to his tale, but I could not concentrate because I was busy at interpreting SaveR and Atsutane Chiba from MSX Aikoukai. This mysterious old man keen on MSX showed great interest in copies of SD Mesxes SaveR owned. Chiba looked quite impressed with precision of SD Mesxes graphics paint. After several conversation about printing house and color cover of SD Mesxes #9 (Chiba insisted "this can never be a simple photocopy!"), SaveR decided to grant him SD Mesxes. Chiba proposed to pay money, but SaveR inclined not to receive Chiba's payment.

Note: By the way, according to Nameplatelord-the-chokan, Chiba fussed on The Takao!! magazines saying that's not worth being called a MSX magazine. When Chiba, who is known as an enemy to over-18 years games, read my comments on KAI for first time, he went mad with rage XDDDD and urged to tell who wrote that. When Nameplatelord-the-chokan replied "Takamichi wrote." he walked away, as the tale went ^^;

On MSX Festa day, my fudoshi tended to go loose and hang out of my shorts (hey, who is insisting that I loosened it purposefully? ^^;) so I told him Imahi to pull it and spin me round like a toy top, but he didn't, despite voices from his supporters. Also, when I asked him to show Bonzu (creator of Furasura and other disguises at Hokkaido fairs) my sketch for Homosuraman to make one and let Imahi to wear it, he ran way at 9.60 seconds per 100 m ;). I could not understand; Homosuraman is only a muscular man wearing laced corsettes, pink stockings, fishnet pantyhose with heavy 3-day beard growth. XDDDDDDDDD

Aoi, after two hours of selfish;) blubbering about how he had overcome (overcome what? ^^;) hinders and what he shamelessly is going to do ;)), announced to send MOSOFT newsletters once every two months. I raised my arm and questioned him "Is overseas subscription possible?" to everyone's laughter. Aoi replied positive, but did not forget to add "It would be much better to lessen our burden if someone like you, TAKAMICHI would do the job!", a comment which made me soundlessly fatigued ;)

Yusui (without censorship), Aoi and Newf Kobayashi

Blackboard says "Secret of Mosoft (heart mark)"

19:00

Time for everyone to get lost. Those from far place went somewhere by their own. We, the users in Tokyo, talked where we should go. Main members of GIGAMIX were gone together with Frontline before I tried to locate. I knew I had to take SaveR with me, so I decided to leave G&T Soft and follow Pierre sect (my intimate friend in the BBS I frequent; name is taken from obscene Japanese song 'Pieeru to Katoriinu'), an another faction in GIGAMIX.

But, when we entered McDonald (SaveR offered me to pay for my hamburger ^_^ I don't know why he did ^^;), I found out MOST of the people in MSX Festa were there to chat about ^^;;;;;

At about 21:00 o'clock, SaveR, who looked secluded being left out of our "complex Japanese" conversation, when will it be the time I could leave. Everyone sent him their last farewell with big cheers "Awari", a wrongly spelled "Owari" (THE END). I then thought SaveR was only asking me to take to nearest station, so I left with my huge amounts of belongings left behind in McDonald's. But, at Akihabara station, SaveR confessed me that he was convinced that I was going to take him back to Ootsuka station where his residence was. He obviously looked like that he could never reach there by his own, so I ran back to McDonald's and returned.

*NOTE: The proper English translation for AWARI is THE DENTO (literally, "tradition")

In the train, I explained phrases in Ra-dan book, like "me favore cuadros.." drowsily (I was not asleep for more than 40 hours then ^^;), we reached Ootsuka. We exchanged departing HASTA INCLUSO !! 8-) and he left. What happened to him afterward is beyond my knowledge. :P (source says he reached his Mallorca temporary homeland on 5^th of September; he insisted his real homeland is Japan)

Filly and Pierre Kami, my oldest BBS friends in Pierre Net, remotely related with origin of Tightening Silk.

ABOUT SAVER

Well, contrary to prior warnings from all of you, he looked extremely polite to all of us, including me. His attitude was not similar to other European's we can think of; Nameplatelord-the-chokan quoted "he looked like the Japanese who grew up in Japanese but cannot speak Japanese" <= hey, isn't this contradicting? I could not convince myself that the solemn man in front of me and the nerd who wrote XXX and $&# in SD Mesxes was same person. (Well, I heard not many people are not conscious that A Man Who Translated Solid Snake and Moon Light Saga is also a naked man standing front of you who translated LILO ;).

I can safely conclude following conditions

(1) We are now extremely aware we SHOULD understand Spanish, not a fucking tongue Anglo-Saxon tribe speak.

(2) However, only one person ^^; in all the 300 crowd in MSX Festa understood anything spoken beyond Pirenee.

(3) Learning would take too much time, if not impossible.

As another word, I quote from my conversation with Makuta;

Me: "English is after all a damn useless tongue limited to British isles."

Makuta: "Yes, I know."

Me: "Now it's vividly displayed to us that we need Spanish translator by any means necessary. Do you know any?"

Makuta: (after several seconds of reflections, looking into my eyes) "Please." (together with wry smile)

Me: "......^^;;;;;;;;;;......" (Translation: "I admit that I once replied to the e-mail saying 'Pido escusas, pero no conosco bien el español y se he escribido algo errado no lleve en concideración.' from Brazil, but, eh, ....")

At least, Nameplatelord-the-chokan is eager to learn Catalan. But, as practical option, the only resort Japanese masses can imagine as servitor for this purpose is ME, who never once was properly educated in Spanish (well, neither of .es people who are reading this were too, but, 'learning' Spanish is another matter ;) but everyone like Yokoi, Newsea, Chiba and Hoshino called for to talk with SaveR could not make it, since Yokoi nor Bush nor Makuta nor anyone else had even tried to speak a single line in Catalan.

What should I do? ^^;

Another scene from Gal's Quest 2.5

Written by Takamichi

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